《Tropical responses to eustatic sea level change》.pdf

JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 108, NO. D15, 4446, doi:10.1029/2002JD003027, 2003 Exposing the Sunda shelf: Tropical responses to eustatic sea level change Andrew B. G. Bush Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Richard G. Fairbanks Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Columbia University and Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, New York, USA Received 8 October 2002; revised 15 January 2003; accepted 26 March 2003; published 2 August 2003. [1] During the last glacial period, eustatic lowering of sea level exposed large areas of continental shelves that are presently submerged. By a series of direct numerical simulations we investigate the sensitivity of the atmosphere-ocean system to exposure of the extensive Sunda shelf in the western tropical Pacific. We demonstrate that this specific forcing factor triggers increased convection and upper level divergence over the shelf itself, an increased Walker circulation over the far western Pacific, and subsidence over the central and eastern Pacific that weakens the surface easterlies. A comparison of atmosphere-only with coupled atmosphere-ocean integrations demonstrates that dynamic coupling of the ocean enhances the equatorial response, with cooling and drying of the tropics north and south of the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Exposure of the shelf therefore represents one mechanism by which glacial climates are affected by eustatic sea level changes. These changes constitute a fundamental shift in the El Nin˜o background state. INDEX TERMS: 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309); 3319 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: General circulation; 3339 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Ocean/ atmosphere interactions (0312, 4504); 3344 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Paleoclimatology; KEYWORDS: Sunda shelf, tropical climate variability, ENSO (El Nin˜o and La Nin˜a), eustatic sea