Leading patterns of the tropical Atlantic variability in a coupled general circulation model

This paper examines the mean annual cycle, interannual variability, and leading patterns of the tropical Atlantic Ocean simulated in a long-term integration of the climate forecast system (CFS), a state-of-the-art coupled general circulation model presently used for operational climate prediction at the National Centers for Environmental Prediction. By comparing the CFS simulation with corresponding observation-based analyses or reanalyses, it is shown that the CFS captures the seasonal mean climate, including the zonal gradients of sea surface temperature (SST) in the equatorial Atlantic Ocean, even though the CFS produces warm mean biases and underestimates the variability over the southeastern ocean. The seasonal transition from warm to cold phase along the equator is delayed 1 month in the CFS compared with the observations. This delay might be related to the failure of the model to simulate the cross-equatorial meridional wind associated with the African monsoon. The CFS also realistically simulates both the spatial structure and spectral distributions of the three major leading patterns of the SST anomalies in the tropical Atlantic Ocean: the south tropical Atlantic pattern (STA), the North tropical Atlantic pattern (NTA), and the southern subtropical Atlantic pattern (SSA). The CFS simulates the seasonal dependence of these patterns and partially reproduces their association with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation. The dynamical and thermodynamical processes associated with these patterns in the simulation and the observations are similar. The air-sea interaction processes associated with the STA pattern are well simulated in the CFS. The primary feature of the anomalous circulation in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) associated with the NTA pattern resembles that in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) linked with the SSA pattern, implying a similarity of the mechanisms in the evolution of these patterns and their connection with the tropical and extratropical anomalies in their respective hemispheres. The anomalies associated with both the SSA and NTA patterns are dominated by atmospheric fluctuations of equivalent-barotropic structure in the extratropics including zonally symmetric and asymmetric components. The zonally symmetric variability is associated with the annular modes, the Arctic Oscillation in the NH and the Antarctic Oscillation in the SH. The zonally asymmetric part of the anomalies in the Atlantic is teleconnected with the anomalies over the tropical Pacific. The misplaced teleconnection center over the southern subtropical ocean may be one of the reasons for the deformation of the SSA pattern in the CFS.     

The internal climate variability of HadCM3, a version of the Hadley Centre coupled model without flux adjustments

We examine the internal climate variability of a 1000?year long integration of the third version of the Hadley Centre coupled model (HadCM3). The model requires no flux adjustment, needs no spin up procedure prior to coupling and has a stable climate in the global mean. The principal aims are (1) to validate the internal climate variability against observed climate variability, (2) to examine the model for any periodic modes of variability, (3) to use the model estimate of internal climate variability to asses the probability of occurrence of observed trends in climate variables, and (4) to compare HadCM3 with the previous version of the Hadley Centre model, HadCM2. The magnitude and frequency characteristics of the variability of the global mean surface temperature of HadCM3 on annual to decadal time scales is in good agreement with the observations. Observed upward trends in temperature over the last 20?years and longer are inconsistent with the internal variability of the model. The simulated spatial pattern of surface temperature variability is qualitatively similar to that observed, although there is an overestimation of the land temperature variability and regional errors in ocean temperature variability. The model simulates an El Niño Southern Oscillation with an irregular 3–4?year cycle, and with a teleconnection pattern which is much more like the observations than was found in HadCM2. The interdecadal variability of the model ocean in the tropical Pacific, North Pacific and North Atlantic is broadly similar to that in the real world with none of the simulated patterns having any periodic behaviour. HadCM3 simulates an Arctic Oscillation/North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in Northern Hemisphere winter which has a spatial pattern consistent with the observations in the Atlantic region, but has too much teleconnection with the North Pacific. The recent observed upward trend in the NAO index is inconsistent with the model internal variability. The variability of the simulated zonal mean atmospheric temperature shows some marked differences to the observed zonal mean temperature variability, although the comparison is confounded by the sparse observational network and its possible contamination by a climate change signal.     

