The large-scale tropical atmospheric circulation is analyzed in idealized aquaplanet simulations using an atmospheric general circulation model. Idealized sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are used as lowerboundary conditions to provoke modifications of the atmospheric general circulation. Results show that 1) an increase in the meridional SST gradients of the tropical region drastically strength...

1. introduction climatic change is one of the most important challenges human beings have confronted with in recent centuries due to its severe effects on water resources, agriculture, energy, tourism and even human bioclimatic. developing strategies, making decisions with awareness about water consumption in different parts in the future, and available water resources management require climat...

One of the possible ways to check the adequacy of the physical description of meteorological elements in global climate models (GCMs) is to compare the statistical structure of these elements reproduced by models with empirical data from the world climate observational system. The success in GCM development warranted a further step in this assessment. The description of the meteorological eleme...

Progress in understanding the general circulation of the atmosphere during the past 25 years is reviewed. The relationships of eddy generation, propagation and dissipation to eddy momentum fluxes and mean zonal winds are now sufficiently understood that intuitive reasoning about momentum based on firm theoretical foundations is possible. Variability in the zonal-flow can now be understood as a ...

Several questions concerning the general circulation for which satisfactory answers are not yet available are discussed. The focus is on the zonal mean heat balance, since problems in our understanding of this balance are a fundamental limitation on our ability to model climate and climate change. The questions are: How strong is the atmosphere’s poleward heat transport? What are the relative r...