Teleconnected influence of tropical Northwest Pacific sea surface temperature on interannual variability of autumn precipitation in Southwest China

Wang, Lin; Chen, Wen; Zhou, Wen; Huang, Gang

doi:10.1007/s00382-015-2490-8

Cited by 68 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 29 publications

(24 reference statements)

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“…The moving t ‐test reveals that there may be a possible climatic jump around the late 1990s. The result was somewhat consistent with the recent discovery from Wang et al (), who suggested a possible decadal shift of the autumn precipitation in SWC around the mid‐1990s. Here, we presented the composited anomalies of winter precipitation and circulation before and after the late 1990s (Figure (c), the 1999–2012 epoch minus the 1979–1998 epoch).…”

Section: Observational Analysissupporting

confidence: 92%

Decadal winter drought in Southwest China since the late 1990s and its atmospheric teleconnection

et al. 2016

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The extreme drought in Southwest China (SWC) during the winter 2009/2010 brought catastrophic losses to the state and people. In this article, evidence has been presented that this drought event was not a single one but part of a decade‐long drying period after 2000. Based on observed data from meteorological stations, we identified two distinct modes of winter precipitation in SWC: one is spatially in‐phase change pattern and the other is east–west dipole pattern, both of which experienced a sharp decadal decrease since the late 1990s. The two modes are closely linked to two atmospheric circulation patterns induced by Arctic Oscillation (AO) and El Niño, respectively. The sustained precipitation deficit in SWC after 2000 was associated with the anomalous atmospheric circulation patterns mainly caused by the decadal transition of AO towards its negative phases and frequent El Niño, especially the central Pacific El Niño. The model experiments forced by sea surface temperature anomaly patterns in the North Atlantic (NA) and tropical Pacific (TP), respectively, could robustly reproduce precipitation anomaly in SWC and large‐scale circulation pattern. The NA SST could excite a series of quasi‐stationary wave trains, which propagate eastward to the south of the Himalayas, similar to the AO‐related teleconnection. The SWC is just beneath the anti‐cyclonic circulation anomaly with dry conditions. In the TP experiment, the simulated ascending motion locates over the central Pacific, while the anomalous descending branch of the western Walker cell appears over the SWC, being not conducive to the formation of precipitation.

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Section: Observational Analysissupporting

confidence: 92%

Decadal winter drought in Southwest China since the late 1990s and its atmospheric teleconnection

et al. 2016

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“…For example, people in South China witnessed an extraordinarily long‐lasting severe drought in autumn 2009, resulting in more than 80 million people suffering direct economic losses of up to 30 billion yuan Renminbi (e.g., Barriopedro et al, ; Gu et al, ; W. Zhang et al, , ). In the context of global warming, more frequent regional autumn droughts occurred over the subtropical East Asia in recent decades (e.g., L. Wang et al, ; Wei et al, ; W. Zhang et al, , ). Meanwhile, more frequent autumn tropical cyclones were observed to generate over the northwestern part of the western North Pacific due to the southwestward shift of the tropical upper‐tropospheric trough and the northwestward retreat of the monsoon trough (e.g., Hu et al, ; Wu et al, ), accompanied by abundant moisture transport and enhanced convective precipitation (Hu et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Zhang et al, , 2014. In the context of global warming, more frequent regional autumn droughts occurred over the subtropical East Asia in recent decades (e.g., L. Wang et al, 2015;Wei et al, 2018;W. Zhang et al, 2013W.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dipole Types of Autumn Precipitation Variability Over the Subtropical East Asia‐Western Pacific Modulated by Shifting ENSO

Chen

Huang

et al. 2018

Geophysical Research Letters

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Recent autumns have exhibited two dipole types of precipitation variability (DIPO1 and DIPO2) over the subtropical East Asia‐western Pacific (SEAWP). Meanwhile, El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has undergone significant mode shift, exhibiting as the eastern Pacific or central Pacific ENSO (EPSO or CPSO). Whether there was any physical linkage between the two remains unclear. Here we demonstrate for the first time that interannual variations of DIPO1 and DIPO2 are closely linked to EPSO and CPSO, respectively. Shifting ENSO modulates the patterns of SEAWP precipitation dipole mainly via changing the path of tropospheric moisture transport and the location of anomalous water vapor convergence/divergence due to different low‐level cyclone/anticyclone activities induced by EPSO or CPSO. Further analysis shows that the interdecadal variability of SEAWP precipitation is also linked to the La Niña‐like climate shift in 1998. Hence, our study provides some new insight into the ongoing hot debate on the shifting ENSO and increasing autumn drought in southeastern China.

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“…They further attributed the drying trend to the warming of tropical ocean, which had reduced the land-sea thermal gradient and the amount of moisture transported from the BOB. In another study, the possible influence of sea surface temperature (SST) in tropical northwest Pacific (NWP) on the autumn precipitation in SWC was investigated (Wang et al, 2015a). It was found that the warm SST in NWP had likely contributed to the dry conditions in SWC in recent decades.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tracing changes in atmospheric moisture supply to the drying Southwest China

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Precipitation over Southwest China (SWC) significantly decreased during 1979-2013. The months from July to September (JAS) contributed the most to the decrease in precipitation. By tracing moisture sources of JAS precipitation over the SWC region, it is found that most moisture originates in regions from the northern Indian Ocean to SWC and from South China Sea to SWC. The major moisture contributing area is divided into an extended west region, SWC, and an extended east region. The extended west region is mainly influenced by the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) and the westerlies, while the extended east region is mainly influenced by the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). The extended west, SWC, and extended east regions contribute 48.2, 15.5, and 24.5 % of the moisture for the SWC precipitation, respectively. Moisture supply from the extended west region decreased at a rate of −7.9 mm month −1 decade −1 , whereas that from the extended east increased at a rate of 1.4 mm month −1 decade −1 , resulting in an overall decrease in moisture supply. Further analysis reveals that the decline of JAS precipitation is mainly caused by change in the seasonal-mean component rather than the transient component of the moisture transport over the SWC region. In addition, the dynamic processes (i.e., changes in wind) rather than the thermodynamic processes (i.e., changes in specific humidity) are dominant in affecting the seasonal-mean moisture transport. A prevailing easterly anomaly of moisture transport that weakened moisture supply from the Indian Ocean is to a large extent responsible for the precipitation decrease over the SWC region.

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Teleconnected influence of tropical Northwest Pacific sea surface temperature on interannual variability of autumn precipitation in Southwest China

Cited by 68 publications

References 29 publications

Decadal winter drought in Southwest China since the late 1990s and its atmospheric teleconnection

Decadal winter drought in Southwest China since the late 1990s and its atmospheric teleconnection

Dipole Types of Autumn Precipitation Variability Over the Subtropical East Asia‐Western Pacific Modulated by Shifting ENSO

Tracing changes in atmospheric moisture supply to the drying Southwest China

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