Abstract
ABSTRACTClimatic trends in the southeastern Antilles island chain are analysed via reanalysis datasets in the period 1980–2014. Although a homogeneous marine climate surrounds these small islands embedded in northeast trade winds, the analysis presented here reveals spatial gradients in climatic trends during the satellite era. In the axis of the fresh North Brazil Current, sea surface temperature (SST) trends are steep (+0.04 °C year−1) and correspond with weaker winds and rising ozone concentrations (+0.15 DU year−1). Subsidence and meridional wind trends are related to an acceleration in the Hadley overturning atmospheric circulation which heats the trade wind inversion. Expanded wind shadows induce warmer SST, greater latent heat flux and deeper convection west of the Antilles islands. While rainfall has decreased in Trinidad and eastern Venezuela, the mountainous islands of Guadeloupe, Dominica and Martinique have increasing rainfall (+0.02 mm day−1 year−1) in the satellite era. Weakening ocean currents near Grenada may reflect a diminishing of the global thermohaline meridional overturning circulation.
Published Version
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