Sarah M. Kang

Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology

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Shang‐Ping Xie

University of California, San Diego

Yen‐Ting Hwang

National Taiwan University

Yechul Shin

Pohang University of Science and Technology

Malte F. Stuecker

University of Hawaii System

Baoqiang Xiang

University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Björn Stevens

Universität Hamburg

Hanjun Kim

Cornell University

Dargan M. W. Frierson

University of Washington

Masahiro Watanabe

The University of Tokyo

Nicolas Gruber

ETH Zurich

Cooperative Institutions

University of Washington

Max Planck Institute for Meteorology

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Columbia University

Scripps Institution of Oceanography

NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research

University of Reading

Ocean University of China

Princeton University

Qingdao National Laboratory for Marine Science and Technology

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Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis for ULOF of PGSFR using PAPIRUS

Annals of Nuclear Energy (2017)

Sarah M. Kang Chiwoong Choi Kwi-Seok Ha Jaeseok Heo

10.1016/j.anucene.2017.08.041

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Citations (3)

Possible shift in controls of the tropical Pacific surface warming pattern

Nature (2024)

Masahiro Watanabe Sarah M. Kang Matthew Collins Yen‐Ting Hwang Shayne McGregor

Forcing (mathematics)

Abrupt climate change

10.1038/s41586-024-07452-7

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Citations (13)

Increased Asian aerosols drive a slowdown of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation

Nature Communications (2024)

Fukai Liu Xun Li Yiyong Luo Wenju Cai Jian Lu

Abstract Observational evidence and climate model experiments suggest a slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) since the mid-1990s. Increased greenhouse gases and the declined anthropogenic aerosols (AAs) over North America and Europe are believed to contribute to the AMOC slowdown. Asian AAs continue to increase but the associated impact has been unclear. Using ensembles of climate simulations, here we show that the radiative cooling resulting from increased Asian AAs drives an AMOC reduction. The increased AAs over Asia generate circumglobal stationary Rossby waves in the northern midlatitudes, which shift the westerly jet stream southward and weaken the subpolar North Atlantic westerlies. Consequently, reduced transport of cold air from North America hinders water mass transformation in the Labrador Sea and thus contributes to the AMOC slowdown. The link between increased Asian AAs and an AMOC slowdown is supported by different models with different configurations. Thus, reducing emissions of Asian AAs will not only lower local air pollution, but also help stabilize the AMOC.

Slowdown

Westerlies

Forcing (mathematics)

10.1038/s41467-023-44597-x

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Citations (10)

Two Competing Drivers of the Recent Walker Circulation Trend

Geophysical Research Letters (2023)

Masahiro Watanabe Tomoki Iwakiri Yue Dong Sarah M. Kang

Abstract The Pacific Walker circulation (PWC) weakens under global warming in climate change projections, supported by a global hydrological constraint. However, the PWC has strengthened over the past decades despite ongoing global warming, and the cause has been a puzzle. Because PWC is coupled with the pattern of sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Pacific, quantifying the relative impact of SST pattern change and global warming on the past PWC trend is important. We show, using an atmosphere model driven by observed boundary conditions for 1979–2013 and a hypothetical uniform surface warming trend with varying magnitude, that the PWC scales with warming and weakens by 8% per °C, but this effect cannot overcome the SST pattern effect that intensifies the circulation. Further attribution experiments show that the past strengthening of PWC is explained directly by the SST warming pattern in the narrow equatorial band, about 30% of which is induced by the Indian Ocean.

Walker circulation

10.1029/2023gl105332

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Subtropical clouds key to Southern Ocean teleconnections to the tropical Pacific

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2022)

Hanjun Kim Sarah M. Kang Jennifer E. Kay Shang‐Ping Xie

Excessive precipitation over the southeastern tropical Pacific is a major common bias that persists through generations of global climate models. While recent studies suggest an overly warm Southern Ocean as the cause, models disagree on the quantitative importance of this remote mechanism in light of ocean circulation feedback. Here, using a multimodel experiment in which the Southern Ocean is radiatively cooled, we show a teleconnection from the Southern Ocean to the tropical Pacific that is mediated by a shortwave subtropical cloud feedback. Cooling the Southern Ocean preferentially cools the southeastern tropical Pacific, thereby shifting the eastern tropical Pacific rainbelt northward with the reduced precipitation bias. Regional cloud locking experiments confirm that the teleconnection efficiency depends on subtropical stratocumulus cloud feedback. This subtropical cloud feedback is too weak in most climate models, suggesting that teleconnections from the Southern Ocean to the tropical Pacific are stronger than widely thought.

