Interannual and interdecadal variations of tropical cyclone activity over the western North Pacific

Summary This paper reviews the interannual and interdecadal variations in tropical cyclone (TC) activity over the western North Pacific (WNP) and the possible physical mechanisms responsible for such variations. Interannual variations can largely be explained by changes in the planetary-scale flow patterns. Sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) in the WNP, however, do not contribute to such variations. Rather, SSTs in the central and eastern equatorial Pacific are significantly correlated with TC activity over the WNP. Causality can be established: changes in the SST in the equatorial Pacific are related to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, and modifications of the planetary-scale flow associated with ENSO alter the conditions over the WNP and hence TC activity there. Variations in annual TC activity are also associated with different phases of the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillations due to its modification of the vertical wind shear of the environment in which TCs form. Interdecadal variations in TC activity are apparently related to the location, strength and extent of the North Pacific subtropical high. However, the mechanisms responsible for modifying these characteristics of the subtropical high have yet to be identified.     

The interdecadal variations of the summer monsoon rainfall over South China

Summary This paper is to promote a further understanding of the interdecadal variations of the summer monsoon rainfall over South China (SCMR). With this focus, we will specifically aim at better understanding possible mechanism responsible for such an interdecadal variation relationship between the SCMR and El Ni?o/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). In many of the previous studies on precipitation, the datasets used are satellite observations or gridded reanalyzed data due to the lack of long-term reliable observations over the marginal seas of the Asian continent. Such an approach could lead to possible errors in the results. In this work, several representative stations with long-term rain-gauge observations are chosen to reduce such uncertainty. The study of the interdecadal variabilities of SCMR indicates that there is a strong linkage between SCMR and ENSO on the interdecadal variations. These results agree well with those from previous studies that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and ENSO are not independent of each other, the interannual and interdecadal variations of tropical Pacific Sea Surface temperatures (SSTs) could affect the interdecadal variations of the SCMR, and the incorporating information on the PDO/ENSO could improve the long-term prediction of the SCMR.     

西太平洋副热带高压季节内异常活动与亚洲夏季风系统的时延相关特征

基于西太平洋副热带高压的异常活动与亚洲夏季风系统其他成员之间存在着密切联系的天气事实,运用交叉小波的非线性时滞相关分析方法,对东亚夏季风系统成员与西太平洋副热带高压形态和变异的相互影响的基本事实和物理特征进行研究,得到了西太平洋副热带高压与主要的亚洲夏季风系统成员之间基本的关联结构和演变示意图。研究结果揭示了不同的季风子系统对西太平洋副热带高压的影响不同:影响西太平洋副热带高压强度和脊线位置异常变化的是亚洲夏季风系统中的印度夏季风子系统的5个主要成员;而影响西太平洋副热带高压西脊点异常变化的则是亚洲夏季风系统中的另一个子系统——东亚夏季风子系统的5个主要成员。研究揭示了副热带高压与亚洲夏季风系统主要成员之间的时延特征与统计关联特性,为相应的机理研究提供了事实依据。     

夏季西太平洋副热带高压的模拟实验

本文用模拟实验方法研究了西太平洋副热带高压的成因和结构。在分析了西太平洋副热带高压与其周围地区冷、热源关系的基础上,在实验中设计了六个热源、两个冷源,实验中得到的三维流场与实际大气情况相比很相似。从实验结果和实际大气资料分析得出,有四支不同方向的气流向西太平洋地区辐合下沉,它们对西太平洋副高的形成和维持起着重要作用。     

东北地区夏季干旱的年际—年代际变化特征

利用国家气候中心提供的1951—2012年160个标准站的逐月降水和温度资料,计算了表征东北地区干旱的SPEI指数,并对该指数进行EMSD分解,研究了东北地区干旱的年际—年代际变化特征。结果表明,东北地区夏季干旱年际—年代际变化特征明显,年际变化中具有显著的准2 a、准5 a和准7 a振荡周期;年代际变化中则具有显著的准17 a和22 a振荡周期。进一步分析发现,1975—1984年和1994—2008年为相对干旱阶段,其中1994—2008年旱情比较严重,1953—1975年、1984—1994年以及2009—2012年为相对湿润阶段。Mann-Kendal检验结果表明,东北地区夏季旱涝突变发生在1975年和1994年。     

Combined impact of in-phase and out-of-phase variation between the northern East Asian low and western North Pacific subtropical high on East Asian summer rainfall

东亚夏季降水受到对流层低层的东北亚陆地低压和西北太平洋副热带高压(西太副高)的影响。本文采用NCEP/NCAR再分析资料,考察了东北亚低压和西太副高同位相变化及反位相变化对东亚夏季降水的影响。研究发现与环流系统同位相和反位相对应,东亚夏季降水呈现不同的变化特征。当东北亚低压和西太副高同位相变化时,东亚地区降水异常为偶极子型,表现为长江南北降水变化相反;而当两环流系统处于反位相变化时,降水异常主要集中在长江流域。     

