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Interannual and interdecadal variations of the South Asian and western Pacific subtropical highs and their relationships with Asian-Pacific summer climate

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Abstract

In this study, interdecadal and interannual variations of the South Asian high (SAH) and the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), as well as their relationships with the summer climate over Asian and Pacific regions, are addressed. The variations of SAH and WPSH are objectively measured by the first singular value decomposition (SVD) mode of geopotential heights at the 100- and 500-hPa levels. The first SVD mode of summertime 100- and 500-hPa geopotential heights represents well the relationship between the variations of SAH and WPSH. Both SAH and WPSH exhibit large interannual variability and experienced an apparent long-term change in 1987. The WPSH intensifies and extends westward when SAH intensifies and extends eastward, and vice versa. The India–Burma trough weakens when WPSH intensifies. The changes in SAH and WPSH at various levels are linked to broad-scale increases in tropical tropospheric temperature and geopotential height. When SAH and WPSH strengthen, monsoon flow becomes weaker over eastern Asia. In the meantime, precipitation decreases over eastern South China Sea, Philippines, the Philippine Sea and northeastern Asia, but increases over China, Korea, Japan and the ocean domain east of Japan. Similar features are mostly found on both interdecadal and interannual timescales, but are more evident on interannual timescale.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to the three anonymous reviewers whose constructive comments have improved the overall quality of the paper. This research was jointly supported by NSFC (40875060), China Meteorological Administration (GYHY201006053, GYHY201006009), Sichuan Meteorological Administration (2010-Young Scholars-07) and Sichuan Province of China (2008NG0009).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Plateau Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Chengdu, 610072, Sichuan, China

    Xingwen Jiang & Yueqing Li

  2. College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Xingwen Jiang

  3. NOAA Climate Prediction Center, Camp Springs, MD, 20746, USA

    Song Yang

  4. Institute of Space and Earth Information Science and Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, Hong Kong

    Renguang Wu

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  1. Xingwen Jiang
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  2. Yueqing Li
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Correspondence to Yueqing Li.

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Responsible editor: J. Fasullo.

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Jiang, X., Li, Y., Yang, S. et al. Interannual and interdecadal variations of the South Asian and western Pacific subtropical highs and their relationships with Asian-Pacific summer climate. Meteorol Atmos Phys 113, 171–180 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-011-0146-8

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