Multiple Equilibria of the Hadley Circulation in an Intermediate-Complexity Axisymmetric Model

A model of intermediate complexity based on quasi-equilibrium theory—a version of the Quasi-Equilibrium Tropical Circulation Model with a prognostic atmospheric boundary layer, as well as two free-tropospheric modes in momentum, and one each in moisture and temperature—is used in a zonally symmetric aquaplanet configuration to study the sensitivity of the Hadley circulation to the sea surface temperature (SST) latitudinal distribution. For equatorially symmetric SST forcing with large SST gradients in the tropics, the model simulates the classical double Hadley cell with one equatorial intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). For small SST gradients in the tropics, the model exhibits multiple equilibria, with one equatorially symmetric equilibrium and two asymmetric equilibria (mirror images of each other) with an off-equatorial ITCZ. Further investigation of the feedbacks at play in the model shows that the assumed vertical structure of temperature variations is crucial to the existence and stability of the asymmetric equilibria. The free-tropospheric moisture–convection feedback must also be sufficiently strong to sustain asymmetric equilibria. Both results suggest that the specific physics of a given climate model condition determine the existence of multiple equilibria via the resulting sensitivity of the convection to free-tropospheric humidity and the vertical structure of adiabatic heating. The symmetry-breaking mechanism and resulting multiple equilibria have their origin in the local multiple equilibria that can be described by a single-column model using the weak temperature gradient approximation. An additional experiment using an SST latitudinal distribution with a relative minimum at the equator shows that the feedbacks controlling these multiple equilibria might be relevant to the double-ITCZ problem.