西太平洋副热带高压强度和东亚地表热通量的年代际变化特征及关系

利用NCEP/NCAR的月平均再分析资料以及中国国家气候中心的西太平洋副热带高压(副高)强度资料,分析了西太平洋副高强度、500hPa环流场以及东亚地表感热、潜热通量场的年代际变化特征,发现各个季节的西太平洋副高强度及其环流形势均存在一定的年代际变化,变化发生的时间为1978年前后,20世纪70年代中期以后副高强度有所增强。副高强度在季节间的延续性也发生了一定的年代际变化,1978年以后季节间的延续性增强,全时段的延续性受后一时段的影响较大。东亚地表感热、潜热通量场也存在明显的年代际变化,感热通量的变化关键区在大陆上,主要为青藏高原东、西部,其发生年代际变化要早于西太平洋副高强度变化的时间(20世纪60年代中后期),但它们发生差异变化的时间则接近西太平洋副高强度发生年代际变化的时间,在20世纪60年代中后期以前,高原感热通量体现为稳定的西高东低,而20世纪70年代中期以后则转为稳定的东高西低,其中,近10年时间为调整过渡期,因此,它们各自的年代际变化所造成的影响会有所滞后。潜热通量的变化关键区则位于海洋上,主要是西太平洋地区,1978年以前春季地表潜热通量距平为南正北负,之后转为南负北正,而夏季潜热通量距平则...     

南亚高压和西太副高位置与中国盛夏降水异常

用全国160站降水资料及ECMWF逐月再分析资料,采用合成分析方法,讨论了年际变化尺度上南亚高压与西太副高纬向位置异常与盛夏降水的关系。结果表明,当南亚高压与西太副高纬向异常重叠(分离)时,长江中下游流域存在异常上升(下沉)运动,江南的广大地区存在异常下沉(上升)运动。且当两个高压纬向异常重叠时,来自北印度洋及西太平洋的水汽,在长江中下游流域异常辐合,降水偏多。此时,江南地区水汽通量异常辐散,降水偏少。当两个高压纬向异常分离时,水汽主要来自北印度洋的西南风输送,长江流域降水偏少,江南地区降水偏多。     

我国东北夏季气温年代际变化特征及与太平洋海温异常关系的研究

利用1951—2008年东北地区夏季平均气温资料,分析了东北地区近58 a来东北地区夏季气温的变化趋势和突变特征,结果表明,东北夏季气温存在明显年代际变化的阶段性特征和总体增暖的趋势。对我国东北夏季气温与太平洋海温的相关分析表明,太平洋年代际振荡(PDO)由冷位相转为暖位相后,我国东北夏季气温与同期赤道中东太平洋海温相关减弱、与黑潮区海温相关增强,我国东北夏季气温与前期各季太平洋海温相关分布差异很大,海温关键区及相关强度都有所改变,这种相关关系的转变可能是造成近几年来利用太平洋海温预测我国东北夏季气温不确定性的原因之一。     

Longitudinal Displacement of the Subtropical High in the Western Pacific in Summer and its Influence

Using the relative vorticity averaged over a certain area, a new index for measuring the longitudinal position of the subtropical high (SH) in the western Pacific is proposed to avoid the increasing trend of heights in the previous indices based on geopotential height. The years of extreme westward and eastward extension of SH using the new index are in good agreement with those defined by height index. There exists a distinct difference in large-scale circulation between the eastward and westward extension of SH under the new definition, which includes not only the circulation in the middle latitudes but also the flow in the lower latitudes. It seems that when the SH extends far to the east (west), the summer monsoon in the South China Sea is stronger (weaker) and established earlier (later). In addition, there exists a good relationship between the longitudinal position of SH and the summer rainfall in China. A remarkable negative correlation area appears in the Changjiang River valley, indicating that when the SH extends westward (eastward), the precipitation in that region increases (decreases). A positive correlation region is found in South China, showing the decrease of rainfall when the SH extends westward. On the other hand, the rainfall is heavier when the SH retreats eastward. However, the anomalous longitudinal position of SH is not significantly related to the precipitation in North China. The calculation of correlation coefficients between the index of longitudinal position of SH and surface temperature in China shows that a large area of positive values, higher than 0.6 in the center, covers the whole of North China, even extending eastward to the Korean Peninsula and Japan Islands when using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data to do the correlation calculation. This means that when the longitudinal position of the SH withdraws eastward in summer, the temperature over North China is higher. On the other hand, when it moves westward, the temperature there is lower. This could explain the phenomenon of the seriously high temperatures over North China during recent summers, because the longitudinal position of SH in recent summers was located far away from the Asian continent. Another region with large negative correlation coefficients is found in South China.     

