The influence of concentrated heating on the Hadley circulation

The studies of Lindzen and Hou (1988) of Hadley circulation forced by global heating distributions are extended to situations where heating is latitudinally concentrated. The qualitative effect of narrow heating is examined by means of simple 'equal area' arguments of the type developed by Held and Hou (1980). Numerical calculations for a continuous fluid are carried out, showing that the intensity of the resulting Hadley circulation depends on how the heating is concentrated. It is shown that only a mild concentration is needed to achieve agreement with observations.