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Tropical SST forcing on the anomalous WNP subtropical high during July–August 2010 and the record-high SST in the tropical Atlantic

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Abstract

In summer of 2010, the western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH) was extremely strong and exhibited unusual westward extension, which resulted in record-breaking warmth in Japan and considerably below-normal and westward-shifted tropical cyclone activity in the western North Pacific (WNP). Although a moderate La Niña occurred, the sea surface temperature (SST) in the northern Indian Ocean (NIO) and tropical Atlantic (TA) was considerably high. In this study, we argued that the La Niña cold SST alone was not sufficient to maintain the strong WNPSH of 2010, and that the unusually warm SSTs in the NIO and TA markedly contributed to the enhancement and westward shift of the WNPSH in the boreal summer of that year. We focused on the effects of sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Atlantic (TA-SSTAs), which have been seldom explored and are poorly understood compared with the effects of SSTAs in the tropical Pacific and NIO. The warm TA-SST forced a westward-extending overturning circulation, with a sinking branch over the central Pacific Ocean, which produced a remote response similar to the La Niña condition and enhanced the WNPSH. The warm TA-SST also induced the cyclonic anomaly in the tropical eastern North Pacific, a distinct phenomenon not observed in a canonical La Niña event. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the anomalous near-surface circulation associated with the negative North Atlantic Oscillation might play a more dominant role than that of the 2009 El Niño in inducing the record-high SST in the TA in 2010.

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Acknowledgments

We thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This study was supported by the Consortium for Climate Change Study project (NSC100-2119-M-001-029-MY5, NSC100-2111-M133-001, and NSC101-2111-M133-002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Life, University of Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan

    Chi-Cherng Hong

  2. Central Weather Bureau, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ming-Ying Lee

  3. Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, 128 Academia Road, Section 2 Nankang, Taipei, 115, Taiwan

    Huang-Hsiung Hsu & Nai-Hsin Lin

  4. Department of Environmental Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Ben-Jei Tsuang

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  1. Chi-Cherng Hong
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Correspondence to Huang-Hsiung Hsu.

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Hong, CC., Lee, MY., Hsu, HH. et al. Tropical SST forcing on the anomalous WNP subtropical high during July–August 2010 and the record-high SST in the tropical Atlantic. Clim Dyn 45, 633–650 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2275-5

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