Interannual and interdecadal variabilities in the Pacific in an MRI coupled GCM

Interannual and interdecadal variabilities in the Pacific are investigated with a coupled atmosphere-ocean GCM developed at MRI, Japan. The model is run for 70 years with flux adjustments. The model shows interannual variability in the tropical Pacific which has several typical characteristics shared with the observed ENSO. A basin-scale feature of the principal SST variation for the ENSO time scale shows negative correlation in the central North Pacific with the tropical SST, similar to that of the observed one. Associated variation of the model atmosphere indicates an intensification of the Aleutian Low and a PNA-like teleconnection pattern as a response to the tropical warm SST anomaly. The ENSO time scale variability in the midlatitude ocean consists of the westward propagation of the subsurface temperature signal and the temperature variation within the shallow mixed layer forced by the anomalous atmospheric heat fluxes. For the interdecadal time scale, variation of the SST is simulated realistically with a geographical pattern similar to that for the ENSO time scale, but it has a larger relative amplitude in the northern Pacific. For the atmosphere, spatial structure of the variation in the interdecadal time scale is also similar to that in the ENSO time scale, but has smaller amplitude in the northern Pacific. Long oceanic spin-up time (>∼10 y) in the mid-high latitude, however, makes oceanic response in the interdecadal time scale larger than that in the ENSO time scale. The lagged-regression analysis for the ocean temperature variation relative to the wind stress variation indicates that interdecadal variation of the ocean subsurface at the mid-high latitudes is considered as enhanced ocean gyre spin-up process in response to the atmospheric circulation change at the mid-high latitudes, remotely forced by the interdecadal variation of the tropical SST. Received: 6 November 1995 / Accepted: 19 April 1996     

Interannual and decadal variations of snow cover over Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and their relationships to summer monsoon rainfall in China

Interannual and decadal variations of winter snow cover over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau (QXP) are analyzed by using monthly mean snow depth data set of 60 stations over QXP for the period of 1958 through 1992. It is found that the winter snow cover over QXP bears a pronounced quasi-biennial oscillation, and it underwent an obvious decadal transition from a poor snow cover period to a rich snow cover period in the late 1970’s during the last 40 years.It is shown that the summer rainfall in the eastern China is closely associated with the winter snow cover over QXP not only in the interannual variation but also in the decadal variation. A clear relationship exists in the quasi-biennial oscillation between the summer rainfall in the northern part of North China and the southern China and the winter snow cover over QXP. Furthermore, the summer rainfall in the four climate divisions of Qinling-Daba Mountains, the Yangtze-Huaihe River Plain, the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River showed a remarkable transition from drought period to rainy period in the end of 1970’s, in good correspondence with the decadal transition of the winter snow cover over QXP.     

Two anomalous convective systems in the tropical western Pacific and their influences on the East Asian summer monsoon

根据经验正交函数(EOF)分解向外长波辐射资料,发现在热带西太平洋存在两个异常对流系统。除经典的菲律宾对流系统外(PC),在密克罗尼西亚群岛附近还存在另一个对流系统(MC)。MC是EOF分解的第一分量,解释的方差要大于PC。两个对流系统均受到热带海表温度异常的调制,其中PC与El Ni駉有关,而MC则与夏季中东太平洋海表温度异常有关。两个对流系统都能对东亚夏季风产生影响。一般而言,对流增强(减弱)时,西太平洋副高东退(西伸),强度减弱(增强)。PC减弱(增强)时,长江流域到日本的夏季风降水增加(减少)。与PC相比,MC对东亚大陆降水的影响较弱。此外,对流减弱的影响要大于对流增强的影响。     

An Asian–Pacific teleconnection in summer tropospheric temperature and associated Asian climate variability

We identified the Asian–Pacific Oscillation (APO) and its associated index, a zonal teleconnection pattern over the extratropical Asian–Pacific region. This was done through the correlation and empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses on the summer mean tropospheric eddy temperature from the monthly European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecast reanalysis. The APO reflects an out-of-phase relationship in variability of the eddy temperature between Asia and the North Pacific and is associated with the out-of-phase relationship in atmospheric heating. The APO index shows a decadal variation, tending to a high-index polarity before 1975 and afterward to a low-index polarity. Moreover, the APO index has a quasi-5-year period. With higher APO-index conditions in the upper troposphere, the summer South Asian high and the North Pacific trough are stronger, while the westerly jet stream over Asia and the easterly jet stream over South Asia strengthen. Also, the Asian low and the North Pacific subtropical high are stronger in the lower troposphere. The anomalous southerlies prevail at the midlatitudes of East Asia, accompanied by a more northward Mei-yu front, and the anomalous westerlies prevail over South Asia. Summer rainfall increases in North China, South China, and South Asia, while it decreases from the valley of the Yangtze River to southern Japan, and near the Philippines.     

