In-person Seminar – Ford ES&T L1205
The Indian Ocean (IO) has an Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) south of the equator year-round, in contrast to the northern ITCZs in the Pacific and Atlantic. The southern IO ITCZ defies all existing theories concerning the ITCZ hemispheric asymmetries. In this talk, I will first share our recent work on the origin of the southern IO ITCZ, with a focus on how atmospheric dynamics drive this intriguing ITCZ given observed distribution of sea surface temperatures. Second, I will talk about precipitation biases in the broad Indo-Pacific region in climate models and show that precipitation biases are not simply caused by deficiencies in model parameterizations, as previously thought, but are also strongly regulated by atmospheric circulation.
The Indian Ocean (IO) has an Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) south of the equator year-round, in contrast to the northern ITCZs in the Pacific and Atlantic. The southern IO ITCZ defies all existing theories concerning the ITCZ hemispheric asymmetries. In this talk, I will first share our recent work on the origin of the southern IO ITCZ, with a focus on how atmospheric dynamics drive this intriguing ITCZ given observed distribution of sea surface temperatures. Second, I will talk about precipitation biases in the broad Indo-Pacific region in climate models and show that precipitation biases are not simply caused by deficiencies in model parameterizations, as previously thought, but are also strongly regulated by atmospheric circulation.