Upscale feedback of high-frequency winds on seasonal SST change over the tropical western North Pacific during boreal summer

2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 2439-2451
Author(s):  
Yuqi Wang ◽  
Renguang Wu ◽  
Yang Jiao
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuqi Wang ◽  
Renguang Wu

AbstractSurface latent heat flux (LHF) is an important component in the heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere over the tropical western North Pacific (WNP). The present study investigates the factors of seasonal mean LHF variations in boreal summer over the tropical WNP. Seasonal mean LHF is separated into two parts that are associated with low-frequency (> 90-day) and high-frequency (≤ 90-day) atmospheric variability, respectively. It is shown that low-frequency LHF variations are attributed to low-frequency surface wind and sea-air humidity difference, whereas high-frequency LHF variations are associated with both low-frequency surface wind speed and high-frequency wind intensity. A series of conceptual cases are constructed using different combinations of low- and high-frequency winds to inspect the respective effects of low-frequency wind and high-frequency wind amplitude to seasonal mean LHF variations. It is illustrated that high-frequency wind fluctuations contribute to seasonal high-frequency LHF only when their intensity exceeds the low-frequency wind speed under which there is seasonal accumulation of high-frequency LHF. When high-frequency wind intensity is smaller than the low-frequency wind speed, seasonal mean high-frequency LHF is negligible. Total seasonal mean LHF anomalies depend on relative contributions of low- and high-frequency atmospheric variations and have weak interannual variance over the tropical WNP due to cancellation of low- and high-frequency LHF anomalies.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zongci Huang ◽  
Wenjun Zhang ◽  
Xin Geng ◽  
Pang-Chi Hsu

An extreme northward displacement of the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH) was detected during the boreal mid-late summer (July-August) of 2018, bringing record-breaking heat waves over northern East Asia. Negative sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the northern India Ocean (NIO) are usually accompanied with a northward shift of the WPSH. However, no prominent NIO SST anomalies were observed during the 2018 boreal summer. It is found that this extreme northward-shifted WPSH event is largely attributed to the accumulated effect of intra-seasonal oscillation (ISO) convection anomalies over the tropical western North Pacific (WNP). The accumulated effect on the WPSH meridional location is further supported by their significant correlation based on the data since 1979. While the relationship between the NIO SST anomalies and WPSH meridional location has substantially weakened since the late 1990s, the accumulated effect of the tropical WNP ISO convections keeps playing a crucial role in modulating the WPSH meridional displacement. The active WNP ISO activities can stimulates a poleward propagating Rossby wave train, which favors a northward shift of the WPSH. Our results suggest that the accumulated effect of the tropical WNP ISO convections should be considered when predicting the WPSH during the boreal mid-late summer season.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-434
Author(s):  
Shumin Chen ◽  
Weibiao Li ◽  
Zhiping Wen ◽  
Mingsen Zhou ◽  
Youyu Lu ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 927-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pang-chi Hsu ◽  
Tim Li ◽  
Chih-Hua Tsou

Abstract The role of scale interactions in the maintenance of eddy kinetic energy (EKE) during the extreme phases of the intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) is examined through the construction of a new eddy energetics diagnostic tool that separates the effects of ISO and a low-frequency background state (LFBS; with periods longer than 90 days). The LFBS always contributes positively toward the EKE in the boreal summer, regardless of the ISO phases. The synoptic eddies extract energy from the ISO during the ISO active phase. This positive barotropic energy conversion occurs when the synoptic eddies interact with low-level cyclonic and convergent–confluent ISO flows. This contrasts with the ISO suppressed phase during which the synoptic eddies lose kinetic energy to the ISO flow. The anticyclonic and divergent–diffluent ISO flows during the suppressed phase are responsible for the negative barotropic energy conversion. A positive (negative) EKE tendency occurs during the ISO suppressed-to-active (active-to-suppressed) transitional phase. The cause of this asymmetric EKE tendency is attributed to the spatial phase relation among the ISO vorticity, eddy structure, and EKE. The southwest–northeast-tilted synoptic disturbances interacting with cyclonic (anticyclonic) vorticity of ISO lead to a positive (negative) EKE tendency in the northwest region of the maximum EKE center. The genesis number and location and intensification rate of tropical cyclones in the western North Pacific are closely related to the barotropic energy conversion. The enhanced barotropic energy conversion favors the generation and development of synoptic seed disturbances, some of which eventually grow into tropical cyclones.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 657-673
Author(s):  
Yi-Kai Wu ◽  
An-Yi Huang ◽  
Chia-Kai Wu ◽  
Chi-Cherng Hong ◽  
Chi-Chun Chang

AbstractIn the early 1990s, the mei-yu rainfall over South China in early boreal summer exhibited an abrupt change and northward extension. This change altered the pattern of East Asian summer rainfall from a dipole-like to a monopole-like pattern; that is, the out-of-phase relationship between the rainfall in the south and that in the north of the Yangtze and Huaihe River valley changed to an in-phase relationship. The physical processes potentially responsible for triggering this abrupt change were analyzed in this study. Our observations revealed that the western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH), sea surface temperature (SST) in the subtropical eastern North Pacific (SENP), and the mei-yu rainfall in South China exhibited an abrupt increase in the early 1990s, suggesting that these factors are correlated. From the observations and results of numerical experiments, we proposed that the abrupt SST warming in the SENP in the early 1990s generated an east–west overturning circulation anomaly in the Pacific Ocean and that the anomalous downward motion in the western North Pacific consequently triggered the abrupt increase and westward extension of the WNPSH in the early 1990s. The enhanced and westward extension of WNPSH created a low-level southeasterly anomaly that transported considerable humid and warm air into East Asia and sequentially triggered the abrupt increase of mei-yu rainfall in the South China in the early 1990s.


2020 ◽  
Vol 142 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 393-406
Author(s):  
Zhongkai Bo ◽  
Xiangwen Liu ◽  
Weizong Gu ◽  
Anning Huang ◽  
Yongjie Fang ◽  
...  

Abstract In this paper, we evaluate the capability of the Beijing Climate Center Climate System Model (BCC-CSM) in simulating and forecasting the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation (BSISO), using its simulation and sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) hindcast results. Results show that the model can generally simulate the spatial structure of the BSISO, but give relatively weaker strength, shorter period, and faster transition of BSISO phases when compared with the observations. This partially limits the model’s capability in forecasting the BSISO, with a useful skill of only 9 days. Two sets of hindcast experiments with improved atmospheric and atmosphere/ocean initial conditions (referred to as EXP1 and EXP2, respectively) are conducted to improve the BSISO forecast. The BSISO forecast skill is increased by 2 days with the optimization of atmospheric initial conditions only (EXP1), and is further increased by 1 day with the optimization of both atmospheric and oceanic initial conditions (EXP2). These changes lead to a final skill of 12 days, which is comparable to the skills of most models participated in the S2S Prediction Project. In EXP1 and EXP2, the BSISO forecast skills are improved for most initial phases, especially phases 1 and 2, denoting a better description for BSISO propagation from the tropical Indian Ocean to the western North Pacific. However, the skill is considerably low and insensitive to initial conditions for initial phase 6 and target phase 3, corresponding to the BSISO convection’s active-to-break transition over the western North Pacific and BSISO convection’s break-to-active transition over the tropical Indian Ocean and Maritime Continent. This prediction barrier also exists in many forecast models of the S2S Prediction Project. Our hindcast experiments with different initial conditions indicate that the remarkable model errors over the Maritime Continent and subtropical western North Pacific may largely account for the prediction barrier.


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