The influence of tropical Pacific forcing on the Arctic Oscillation

The potential role of tropical Pacific forcing in driving the seasonal variability of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) is explored using both observational data and a simple general circulation model (SGCM). A lead–lag regression technique is first applied to the monthly averaged sea surface temperature (SST) and the AO index. The AO maximum is found to be related to a negative SST anomaly over the tropical Pacific three months earlier. A singular value decomposition (SVD) analysis is then performed on the tropical Pacific SST and the sea level pressure (SLP) over the Northern Hemisphere. An AO-like atmospheric pattern and its associated SST appear as the second pair of SVD modes. Ensemble integrations are carried out with the SGCM to test the atmospheric response to different tropical Pacific forcings. The atmospheric response to the linear fit of the model’s empirical forcing associated with the SST variability in the second SVD modes strongly projects onto the AO. Idealized thermal forcings are then designed based on the regression of the seasonally averaged tropical Pacific precipitation against the AO index. Results indicate that forcing anomalies over the western tropical Pacific are more effective in generating an AO-like response while those over the eastern tropical Pacific tend to produce a Pacific-North American (PNA)-like response. The physical mechanisms responsible for the energy transport from the tropical Pacific to the extratropical North Atlantic are investigated using wave activity flux and vorticity forcing formalisms. The energy from the western tropical Pacific forcing tends to propagate zonally to the North Atlantic because of the jet stream waveguide effect while the transport of the energy from the eastern tropical Pacific forcing mostly concentrates over the PNA area. The linearized SGCM results show that nonlinear processes are involved in the generation of the forced AO-like pattern.     

North African climate variability. Part 1: Tropical thermocline coupling

Summary Tropical ocean thermocline variability is studied using gridded data assimilated by an ocean model in the period 1950–2000. The dominant patterns and variability are identified using EOF analysis applied to E–W depth slices of sea temperatures averaged over the tropics. After removing the annual cycle, an east–west ‘see-saw’ with an interannual to decadal rhythm is the leading mode in each of the tropical basins. In the case of the leading mode in the Pacific, the thermocline oscillation forms a dipole structure, but in the (east) Atlantic and (southwest) Indian Ocean there is a single center of action. The interaction of the ocean thermocline and atmospheric Walker circulations is studied through cross-modulus analysis of wavelet-filtered EOF time scores. Our study demonstrates how tropical ocean thermocline variability contributes to zonal circulation anomalies in the atmosphere. The equatorial Pacific thermocline oscillation explains 62 and 53% of the variability of the Pacific and Atlantic zonal overturning circulations, the latter driving convective polarity between North Africa and South America. The Pacific sea-saw leads the Atlantic zonal circulation by a few months.     

南极海冰涛动对北半球夏季大气环流的影响

南极海冰首要模态呈现偶极子型异常,正负异常中心分别位于别林斯高晋海/阿蒙森海和威德尔海。过去研究表明冬春季节南极海冰涛动异常对后期南极涛动（Antarctic Oscillation,AAO）型大气环流有显著影响,而AAO可以通过经向遥相关等机制影响北半球大气环流和东亚气候。本文中我们利用观测分析发现南极海冰涛动从5～7月（May–July,MJJ）到8～10月（August–October, ASO）有很好的持续性,并进一步分析其对北半球夏季大气环流的可能影响及其物理过程。结果表明,MJJ南极海冰涛动首先通过冰气相互作用在南半球激发持续性的AAO型大气环流异常,使得南半球中纬度和极地及热带之间的气压梯度加大,在MJJ至JAS,纬向平均纬向风呈现显著的正负相间的从南极到北极的经向遥相关型分布。对流层中层位势高度场上,在澳大利亚北部到海洋性大陆区域,出现显著的负异常,在东亚沿岸从低纬到高纬呈现南北走向的“? + ?”太平洋—日本（Pacific–Japan,PJ）遥相关波列,其对应赤道中部太平洋及赤道印度洋存在显著的降水和海温负异常,西北太平洋至我国东部沿海地区存在显著降水正异常和温度负异常;低纬度北美洲到大西洋一带存在的负位势高度异常和北大西洋附近存在的正位势高度异常中心,构成一个类似于西大西洋型遥相关（Western Atlantic,WA）的结构,对应赤道南大西洋降水增加和南撒哈拉地区降水减少。从物理过程来看,南极海冰涛动首先通过局地效应影响Ferrel环流,进而通过经圈环流调整使得海洋性大陆区域和热带大西洋上方的Hadley环流上升支得到增强,海洋性大陆区域特别是菲律宾附近的热带对流活动偏强,激发类似于负位相的PJ波列,影响东亚北太平洋地区的大气环流,而热带大西洋对流增强和北传特征,则通过激发WA遥相关影响大西洋和欧洲地区的大气环流。以上两种通道将持续性MJJ至ASO南极海冰涛动强迫的大气环流信号从南半球中高纬度经热带地区传递到北半球中高纬地区,从而对热带和北半球夏季大气环流产生显著影响。     

