Is it always slowdown of the Walker circulation at solar cycle maximum?

Abstract

It is a commentary following a published paper in PNAS titled, ‘Slowdown of the Walker circulation at solar cycle maximum’, by Misios et al. (PNAS 116(15): 7186–7191, 2019). The article of Misios et al. (2019) claims that there is a slowdown of the Walker circulation during maximum periods of solar cycles. In support, they provided model results. They also gave directions of improved future predictive skill involving that knowledge of solar cycles. However, their work does not comply with various observational results. This contribution highlights those areas and pinpoints discrepancies. Knowing the limitations of models, if any model results match some very limited part of observations, it is not possible to make similar claims. It raises doubt on any improvement of future predictive skill.