Teleconnection

Tropical Eastern Pacific

Shortwave

Walker circulation

Tropical climate

10.1073/pnas.2200514119

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Citations (62)

A model intercomparison of the tropical precipitation response to a CO₂ doubling in aquaplanet simulations

Geophysical Research Letters (2016)

Jeongbin Seo Sarah M. Kang Timothy M. Merlis

Abstract In the present‐day climate, the mean Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is north of the equator. We investigate changes in the ITCZ latitude under global warming, using multiple atmospheric models coupled to an aquaplanet slab ocean. The reference climate, with a warmer north from prescribed ocean heating, is perturbed by doubling CO 2 . Most models exhibit a northward ITCZ shift, but the shift cannot be accounted for by the response of energy flux equator where the atmospheric energy transport ( F A ) vanishes. The energetics of the simulated circulation shifts are subtle: changes in the efficiency with which the Hadley circulation transports energy, the total gross moist stability (Δ m ), dominate over mass flux changes in determining δ F A . Even when δ F A ≈ 0, the ITCZ can shift significantly due to changes in Δ m , which have often been neglected previously. The dependence of ITCZ responses on δΔ m calls for improved understanding of the physics determining the tropical Δ m .

Intertropical Convergence Zone

Hadley cell

Walker circulation

Convergence zone

Energetics

10.1002/2016gl072347

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Citations (25)

The Dependence of Mean Climate State on Shortwave Absorption by Water Vapor

Journal of Climate (2022)

Han-Jun Kim Angeline G. Pendergrass Sarah M. Kang

Abstract State-of-the-art climate models exhibit significant spread in the climatological value of atmospheric shortwave absorption (SWA). This study investigates both the possible causes and climatic impacts of this SWA intermodel spread. The intermodel spread of global-mean SWA largely originates from the intermodel difference in water vapor shortwave absorptivity. Hence, we alter the water vapor shortwave absorptivity in the Community Earth System Model, version 1, with the Community Atmosphere Model, version 4 (CESM1-CAM4). Increasing the water vapor shortwave absorptivity leads to a reduction in global-mean precipitation and a La Niña–like cooling over the tropical Pacific. The global-mean atmospheric energy budget suggests that the precipitation is suppressed as a way to compensate for the increased SWA. The precipitation reduction is driven by the weakened surface winds, stabilized planetary boundary layer, and surface cooling. The La Niña–like cooling over the tropical Pacific is attributed to the zonal asymmetry of climatological evaporative damping efficiency and the low cloud enhancement over the eastern basin. Complementary fixed SSTs simulations suggest that the latter is more fundamental and that it primarily arises from atmospheric processes. Consistent with our experiments, the CMIP5/6 models with a higher global-mean SWA tend to produce tropical Pacific toward a more La Niña–like mean state, highlighting the possible role of water vapor shortwave absorptivity for shaping the mean-state climate patterns.

Shortwave

Shortwave radiation

10.1175/jcli-d-21-0417.1

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Citations (6)

The response of the present-day climate to the changes in water vapor shortwave absorptivity

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) (2020)

Han-Jun Kim Angeline G. Pendergrass Sarah M. Kang

Shortwave

Molar absorptivity

10.5281/zenodo.4322203

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Citations (0)

Modeling evidence that ozone depletion has impacted extreme precipitation in the austral summer

Geophysical Research Letters (2013)

Sarah M. Kang Lorenzo M. Polvani John C. Fyfe Seok‐Woo Son Michael Sigmond

Abstract The impacts of stratospheric ozone depletion on the extremes of daily precipitation in the austral summer are explored using two global climate models. Both models indicate that stratospheric ozone losses since the late 1970s may have increased the frequency and intensity of very heavy precipitation in austral summer over southern high and subtropical latitudes, and may have decreased the frequency and intensity over southern midlatitudes. This hemispheric wide pattern of extreme precipitation response projects strongly onto a previously identified pattern of seasonal mean precipitation response, both of which are shown to be likely of dynamic rather than thermodynamic origin.

Ozone Depletion

Middle latitudes

10.1002/grl.50769

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Citations (22)

Distinct Surface Warming Response Over the Western and Eastern Equatorial Pacific to Radiative Forcing

Geophysical Research Letters (2022)

Chanyoung Park Sarah M. Kang Malte F. Stuecker Fei‐Fei Jin

Abstract This study examines regional characteristics of atmospheric and oceanic feedback processes in the western and eastern equatorial Pacific, by applying a localized surface heating in the respective region in a hierarchy of climate models. A western Pacific forcing is largely offset by a negative shortwave cloud radiative effect and damping via wind‐evaporation‐SST feedback. In contrast, an eastern Pacific forcing, while being partially compensated for by ocean dynamical adjustments, induces an amplified warming extending to the central Pacific due to weak local damping mechanisms. As for the inter‐model spread of the future tropical Pacific surface warming pattern, the ocean heat uptake response in the east can explain much of the spread both on fast (<5 years) and slow (>100 years) timescales. Our results suggest that an “El Niño‐like” warming pattern is probable in response to increasing greenhouse gases owing to the strong negative feedback intrinsic to the western Pacific.

Forcing (mathematics)

Shortwave

Shortwave radiation

Cloud forcing

10.1029/2021gl095829

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Citations (12)