scholarly journals Decadal Modulation of Precipitation Patterns over Eastern China by Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (17) ◽  
pp. 7017-7033 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qing Yang ◽  
Zhuguo Ma ◽  
Xingang Fan ◽  
Zong-Liang Yang ◽  
Zhongfeng Xu ◽  
...  

Annual precipitation anomalies over eastern China are characterized by a north–south dipole pattern, referred to as the “southern flooding and northern drought” pattern (SF/ND), fluctuating on decadal time scales. Previous research has suggested possible links with oceanic forcing, but the underlying physical mechanisms by which sea surface temperature (SST) variability impacts the dipole pattern remains unclear. Idealized atmospheric general circulation model experiments conducted by the U.S. CLIVAR Drought Working Group are used to investigate the role of historical SST anomalies associated with Pacific El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-like and the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation (AMO) patterns in this dipole pattern. The results show that the Pacific SST pattern plays a dominant role in driving the decadal variability of this dipole pattern and the associated atmospheric circulation anomalies, whereas the Atlantic SST pattern contributes to a much lesser degree. The direct atmospheric response to the Pacific SST pattern is a large-scale cyclonic or anticyclonic circulation anomaly in the lower troposphere occupying the entire northern North Pacific. During the warm phase of the Pacific SST pattern, it is cyclonic with northwesterly wind anomalies over northern China pushing the monsoon front to the south and consequently SF/ND. During the cold phase of the Pacific SST pattern, the circulation anomaly reverses with southeasterly winds over northern China allowing the monsoon front and the associated rainband to migrate northward, resulting in southern drought and northern flooding. The Atlantic SST pattern plays a supplementary role, enhancing the dipole pattern when the Pacific SST and Atlantic SST patterns are in opposite phases and weakening it when the phases are the same.

2005 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 2052-2066 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marika M. Holland ◽  
Cecilia M. Bitz ◽  
Elizabeth C. Hunke

Abstract The mechanisms forcing variability in Southern Ocean sea ice and sea surface temperature from 600 years of a control climate coupled model integration are discussed. As in the observations, the leading mode of simulated variability exhibits a dipole pattern with positive anomalies in the Pacific sector associated with negative anomalies in the Atlantic. It is found that in the Pacific ocean circulation changes associated with variable wind forcing modify the ocean heat flux convergence and sea ice transport, resulting in sea surface temperature and sea ice anomalies. The Pacific ice and ocean anomalies persist over a number of years due to reductions in ocean shortwave absorption reinforcing the initial anomalies. In the Atlantic sector, no single process dominates in forcing the anomalies. Instead there are contributions from changing ocean and sea ice circulation and surface heat fluxes. While the absorbed solar radiation in the Atlantic is modified by the changing surface albedo, the anomalies are much shorter-lived than in the Pacific because the ocean circulation transports them northward, removing them from ice formation regions. Sea ice and ocean anomalies associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and the Southern Annular Mode both exhibit a dipole pattern and contribute to the leading mode of ice and ocean variability.


2008 ◽  
Vol 363 (1498) ◽  
pp. 1761-1766 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Good ◽  
Jason A Lowe ◽  
Mat Collins ◽  
Wilfran Moufouma-Okia

Future changes in meridional sea surface temperature (SST) gradients in the tropical Atlantic could influence Amazon dry-season precipitation by shifting the patterns of moisture convergence and vertical motion. Unlike for the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, there are no standard indices for quantifying this gradient. Here we describe a method for identifying the SST gradient that is most closely associated with June–August precipitation over the south Amazon. We use an ensemble of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) integrations forced by observed SST from 1949 to 2005. A large number of tropical Atlantic SST gradient indices are generated randomly and temporal correlations are examined between these indices and June–August precipitation averaged over the Amazon Basin south of the equator. The indices correlating most strongly with June–August southern Amazon precipitation form a cluster of near-meridional orientation centred near the equator. The location of the southern component of the gradient is particularly well defined in a region off the Brazilian tropical coast, consistent with known physical mechanisms. The chosen index appears to capture much of the Atlantic SST influence on simulated southern Amazon dry-season precipitation, and is significantly correlated with observed southern Amazon precipitation. We examine the index in 36 different coupled atmosphere–ocean model projections of climate change under a simple compound 1% increase in CO 2 . Within the large spread of responses, we find a relationship between the projected trend in the index and the Amazon dry-season precipitation trends. Furthermore, the magnitude of the trend relationship is consistent with the inter-annual variability relationship found in the AGCM simulations. This suggests that the index would be of use in quantifying uncertainties in climate change in the region.


