In simulations of 21st-century climate change, the tropical Hadley
circulation expands and weakens as the global mean surface temperature
increases. However, the reasons for such changes in the Hadley
circulation are not completely understood.
With simulations with an idealized GCM, we investigate dynamical
mechanisms responsible for changes in the Hadley circulation over a
wide range of climates, spanning those that are likely to occur in the
future and some that may have occurred in the past. The GCM includes a
hydrologic cycle and is coupled to a simple ocean model that accounts
for dynamically varying ocean heat transport in low latitudes. We
generate climate changes in the GCM by varying the optical thickness
of an idealized longwave absorber. The Hadley circulation contracts
weakly as the optical thickness and, with it, the global-mean surface
temperature increases. The response of the strength of the Hadley
circulation is more complex and non-monotonic: The strength of the
Hadley circulation is maximal for a climate similar to that of
present-day Earth and is smaller for much colder and much warmer
climates.
Large-scale eddy fluxes of midlatitude origin are found to influence
the strength of the Hadley circulation over the range of climates
simulated; however, their relative importance decreases as the climate
warms and the Hadley circulation begins to respond more directly to
changes in thermal driving. We discuss the effects of latent heat
release on the energy balance of the tropical atmosphere and on the
strength of the Hadley circulation. The mechanisms responsible for
changes in the width of the Hadley circulation are currently unclear.