Coupled air-sea response to solar forcing in the Pacific region during northern winter

This redistribution of diabatic heating and associated convective heating anomalies thus produces anomalies in the tropical Hadley (north-south) and Walker (east-west) circulations. The former weakens as subsidence in equatorial latitudes is enhanced; the latter strengthens and extends westward. Additionally, the resulting anomalous Rossby wave response in the atmosphere, and consequent positive sea level pressure anomalies in the eastern region of the Aleutian low in the North Pacific that extends to western North America, is associated with reductions of precipitation in the northwest United States.

The response of the climate system to solar forcing is manifested as a strengthening of the climatological precipitation maxima in the tropics.