Seasonal cycle of hemispheric contrast in energy fluxes defined as half the difference in spatial integral of fluxes in the SH minus that in the NH. The solid lines are the observations and the shaded region represents ±1 standard deviation about the CMIP3 PI ensemble average. The terms are defined in the legend and discussed in the text in reference to Eq. (5). The first four terms in the legend sum to yield AHTEQ.
Seasonal cycle of hemispheric contrast in energy fluxes defined as half the difference in spatial integral of fluxes in the SH minus that in the NH. The solid lines are the observations and the shaded region represents ±1 standard deviation about the CMIP3 PI ensemble average. The terms are defined in the legend and discussed in the text in reference to Eq. (5). The first four terms in the legend sum to yield AHTEQ.
The summer hemisphere absorbs more shortwave radiation in the atmospheric column than the winter hemisphere and, in the absence of compensating energy fluxes, would result in a 7.1-PW seasonal amplitude of AHTEQ with northward heat transport peaking near (5 days after) the austral summer solstice.