Influence of Eurasian spring snow cover on Asian summer rainfall

Liu, Xiaodong; Yanai, Michio

doi:10.1002/joc.784

Cited by 129 publications

(96 citation statements)

References 39 publications

(54 reference statements)

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“…Manifestation of this pattern induces a descending branch over the northern tropical latitudes over the Atlantic making this region anomalously cooler. This pattern is similar to a Rossby-wave train propagating from Europe to Asia triggered by an excessive Eurasian snow anomaly during the spring season (MarchMay) as observed by Liu and Yanai (2002).…”

Section: Meridional Circulation During Negative Mode Of Aosupporting

confidence: 79%

Summer monsoon rainfall variability over North East regions of India and its association with Eurasian snow, Atlantic Sea Surface temperature and Arctic Oscillation

Prabhu

Kim

et al. 2016

Clim Dyn

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Nepal and Bangladesh, is influenced by local and remote forces. In terms of geographical size, NE-India constitutes of about 8% of India's total size. Its population is approximately 40 million, which represents around 3.1% of the total Indian population. This region has a predominantly humid sub-tropical climate with hot, humid summers, severe monsoons and mild winters. Along with the west coast of India, this region has some of the Indian sub-continent's last remaining rain forests, which supports diverse flora and fauna and several crop species. Geographically, two-thirds of the area is a hilly terrain interspersed with valleys and plains. The mean summer monsoon rainfall over the NE-Indian region is around 1400 mm making for huge water and hydropower potential. However, this region has been exhibiting a declining trend in the summer monsoon rainfall since the last 4-5 decades (see Fig. 3, Fig. 4a in Preethi et al. 2016). Hence, it becomes imperative to examine the possible drivers of this variability.Significance for long-term prediction of summer monsoon, considering its massive socio-economic impacts, have been widely attributed to the slowly varying boundary conditions such as sea surface temperature (SST) and snow cover (Shukla 1998). In general, rainfall distribution pattern over different regions of India is inhomogeneous due to influence of several local and remote factors. For instance, over the central Indian plain region, monsoon trough and the Himalayas along with local and external factors play a dominant role in its interannual rainfall variability. Likewise, the northwest region is influenced by the dry climates of the Thar Desert and the Western Himalayas. Apparently from the geographical features as described above, the rain producing mechanism of NE rainfall is a complex phenomenon and is largely dominated by an elevated orography of the Eastern Himalayas and large forests. The NE sector may be considered as a separate macro-region within the Indian Abstract This observational study during the 29-year period from 1979 to 2007 evaluates the potential role of Eurasian snow in modulating the North East-Indian Summer Monsoon Rainfall with a lead time of almost 6 months. This link is manifested by the changes in high-latitude atmospheric winter snow variability over Eurasia associated with Arctic Oscillation (AO). Excessive wintertime Eurasian snow leads to an anomalous cooling of the overlying atmosphere and is associated with the negative mode of AO, inducing a meridional wave-train descending over the tropical north Atlantic and is associated with cooling of this region. Once the cold anomalies are established over the tropical Atlantic, it persists up to the following summer leading to an anomalous zonal wave-train further inducing a descending branch over NE-India resulting in weak summer monsoon rainfall.

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Section: Meridional Circulation During Negative Mode Of Aosupporting

confidence: 79%

Summer monsoon rainfall variability over North East regions of India and its association with Eurasian snow, Atlantic Sea Surface temperature and Arctic Oscillation

Prabhu

Kim

et al. 2016

Clim Dyn

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“…On the one hand, global warming is closely related to the warming of the oceanic basic state, especially for the Pacific Ocean [e.g. the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO)], which may reduce the land-sea thermal contrast, with a positive contribution to weakening Asian summer monsoon; on the other hand, global warming has caused significant decrease and melting of Eurasian snow cover in winter and spring since the 1970s (Brown, 2000;IPCC, 2001), thus leading to enhancement of the Asian summer monsoon (Shukla, 1987;Liu and Yanai, 2002;Bamzai and Shukla, 2003) due to decrease in reflected solar radiation and utilization of less heat for melting the snow or for evaporating the soil moisture. On the contrary, an excessive Eurasian snowfall during the previous winter and spring seasons can delay the build-up of the monsoonal temperature gradient and then lead to a weak Asian monsoon (or rainfall).…”

Section: Concluding Remarks and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this article, we have not estimated their relative importance in alteration of the land-sea thermal contrast in the Asian-PacificIndian region on a quantitative basis. But, based on the study by Liu and Yanai (2002), the forcing produced by Eurasian spring (March-April) snow cover (ESSC) and the sea on the Asian monsoon might be roughly offset, because no change in the trend of all-India monsoon of rainfall (AIMR) (June-September) has been observed, although the negative correlation between AIMR and ESSC has increased markedly since the mid-1970s. In such a situation, the role of increase in the preceding winter and spring snow over the TP will obviously emerge as an important external force for weakening Asian summer monsoon.…”

Section: Concluding Remarks and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inter‐decadal variation of the summer precipitation in China and its association with decreasing Asian summer monsoon Part II: Possible causes

