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Spring Arctic Oscillation-East Asian summer monsoon connection through circulation changes over the western North Pacific

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Abstract

In the present study the links between spring Arctic Oscillation (AO) and East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) was investigated with focus on the importance of the North Pacific atmospheric circulation and sea surface temperature (SST). To reduce the statistical uncertainty, we analyzed high-pass filtered data with the inter-annual time scales, and excluded the El Niño/Southern Oscillation signals in the climate fields using a linear fitting method. The significant relationship between spring AO and EASM are supported by the changes of multi-monsoon components, including monsoon indices, precipitation, and three-dimensional atmospheric circulations. Following a stronger positive spring AO, an anomalous cyclonic circulation at 850 hPa appears in southeastern Asia and the western North Pacific in summer, with the easterly anomalies spanning from the Pacific to Asian continent along 25°N–30°N and the westerly anomalies south of 15°N. At the same time, the summer western North Pacific subtropical high becomes weaker. Consistently, the positive precipitation anomalies are developed over a broad region south of 30°N stretching from southern China to the western Pacific and the negative precipitation anomalies appear in the lower valley of the Yangtze River and southern Japan. The anomalous cyclone in the western North Pacific persisting from spring to summer plays a key role in modulating EASM and monsoon precipitation by a positive air-sea feedback mechanism. During spring the AO-associated atmospheric circulation change produces warmer SSTs between 150°E–180° near the equator. The anomalous sensible and latent heating, in turn, intensifies the cyclone through a Gill-type response of the atmosphere. Through this positive feedback, the tropical atmosphere and SST patterns sustain their strength from spring to summer, that consequently modifies the monsoon trough and the western North Pacific subtropical high and eventually the EASM precipitation. Moreover, the SST response to AO-circulation is supported by the numerical simulations of an ocean model, and the anomalous atmospheric circulation over the western North Pacific is also reproduced by the dedicated numerical simulations using the coupled atmosphere–ocean model. The observation evidence and numerical simulations suggest the spring AO can impact the EASM via triggering tropical air-sea feedback over the western North Pacific.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the PE10030 and PE10130 and in part by PE11010s of Korea Polar Research Institute. DY Gong was supported by 2008AA121704, 2007BAC29B02, and GYHY200706010. The numerical experiments and part of analysis has been supported by the Norwegian Research Council through the East Asian DecCen (no 193690) project. Reanalysis data were obtained from ftp://www.ftp.cdc.noaa.gov. The comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers are appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology, Beijing Normal University, 100875, Beijing, China

    Dao-Yi Gong, Jing Yang, Dong Guo & Miao Hu

  2. Korea Polar Research Institute, Incheon, Korea

    Seong-Joong Kim

  3. Nansen-Zhu International Research Center, IAP/CAS, 100029, Beijing, China

    Yongqi Gao & Dong Guo

  4. Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center/Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, Bergen, Norway

    Yongqi Gao

  5. State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG), IAP/CAS, 100029, Beijing, China

    Tianjun Zhou

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  1. Dao-Yi Gong
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Correspondence to Dao-Yi Gong.

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Gong, DY., Yang, J., Kim, SJ. et al. Spring Arctic Oscillation-East Asian summer monsoon connection through circulation changes over the western North Pacific. Clim Dyn 37, 2199–2216 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-011-1041-1

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