The effect of increasing model resolution on the Northern Hemisphere winter mid-latitude storm track: an equatorward shift due to contraction of the Hadley cell

Lockwood, J., Athanasiadis, P., Baker, A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2697-1350, Hodges, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0894-229X, Priestley, M., Roberts, M., Scaife, A., Vidale, P. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8460 and Zappa, G. (2025) The effect of increasing model resolution on the Northern Hemisphere winter mid-latitude storm track: an equatorward shift due to contraction of the Hadley cell. Journal of Climate, 38 (17). pp. 4539-4551. ISSN 1520-0442 doi: 10.1175/JCLI-D-24-0414.1

Abstract/Summary

We examine how changes in horizontal resolution impact the Northern Hemisphere winter mid-latitude climatological storm track position using the historical runs of six fully coupled climate models from the HighResMIP project. Each model has a low- and high-resolution version, with atmospheric resolutions of ~100–200 to ∼25–50 km respectively, and four of the six models also increase oceanic resolution from 1o to 0.25o. In all models the storm track position is more equatorward as resolution increases. This is associated with an intensification and narrowing of precipitation around the equator and contraction of the Hadley cell. This shifts the subtropical jet equatorwards, increasing the baroclinicity at lower latitudes, leading to more favourable conditions for storm genesis at these latitudes. The contraction of the Hadley cell with resolution is similar to that caused by El Niño on interannual timescales. Four of the six models, including those which increase atmospheric resolution only, show a corresponding El Niño like sea-surface temperature signature at high resolution. The Hadley cell contraction with resolution increase is not seen in models with prescribed sea surface temperatures. The increase in oceanic resolution drives the Hadley Cell contraction in some models. In others, the increase in atmospheric resolution is the dominant driver, but only when the atmosphere is dynamically coupled with the ocean. These results show that increasing resolution alone could exacerbate the existing equatorward storm track bias seen in CMIP6 models, although it is possible this could be mitigated by optimisation of parametrisation settings.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/122203
Identification Number/DOI	10.1175/JCLI-D-24-0414.1
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > NCAS Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	American Meteorological Society
Download/View statistics	View download statistics for this item