Impact of resolution and downscaling technique in simulating recent Atlantic tropical cylone activity

Using the global environmental multiscale (GEM) model, we investigate the impact of increasing model resolution from 2° to 0.3° on Atlantic tropical cyclone activity. There is a clear improvement in the realism of Atlantic storms with increased resolution, in part, linked to a better representation of African easterly waves. The geographical distribution of a Genesis Potential Index, composed of large-scales fields known to impact cyclone formation, coincides closely in the model with areas of high cyclogenesis. The geographical distribution of this index also improves with resolution. We then compare two techniques for achieving local high resolution over the tropical Atlantic: a limited-area model driven at the boundaries by the global 2° GEM simulation and a global variable resolution model (GVAR). The limited-area domain and high-resolution part of the GVAR model coincide geographically, allowing a direct comparison between these two downscaling options. These integrations are further compared with a set of limited-area simulations employing the same domain and resolution, but driven at the boundaries by reanalysis. The limited-area model driven by reanalysis produces the most realistic Atlantic tropical cyclone variability. The GVAR simulation is clearly more accurate than the limited-area version driven by GEM-Global. Degradation in the simulated interannual variability is partly linked to the models failure to accurately reproduce the impact of atmospheric teleconnections from the equatorial Pacific and Sahel on Atlantic cyclogenesis. Through the use of a smaller limited-area grid, driven by GEM-Global 2°, we show that an accurate representation of African Easterly Waves is crucial for simulating Atlantic tropical cyclone variability.     

Southern Hemisphere extra-tropical forcing: a new paradigm for El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation

The main goal of this paper is to shed additional light on the reciprocal dynamical linkages between mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere climate and the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) signal. While our analysis confirms that ENSO is a dominant source of interannual variability in the Southern Hemisphere, it is also suggested here that subtropical dipole variability in both the Southern Indian and Atlantic Oceans triggered by Southern Hemisphere mid-latitude variability may also provide a controlling influence on ENSO in the equatorial Pacific. This subtropical forcing operates through various coupled air?Csea feedbacks involving the propagation of subtropical sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies into the deep tropics of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans from boreal winter to boreal spring and a subsequent dynamical atmospheric response to these SST anomalies linking the three tropical basins at the beginning of the boreal spring. This atmospheric response is characterized by a significant weakening of the equatorial Atlantic and Indian Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). This weakened ITCZ forces an equatorial ??cold Kelvin wave?? response in the middle to upper troposphere that extends eastward from the heat sink regions into the western Pacific. By modulating the vertical temperature gradient and the stability of the atmosphere over the equatorial western Pacific Ocean, this Kelvin wave response promotes persistent zonal wind and convective anomalies over the western equatorial Pacific, which may trigger El Ni?o onset at the end of the boreal winter. These different processes explain why South Atlantic and Indian subtropical dipole time series indices are highly significant precursors of the Ni?o34 SST index several months in advance before the El Ni?o onset in the equatorial Pacific. This study illustrates that the atmospheric internal variability in the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere may significantly influence ENSO variability. However, this surprising relationship is observed only during recent decades, after the so-called 1976/1977 climate regime shift, suggesting a possible linkage with global warming or decadal fluctuations of the climate system.     

