Map shows band of heaviest rainfall across the Pacific Ocean, which research indicates is moving north about a mile per year. Credit: University of Washington
Eurekalert reports on research: Earth's most prominent rainfall feature creeping northward
University of Washington research published in Nature Geoscience indicates rainfall is moving north away from the equator, and has been doing so for centuries, probably because of rising temperatures most likely driven by increased solar irradiance since the Little Ice Age of the last millennium.
"The rain band near the equator that determines the supply of freshwater to nearly a billion people throughout the tropics and subtropics has been creeping north for more than 300 years. If the band continues to migrate at just less than a mile a year, which is the average for all the years it has been moving north, then some Pacific islands near the equator may be starved of freshwater by midcentury or sooner."
The broader concern expressed by researchers is that future northward movement of the rain band in the tropics could potentially be driven by rising levels of greenhouse gases with resulting "profound implications for the societies and economies that depend on it."
Nature Geoscience: Southward Movement of Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone AD 1400-1850
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