Author(s):  
Emily Black

Knowledge of the processes that control East African rainfall is essential for the development of seasonal forecasting systems, which may mitigate the effects of flood and drought. This study uses observational data to unravel the relationship between the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and rainy autumns in East Africa. Analysis of sea–surface temperature data shows that strong East African rainfall is associated with warming in the Pacific and Western Indian Oceans and cooling in the Eastern Indian Ocean. The resemblance of this pattern to that which develops during IOD events implies a link between the IOD and strong East African rainfall. Further investigation suggests that the observed teleconnection between East African rainfall and ENSO is a manifestation of a link between ENSO and the IOD.


2020 ◽  
Vol 132 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 2243-2252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Yang ◽  
Liang Zhou ◽  
Alexandre Normandeau ◽  
Jianjun Jia ◽  
Qijun Yin ◽  
...  

Abstract How climate controls tropical cyclone variability has critical implications for modern human society but is not well understood due to the short length of observational records. To probe this knowledge gap, we present a synthesis of intense typhoon activity from the northwestern Pacific over the past 2000 years, which is supported by a new, well-resolved tidal flat sedimentary record from the Jiangsu coast, eastern China. The record reveals nine intervals of typhoon frequency, indicating that the frequency of intense typhoons has varied on multi-centennial scales over the past 2000 years. Our synthesis shows strong evidence for a seesaw pattern of intense typhoon frequency between southeastern China and Japan and Korea. This pattern can be explained by the El Niño and Southern Oscillation–East Asian Monsoon–sea surface temperature hypothesis, which potentially explains the basin-wide typhoon climate in the northwestern Pacific region. A shift in typhoon activity was identified from 550–280 to 280–50 yr B.P. during the Little Ice Age, when typhoon activity changed from active to quiescent or vice versa. Centennial-scale shifts in Intertropical Convergence Zone and Western Pacific Warm Pool sea surface temperature are likely to be the primary forcing mechanisms driving this shift. Results obtained here provide links between typhoon activity and the El Niño and Southern Oscillation, the East Asian Monsoon, and the Western Pacific Warm Pool sea surface temperature, and therefore improve our ability to fully assess intense typhoon activity in future climate warming.


2010 ◽  
Vol 23 (14) ◽  
pp. 3907-3917 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sang-Ik Shin ◽  
Prashant D. Sardeshmukh ◽  
Robert S. Webb

Abstract The optimal anomalous sea surface temperature (SST) pattern for forcing North American drought is identified through atmospheric general circulation model integrations in which the response of the Palmer drought severity index (PDSI) is determined for each of 43 prescribed localized SST anomaly “patches” in a regular array over the tropical oceans. The robustness and relevance of the optimal pattern are established through the consistency of results obtained using two different models, and also by the good correspondence of the projection time series of historical tropical SST anomaly fields on the optimal pattern with the time series of the simulated PDSI in separate model integrations with prescribed time-varying observed global SST fields for 1920–2005. It is noteworthy that this optimal drought forcing pattern differs markedly in the Pacific Ocean from the dominant SST pattern associated with El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and also shows a large sensitivity of North American drought to Indian and Atlantic Ocean SSTs.


Axioms ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 189
Author(s):  
Sittisak Injan ◽  
Angkool Wangwongchai ◽  
Usa Humphries ◽  
Amir Khan ◽  
Abdullahi Yusuf

The Ensemble Intermediate Coupled Model (EICM) is a model used for studying the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean, which is anomalies in the Sea Surface Temperature (SST) are observed. This research aims to implement Cressman to improve SST forecasts. The simulation considers two cases in this work: the control case and the Cressman initialized case. These cases are simulations using different inputs where the two inputs differ in terms of their resolution and data source. The Cressman method is used to initialize the model with an analysis product based on satellite data and in situ data such as ships, buoys, and Argo floats, with a resolution of 0.25 × 0.25 degrees. The results of this inclusion are the Cressman Initialized Ensemble Intermediate Coupled Model (CIEICM). Forecasting of the sea surface temperature anomalies was conducted using both the EICM and the CIEICM. The results show that the calculation of SST field from the CIEICM was more accurate than that from the EICM. The forecast using the CIEICM initialization with the higher-resolution satellite-based analysis at a 6-month lead time improved the root mean square deviation to 0.794 from 0.808 and the correlation coefficient to 0.630 from 0.611, compared the control model that was directly initialized with the low-resolution in-situ-based analysis.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Samakinwa ◽  
Stefan Brönnimann

