Rainfall reductions over Southern Hemisphere semi-arid regions: The role of subtropical dry zone expansion
Article
Article Title | Rainfall reductions over Southern Hemisphere semi-arid regions: The role of subtropical dry zone expansion |
---|---|
ERA Journal ID | 201487 |
Article Category | Article |
Authors | Cai, Wenju, Cowan, Tim and Thatcher, Marcus |
Journal Title | Scientific Reports |
Journal Citation | 2 |
Article Number | 702 |
Number of Pages | 5 |
Year | 2012 |
Publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
ISSN | 2045-2322 |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00702 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00702 |
Abstract | Since the late 1970s, Southern Hemisphere semi-arid regions such as southern-coastal Chile, southern Africa and southeastern Australia have experienced a drying trend in austral autumn, predominantly during April and May. The rainfall reduction coincides with a poleward expansion of the tropical belt and subtropical dry zone by around 2°–3° in the same season. This has raised questions as to whether the regional rainfall reductions are attributable to this poleward expansion. Here we show that the impact of the poleward subtropical dry-zone shift is not longitudinally uniform: a clear shift occurs south of Africa and across southern Australia, but there is no evidence of a poleward shift in the southern Chilean sector. As such, a poleward shift of climatological April-May rainfall can explain most of the southeastern Australia rainfall decline, a small portion of the southern Africa rainfall trend, but not the autumn drying over southern Chile. |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 370201. Climate change processes |
370105. Atmospheric dynamics | |
Byline Affiliations | Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/z09w0/rainfall-reductions-over-southern-hemisphere-semi-arid-regions-the-role-of-subtropical-dry-zone-expansion
Download files
Published Version
Cai et al 2012 - Rainfall reductions across SH semi-arid regions - SciRep.pdf | ||
License: CC BY 4.0 | ||
File access level: Anyone |
44
total views18
total downloads0
views this month0
downloads this month