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Role of sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Indo-Pacific region in the northeast Asia severe drought in summer 2014: month-to-month perspective

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Abstract

The severe drought over northeast Asia in summer 2014 and the contribution to it by sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the tropical Indo-Pacific region were investigated from the month-to-month perspective. The severe drought was accompanied by weak lower-level summer monsoon flow and featured an obvious northward movement during summer. The mid-latitude Asian summer (MAS) pattern and East Asia/Pacific teleconnection (EAP) pattern, induced by the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) and western North Pacific summer monsoon (WNPSM) rainfall anomalies respectively, were two main bridges between the SST anomalies in the tropical Indo-Pacific region and the severe drought. Warming in the Arabian Sea induced reduced rainfall over northeast India and then triggered a negative MAS pattern favoring the severe drought in June 2014. In July 2014, warming in the tropical western North Pacific led to a strong WNPSM and increased rainfall over the Philippine Sea, triggering a positive EAP pattern. The equatorial eastern Pacific and local warming resulted in increased rainfall over the off-equatorial western Pacific and triggered an EAP-like pattern. The EAP pattern and EAP-like pattern contributed to the severe drought in July 2014. A negative Indian Ocean dipole induced an anomalous meridional circulation, and warming in the equatorial eastern Pacific induced an anomalous zonal circulation, in August 2014. The two anomalous cells led to a weak ISM and WNPSM, triggering the negative MAS and EAP patterns responsible for the severe drought. Two possible reasons for the northward movement of the drought were also proposed.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the three anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that led to a significant improvement of the manuscript. This research was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Grant 41421004, National Natural Science Foundation of China Grants (41325018, 41575079), and CAS/SAFEEA International Partnership Program for creative Research Team “Regional environmental high resolution numerical simulation”.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Zhiqing Xu & Ke Fan

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center on Forecast and Evaluation of Meteorological Disasters, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Ke Fan & HuiJun Wang

  3. Climate Change Research Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Zhiqing Xu & HuiJun Wang

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  1. Zhiqing Xu
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Correspondence to Ke Fan.

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Xu, Z., Fan, K. & Wang, H. Role of sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Indo-Pacific region in the northeast Asia severe drought in summer 2014: month-to-month perspective. Clim Dyn 49, 1631–1650 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3406-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-016-3406-y

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