Modality of the Tropical Rain Belt across Models and Simulated Climates

Abstract

Abstract The tropical rain belt varies between unimodal and bimodal meridional precipitation distributions, both regionally and on seasonal to geological time scales. Here we show that this variation is largely driven by equatorial precipitation inhibition, and quantify it using an equatorial modality index (EMI) that varies continuously between 1 and 2 for purely unimodal and bimodal distributions. We show that tropical modality is a fundamental characteristic of tropical climate, which we define as annual-mean EMI. We examine large-scale aspects of tropical modality across 73 climate models from phases 5 and 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, 45 paleo simulations (∼300 million years ago to present), and observations. We find increased tropical modality to be strongly related to increased width of the tropical rain belt, wider and weaker meridional overturning circulation, colder equatorial cold tongues, and more severe double intertropical convergence zone bias in modern climate models. Tropical sectors (or global zonal means) with low tropical modality are characterized by monsoonal seasonal variations (i.e., seasonal migrations of rainbands following the sun). In sectors with high tropical modality we identify three important seasonal modes: (i) migration of the precipitation distribution toward the warmer hemisphere, (ii) variation in the latitudinal separation between hemispheric rainbands, and (iii) seesaw variation in the intensity of the hemispheric rainbands. In high tropical modality sectors, due to contrasting shifts of the migration and separation modes, counter to general wisdom, seasonal migrations of tropical rainbands cannot be generally assumed to follow the sun. Significance Statement The tropical rain belt is a band of intense precipitation that encircles the tropics. Important tropical phenomena such as monsoons and seasonal shifts of marine rainbands are driven by seasonal migrations of the tropical rain belt, which therefore govern key socioeconomic aspects of tropical populations. This work examines how changes in the north–south profile of tropical precipitation affect large-scale aspects of tropical climate, on seasonal to geological time scales. Specifically, we examine the tendency of the profile of the tropical rain belt to vary from having one to two peaks (i.e., from being unimodal to bimodal). We define an objective quantitative measure of this modality variation, which varies between 1 and 2 for unimodal and bimodal profiles. We then show that the annual mean of this measure is an important general characteristic of tropical climate, which we define as tropical modality. We also show that in tropical regions where tropical modality is low (close to 1), rainbands follow the sun in their seasonal migrations, and conform to the canonical model of the tropical overturning circulation, known as the Hadley circulation, which goes along with monsoonal seasonal variations. However, in regions with high tropical modality (i.e., close to 2), the common theoretical expectation that rainbands follow the sun (or migrate toward the warming hemisphere) is not generally justified. Instead, we identify three important independent seasonal modes of variation: (i) migration of the precipitation distribution toward the warmer hemisphere, (ii) variation in the latitudinal separation between hemispheric rainbands (or width of the precipitation profile), and (iii) seesaw variation in the intensity of the hemispheric rainbands.