The climate of a retrograde rotating Earth
Authors: Mikolajewicz Uwe , Ziemen Florian , Cioni Guido , Claussen Martin , Fraedrich Klaus , Heidkamp Marvin , Hohenegger Cathy , Jimenez de la Cuesta Diego , Kapsch Marie-Luise , Lemburg Alexander , Mauritsen Thorsten , Meraner Katharina , Röber Niklas , Schmidt Hauke , Six Katharina D. , Stemmler Irene , Tamarin-Brodsky Talia , Winkler Alexander , Zhu Xiuhua , Stevens Bjorn 
Published: October 2018

Abstract. To enhance understanding of Earth's climate, numerical experiments are
performed contrasting a retrograde and prograde rotating Earth using the Max
Planck Institute Earth system model. The experiments show that the sense of
rotation has relatively little impact on the globally and zonally averaged
energy budgets but leads to large shifts in continental climates, patterns
of precipitation, and regions of deep water formation. Changes in the zonal asymmetries of the continental climates are expected
given ideas developed more than a hundred years ago. Unexpected was, however,
the switch in the character of the European–African climate with that of the
Americas, with a drying of the former and a greening of the latter. Also
unexpected was a shift in the storm track activity from the oceans to the
land in the Northern Hemisphere. The different patterns of storms and changes
in the direction of the trades influence fresh water transport, which may
underpin the change of the role of the North Atlantic and the Pacific in
terms of deep water formation, overturning and northward oceanic heat
transport. These changes greatly influence northern hemispheric climate and
atmospheric heat transport by eddies in ways that appear energetically
consistent with a southward shift of the zonally and annually averaged
tropical rain bands. Differences between the zonally averaged energy budget
and the rain band shifts leave the door open, however, for an important role
for stationary eddies in determining the position of tropical rains. Changes
in ocean biogeochemistry largely follow shifts in ocean circulation, but the
emergence of a “super” oxygen minimum zone in the Indian Ocean is not
expected. The upwelling of phosphate-enriched and nitrate-depleted water
provokes a dominance of cyanobacteria over bulk phytoplankton over vast areas – a phenomenon not observed in the prograde model. What would the climate of Earth look like if it would rotate in the reversed
(retrograde) direction? Which of the characteristic climate patterns in the
ocean, atmosphere, or land that are observed in a present-day climate are the
result of the direction of Earth's rotation? Is, for example, the structure
of the oceanic meridional overturning circulation (MOC) a consequence of the
interplay of basin location and rotation direction? In experiments with the
Max Planck Institute Earth system model (MPI-ESM), we investigate the effects
of a retrograde rotation in all aspects of the climate system. The expected consequences of a retrograde rotation are reversals of the zonal
wind and ocean circulation patterns. These changes are associated with major
shifts in the temperature and precipitation patterns. For example, the
temperature gradient between Europe and eastern Siberia is reversed, and the
Sahara greens, while large parts of the Americas become deserts.
Interestingly, the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) shifts southward and
the modeled double ITCZ in the Pacific changes to a single ITCZ, a result of
zonal asymmetries in the structure of the tropical circulation. One of the most prominent non-trivial effects of a retrograde rotation is a
collapse of the Atlantic MOC, while a strong overturning cell emerges in the
Pacific. This clearly shows that the position of the MOC is not controlled by
the sizes of the basins or by mountain chains splitting the continents in
unequal runoff basins but by the location of the basins relative to the
dominant wind directions. As a consequence of the changes in the ocean
circulation, a “super” oxygen minimum zone develops in the Indian Ocean
leading to upwelling of phosphate-enriched and nitrate-depleted water. These
conditions provoke a dominance of cyanobacteria over bulk phytoplankton over
vast areas, a phenomenon not observed in the prograde model.