Ding

Sun

Wang

et al. 2009

Intl Journal of Climatology

397

270

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ABSTRACT:The present article is the second part of a study on the inter-decadal variability of the summer precipitation in East China, which mainly addresses the possible cause of this change. Firstly, an updated analysis of the long-term variations of snow cover, snow days and snow depth in the preceding winter and spring over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) was done by using station and satellite data. The abrupt increase in the winter and spring snow over the TP since around 1977 has been well documented. At that time, the inter-decadal variation of the atmospheric heating over the TP in spring and summer had been estimated. It has been revealed that the atmospheric heating fields in subsequent spring and summer over the TP assumed a significant weakening after the late 1970s. This weakening is closely related to the significantly reduced surface sensible heat flux into the atmosphere and subsequent cooling over the TP and its surrounding atmosphere. The latter was produced by the increase of surface albedo and soil hydrological effect of melting snow under the condition of abrupt increase in the preceding winter and spring snow over the TP. On the other hand, three phases of significant inter-decadal warming of the sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical central and eastern Pacific, which occurred in the mid-1960s, the late 1970s and the early 1990s, respectively, have been found. The above inter-decadal variability of heating fields over the land area in the Asian region and neighbouring oceanic region of the West Pacific has consistently reduced the land-sea thermal contrast in summer in the Asian monsoon region based on the estimate of atmospheric heating fields. This cause is likely to lead to weakening of the Asian summer monsoon. In such case, the northward moisture transport in East Asia is greatly weakened and cannot reach North China, thus causing the condition of less precipitation or droughts. In contrast, the Yangtze River basin and South China receive a large amount of moisture supply and have strong upward motion, creating favourable conditions for frequent occurrence of heavy rainfall. In the process of the southward shift of the high-precipitation zone, two abrupt or rapid regime shifts observed in the late 1970s and the early 1990s were possibly in response to the increase in the winter and spring snow over the TP, and two major rapid warming events of the SST in the tropical central and eastern Pacific in the late 1970s and the early 1990s.Correlative analysis has further confirmed that high TP snow and oceanic forcing factors have a positive correlation with the subsequent summer precipitation in the Yangtze River basin and most of South China, and a negative correlation with the summer precipitation in North China. This correlative relationship implies that if the TP has excessive (deficient) snow in the preceding winter and spring and the tropical central and eastern Pacific anomalously warms up (cools down), North China will have decreasing (increasing) summer precipitation, whereas the ...

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“…Many studies (e.g. Bamzai and Shukla 1999;Dickson 1984;Douville and Royer 1996;Hahn and Shukla 1976;Kripalani et al 1996;Liu and Yanai 2002;Meehl 1994;Yanai and Li 1994) discussed an inverse relationship between the Eurasian snow cover and the succeeding Asian summer monsoon.…”

Section: Land-ocean Heating Contrast 1) Land Surface Conditionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ocean–Atmosphere–Land Feedbacks on the Western North Pacific–East Asian Summer Climate

Chou

2008

Recent Progress in Atmospheric Sciences

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In this review paper, we summarize mechanisms limiting poleward extent of the summer monsoon rain zones, the Asian summer monsoon in particular. They include local processes associated with net heat flux into the atmosphere and soil moisture, ventilation by cross-continental flow, and the interactive Hodwell-Hoskins (IRH) mechanism which is defined as interaction between monsoon convective heating and baroclinic Rossby wave dynamics. The latter two mechanisms, ventilation and the IRH mechanism, also induce an east-west asymmetry of the summer monsoon rain zones. Processes that change land-ocean heating contrast, differences in net heat flux into the atmosphere rather than in surface temperature, are also discussed. Convection associated with the Asian summer monsoon is initiated by net heat flux into the atmosphere and modified by soil moisture via an evaporation process. In Asia, ventilation by moisture advection is particularly important and the IRH mechanism tends to favor interior arid regions and east coast precipitation. Land surface condition, such as surface albedo and topography, and ocean heat transport tend to modify land-ocean heating contrast, in term of a tropospheric temperature gradient, and then change the Asian summer monsoon circulation and its associated rain zone. The stronger meridional gradient of tropospheric temperature tends to enhance the summer monsoon rainfall and extend the rain zone farther northward. Local SST, such as the warm SST anomalies in the western North Pacific during El Niño, is also important in the summer monsoon rainfall and its position. RECENT PROGRESS IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES WITH APPLICATION TO THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION1

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Influence of Eurasian spring snow cover on Asian summer rainfall

Cited by 129 publications

References 39 publications

Summer monsoon rainfall variability over North East regions of India and its association with Eurasian snow, Atlantic Sea Surface temperature and Arctic Oscillation

Summer monsoon rainfall variability over North East regions of India and its association with Eurasian snow, Atlantic Sea Surface temperature and Arctic Oscillation

Inter‐decadal variation of the summer precipitation in China and its association with decreasing Asian summer monsoon Part II: Possible causes

Ocean–Atmosphere–Land Feedbacks on the Western North Pacific–East Asian Summer Climate

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