Interdecadal Relationship between the East Asian Summer Precipitation and Global Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies

This study investigated the decadal relationship between the East Asian (EA) summer precipitation (EASP) and global sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) patterns. Maximum covariance analysis (MCA) was used to identify the coupling relationship between EASP and global SSTA. Four leading coupling modes were identified by MCA and they explained 27.7%,12.5%,8.9%,and 7.3% of the total variance, respectively. The spatial pattern of EASP of the first leading mode exhibited more-than-normal precipitation in most regions of EA. The second mode of EASP depicted a north-south “-+-” tripole pattern. The third one showed a “wet south and dry north” pattern, and the fourth mode exhibited a north-south “+-+” tripole pattern. The four coupling modes were suggested to be modulated by the global warming, Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), and North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO), respectively.The atmospheric processes and mechanisms underlying such modulations were also investigated. In the first coupling mode, global warming was favorable for increasing water vapor and precipitation over most parts of EA. In the second mode, PDO weakened the EA summer monsoon circulation, and it decreased precipitation in northern and southern EA regions and increased precipitation in the central EA region. The third mode was affected by AMO, which displaced the EA trough southward and weakened the convective activity over the northern EA region, thus leading to deficient precipitation in northern EA region. In the fourth mode, the EA summer monsoon was strengthened by NPGO, thus increasing precipitation in the northern and southern regions and decreasing precipitation in the central region.