Interannual and interdecadal variability of ocean temperature along the equatorial Pacific in conjunction with ENSO

In this paper, the leading modes of ocean temperature anomalies (OTA) along the equatorial Pacific Ocean are analyzed and their connection with El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and interdecadal variation is investigated. The first two leading modes of OTA are connected with the different phases of the canonical ENSO and display asymmetric features of ENSO evolution. The third leading mode depicts a tripole pattern with opposite variation of OTA above the thermocline in the central Pacific to that along the thermocline in the eastern and western Pacific. This mode is found to be associated with so-called ENSO-Modoki. Insignificant correlations of this mode with the first two leading modes suggest that ENSO-Modoki may be a mode that is independent to the canonical ENSO and also has longer time scales compared with the canonical ENSO. The fourth mode reflects a warming (cooling) tendency above (below) the thermocline since 2000. Both the first and second modes have a large contribution to the interdecadal change in thermocline during 1979–2012. Also, the analysis also documents that both ENSO and OTA shifted into higher frequency since 2000 compared with that during 1979–1999. Interestingly, the ENSO-Modoki related OTA mode does not have any trend or significant interdecadal shift during 1979–2012. In addition, it is shown that first four EOF modes seem robust before and after 1999/2000, suggesting that the interdecadal shift of the climate system in the tropical Pacific is mainly a frequency shift and the changes in spatial pattern are relatively small, although the mean states over two periods experienced some significant changes.     

冬季北太平洋大气低频环流的年际和年代际变化特征及其与大气环流和海温异常的联系

利用1979—2015年ECMWF逐日再分析资料,通过EOF分解和回归分析研究了冬季北太平洋大气低频环流的年际和年代际变化特征及其与海表面温度异常(SSTA)和大气环流异常之间的联系。研究结果表明:冬季中纬度北太平洋地区850 h Pa低频尺度环流存在3个明显的变化模态:第一模态为海盆尺度的单极型异常气旋(反气旋)式环流,同期太平洋SSTA呈现El Ni1o(La Ni1a)以及PDO暖位相(冷位相)空间分布,阿留申低压强度增强(减弱),对流层中高层是正位相(负位相)的PNA型遥相关,北太平洋天气尺度风暴轴中东部南压(北抬);第二模态为在白令海峡和副热带地区呈气旋式与反气旋式环流南北向偶极型变化,同时中纬度北太平洋SSTA呈现NPGO(North Pacific Gyre Oscillation)正位相(负位相)的空间分布,黑潮区域SSTA偏暖(偏冷),北太平洋SSTA经向梯度加大(减小),对流层中高层为负位相(正位相)的WP型遥相关,北太平洋天气尺度风暴轴整体偏北(偏南),强度增强(减弱);第三模态为北太平洋中西部和北美西岸呈气旋式与反气旋式环流东西向偶极型异常,黑潮区域SSTA偏冷(偏暖)而北太平洋东部SSTA偏暖(偏冷),SSTA纬向梯度加大(减弱),同时赤道东太平洋出现类似La Ni1a(El Ni1o)的SSTA分布,北太平洋天气尺度风暴轴中东部明显减弱(加强)而西部略有加强(减弱)。     

IPCC AR4气候模式对东亚夏季风年代际变化的模拟性能评估

文中使用多种观测资料和分类的方法评估了IPCC AR4(政府间气候变化委员会第4次评估报告)气候模式(亦称Coupled Model Intercomparison Program 3, CMIP3)对东亚夏季风降水与环流年代际变化的模拟性能.结果表明,在评估的19个模式中,有9个模式可以较好地再现中国东部地区多年平均降水场,但仅有3个模式(第1类模式)可以较好地对东亚夏季风降水的年代际变化作出模拟,这3个模式是:GFDL-CM2.0、MIROC3.2(hires)和MIROC3.2(medres),其中模式GFDL-CM2.0具有最好的模拟性能.进一步的分析表明,大部分模式对东亚夏季风变化模拟能力的缺乏是因为这些模式没有抓住东亚夏季风降水变化的主要动力和热力学机制,即东亚地区在过去所出现的大范围对流层变冷和变干.而第1类模式由于较好地再现了东亚地区垂直速度场(动力学因子)和水汽场(热力学因子)的变化特征,因此较好地模拟出中国东部南涝北旱的气候变化特征.本文的评估清楚地表明,当选择不同模式进行集合时,模式对某一研究变量的模拟性能好坏极大地影响了集合的结果.当模拟性能较好的模式在一起进行集合时,所得到的结果更加接近于真实的观测结果.就特定的研究变量而言,这种集合更加优于将可得到的所有模式进行集合.这说明,虽然多模式集合一般优于单个模式的结果,但应考虑使参与集合的模式对所研究变量具有一定的模拟能力.