<p>Variability in Sea Surface Temperature (SST) is one of the prime sources of intra-annual variability, and also an important boundary condition for Atmospheric General Circulation Models (AGCMs). In many AGCM simulations, SST and Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) are prescribed. While SSTs are specified according to observations available in recent period of instrumental records (1850 – present), SIC depends on climatological averages with less variability prior to the inception of satellite measurements. This limits our understanding of large-scale climate variations in the past.</p><p>In this study, we augment multi-proxy reconstructed annual mean temperature of Neukom et al. (2019) with intra-annual variability from HadISST (v2.0), for 850 years (1000 – 1849). Intra-seasonal variability, such as the phase-locking of El-Nino Southern Oscillation, Indian Ocean Dipole and Tropical Atlantic SST indices to annual-cycle, are utilized. The intra-annual component of HadISST and SST indices estimated from the multi-proxy reconstructed annual mean, are used to develop grid-based multivariate linear regression models using the Frisch-Waugh-Lovell theorem, in a monthly stratified approach. Furthermore, we introduce a scaling technique to ensure homogeneous mean and variance, similar to that of the target. SST observations obtained from ship measurements by ICOADS before 1850, will be integrated in an off-line data assimilation approach.</p><p>Similarly, we reconstruct SIC via analogue resampling of HadISST SIC (1941 – 2000), for both hemispheres. We pool our analogues in four seasons, comprising of 3 months each, such that for each month within a season, there are 180 possible analogues. The best analogues are selected based on correlation coefficients between reconstructed SST and its target.</p>


Ocean Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 469-482 ◽  
Author(s):  
Minghao Yang ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
Weilai Shi ◽  
Chao Zhang ◽  
Jianqi Zhang

Abstract. The Pacific–Indian Ocean associated mode (PIOAM), defined as the first dominant mode (empirical orthogonal function, EOF1) of sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) in the Pacific–Indian Ocean between 20∘ S and 20∘ N, is the product of the tropical air–sea interaction at the cross-basin scale and the main mode of ocean variation in the tropics. Evaluating the capability of current climate models to simulate the PIOAM and finding the possible factors that affect the simulation results are beneficial in the pursuit of more accurate future climate change prediction. Based on the 55-year Hadley Centre Global Sea Ice and Sea Surface Temperature (HadISST) dataset and the output data from 21 Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase 5 (CMIP5) models, the PIOAM in these CMIP5 models is assessed. Instead of using the time coefficient (PC1) of the PIOAM as its index, we chose to utilize the alternative PIOAM index (PIOAMI), defined with SSTA differences in the boxes, to describe the PIOAM. It is found that the explained variance of the PIOAM in almost all 21 CMIP5 models is underestimated. Although all models reproduce the spatial pattern of the positive sea surface temperature anomaly in the eastern equatorial Pacific well, only one-third of these models successfully simulate the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) mode with the east–west inverse phase in the Pacific Ocean. In general, CCSM4, GFDL-ESM2M and CMCC-CMS have a stronger capability to capture the PIOAM than the other models. The strengths of the PIOAM in the positive phase in less than one-fifth of the models are slightly greater, and very close to the HadISST dataset, especially CCSM4. The interannual variation of the PIOAM can be measured by CCSM4, GISS-E2-R and FGOALS-s2.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 454
Author(s):  
Andrew R. Jakovlev ◽  
Sergei P. Smyshlyaev ◽  
Vener Y. Galin

The influence of sea-surface temperature (SST) on the lower troposphere and lower stratosphere temperature in the tropical, middle, and polar latitudes is studied for 1980–2019 based on the MERRA2, ERA5, and Met Office reanalysis data, and numerical modeling with a chemistry-climate model (CCM) of the lower and middle atmosphere. The variability of SST is analyzed according to Met Office and ERA5 data, while the variability of atmospheric temperature is investigated according to MERRA2 and ERA5 data. Analysis of sea surface temperature trends based on reanalysis data revealed that a significant positive SST trend of about 0.1 degrees per decade is observed over the globe. In the middle latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, the trend (about 0.2 degrees per decade) is 2 times higher than the global average, and 5 times higher than in the Southern Hemisphere (about 0.04 degrees per decade). At polar latitudes, opposite SST trends are observed in the Arctic (positive) and Antarctic (negative). The impact of the El Niño Southern Oscillation phenomenon on the temperature of the lower and middle atmosphere in the middle and polar latitudes of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is discussed. To assess the relative influence of SST, CO2, and other greenhouse gases’ variability on the temperature of the lower troposphere and lower stratosphere, numerical calculations with a CCM were performed for several scenarios of accounting for the SST and carbon dioxide variability. The results of numerical experiments with a CCM demonstrated that the influence of SST prevails in the troposphere, while for the stratosphere, an increase in the CO2 content plays the most important role.


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