Abstract:The global mean sea level (GMSL) has risen by 0.16 meters over the past century, which has caused various climate challenges on both global and regional scales. Tropical atmospheric circulations are direct drivers of weather and climate anomalies, playing critical roles in determining global heat and moisture exchange. Understanding the influence of GMSL rise on tropical atmospheric circulations can help improve climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts. Here, using climate model simulations based on the Norwegian Earth System Model (NorESM1-F), we decompose the upper tropospheric velocity potential into Hadley circulation-, Pacific Walker circulation-, and monsoon circulation-related components. We then investigate changes in the Hadley circulation, Pacific Walker circulation, and monsoon circulation in response to GMSL rise under different GMSL rise scenarios. The results show that the velocity potential decomposition method effectively captures the climatology and seasonal evolutions of tropical atmospheric circulations. We further find that, in response to GMSL rise, the Hadley circulation weakens in both the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and Southern Hemisphere (SH) during the boreal summer and the SH Hadley circulation strengthens during the boreal winter. The Pacific Walker circulation shows a slight strengthening and exhibits a shift towards the east and both the East Asian winter and summer monsoons strengthen along with the rising GMSL.