Sorting climate change may not be as simple as removing atmospheric CO2

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2023-07-27 13:30

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South Korean and US scientists say removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere, a climate mitigation stategy, may not lead to a full recovery of the Hadley cell - an atmospheric circulation pattern that exists in both of Earth's hemispheres with air rising in the tropics and sinking in the subtropics. The Hadley cell is expected to expand poleward in response to global warming, potentially leading to increased drought in the subtropics. The team used computer simulations to show that a slow ocean response to atmospheric CO2 removal could result in an uneven recovery, leaving the southern edge of the Southern Hemisphere cell closer to the South Pole, and the northern edge of the Northern Hemisphere cell closer to the equator. The findings suggest CO2 removal may not guarantee the end of the increased drought in the subtropics that's linked with changes in the Hadley cell, the authors say, noting that their results should be interpreted with caution, as many unresolved physical processes influence the global water cycle.