Impact of Antarctic meltwater forcing on East Asian climate under
greenhouse warming
Abstract
In recent decades, Antarctic ice-sheet/shelf melting has been
accelerated, releasing freshwater into the Southern Ocean. It has been
suggested that the meltwater flux could lead to cooling in the Southern
Hemisphere, which would retard global warming and further induce a
northward shift of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). In this
study, we use experimental ensemble climate simulations to show that
Antarctic meltwater forcing has distinct regional climate impacts over
the globe, leading in particular to regional warming in East Asia. It is
suggested that Antarctic meltwater forcing leads to a negative
precipitation anomaly in the Western North Pacific (WNP) via cooling in
the tropics and the northward shift of the ITCZ. This suppressed
convection in WNP induces an anticyclonic flow over the North Pacific,
which leads to regional warming in East Asia. This hypothesis is
supported by analyses of inter-ensemble spread and long-term control
simulations.