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Interannual variability of the spring atmospheric heat source over the Tibetan Plateau forced by the North Atlantic SSTA

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Abstract

Data analysis indicates that the interannual variability of the spring atmospheric heat source over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) depends largely on the intensity of the overlying subtropical westerly jet (WJ), which is closely related to the early spring (February–March–April) sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) tripole pattern over the North Atlantic, i.e., the SSTA tripole pattern with a warm core to the southeast of Newfoundland and two cold cores to the south of Iceland and southeast of Bermuda, respectively. Such an SSTA pattern can be regarded as a response to the atmospheric forcing of the preceding January–February–March North Atlantic Oscillation. Numerical experiment results from both linear baroclinic model with an idealized diabatic heating profile and an atmospheric general circulation model with prescribed SSTA forcing demonstrate that the warm core alone of the tripole pattern can stimulate a steady downstream Rossby wave train, which further intensifies the spring WJ over the TP. As a result, a positive anomaly of surface sensible heating occurs over most parts of the TP, whereas the precipitation and corresponding latent heating is characterized by a seesaw pattern with a positive/negative anomaly over the northern/southern TP. Meanwhile, the air column radiation cooling effect is enhanced to a certain degree over the plateau. Further analysis suggests that the early spring SSTA over the North Atlantic may exert a seasonal-lagged impact upon the East Asian summer monsoon by modulating the thermal forcing over the TP.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported jointly by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 91337216, 41175070 and 40925015) and the Special Fund for Public Welfare Industry (meteorology) administered by the Chinese Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Science and Technology (Grant No. GYHY201406001).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modelling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 9804, Beijing, 100029, China

    Yangfan Cui, Anmin Duan, Yimin Liu & Guoxiong Wu

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yangfan Cui

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  1. Yangfan Cui
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Correspondence to Anmin Duan.

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Cui, Y., Duan, A., Liu, Y. et al. Interannual variability of the spring atmospheric heat source over the Tibetan Plateau forced by the North Atlantic SSTA. Clim Dyn 45, 1617–1634 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2417-9

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