Signature of the Antarctic oscillation in the northern hemisphere

Using the ECWMF daily reanalysis data, this paper investigates signatures of the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) in the upper troposphere of the northern hemisphere. It is found that during boreal winter, a positive (negative) phase of the AAO is associated with anomalous easterlies (westerlies) in middle-low latitudes (~30–40°N) and anomalous westerlies (easterlies) in middle-high latitudes (~45–65°N) of the upper troposphere about 25–40 days later. While there is also a response in zonal wind in the tropics, namely over the central-eastern Pacific, to some extent, these tropical zonal wind anomalies can trigger a Pacific/North American teleconnection patterns (PNA)-like quasi-stationary Rossby waves that propagate into the Northern Hemisphere and gradually evolve into patterns which resemble North Atlantic teleconnection patterns. Furthermore, these quasi-stationary Rossby waves might give rise to anomalous eddy momentum flux convergence and divergence to accelerate anomalous zonal winds in the Northern Hemisphere.     

Annual ENSO simulated in a coupled ocean–atmosphere model

Using an output from 200-year integration of the Scale Interaction Experiment of EU project-F1 model (SINTEX-F1), the annual ENSO reproduced in the coupled general circulation model is investigated, suggesting the importance of reproducing an annual cycle in realistically simulating ENSO events. Although many features of the annual ENSO are reproduced, the northward expansion of sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) in the eastern tropical Pacific stays south of the equator. It is suggested that this model bias is due to the excitation of the too strong Rossby waves in the southeastern tropical Pacific, which reflect at the western boundary and intrude into the eastern equatorial Pacific. The zonal wind stress anomaly along the equator also plays an important role in generating the equatorial Kelvin waves. The amplitude of SSTA for the annual ENSO mode is reproduced, but its variance is only 20% of the observation; this is again due to the lack of northward migration of seasonal SSTA in the equatorial region and weaker coastal Kelvin waves along South America. Remedies for the model bias are discussed.     

Statistical models for predicting rainfall in the Caribbean

Summary Separate predictive models are created for the Caribbean early wet season (May–June–July) and late wet season (August–September–October). Simple correlations are used to select predictors for a Caribbean rainfall index and predictive equations are formulated using multiple linear regression. The process is repeated after long term trends are removed from the Caribbean rainfall index and the models validated using a number of statistical methods. Four variables are confirmed as predictors for the early season: Caribbean sea surface temperature anomalies, tropical North Atlantic sea level pressure anomalies, vertical shear anomalies in the equatorial Atlantic, and the size of the Atlantic portion of the Western Hemisphere Warm Pool. Only the first two are retained in the late season model. On the interannual time-scale, equatorial Pacific sea surface temperature anomalies become significant in both seasons. The NINO3 index is retained among the predictors for the early season, and zonal gradients of sea surface temperature between the equatorial Pacific and tropical Atlantic are retained for the late season. The results also indicate spatial variation in the importance of the seasonal predictors.     

El-Nino Southern Oscillation simulated and predicted in SNU coupled GCMs

The characteristics of the El-Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) simulated in free integrations using two versions of the Seoul National University (SNU) ocean–atmosphere coupled global climate model (CGCM) are examined. A revised version of the SNU CGCM is developed by incorporating a reduced air–sea coupling interval (from 1?day to 2?h), a parameterization for cumulus momentum transport, a minimum entrainment rate threshold for convective plumes, and a shortened auto-conversion time scale of cloud water to raindrops. With the revised physical processes, lower tropospheric zonal wind anomalies associated with the ENSO-related sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) are represented with more realism than those in the original version. From too weak, the standard deviation of SST over the eastern Pacific becomes too strong in the revised version due to the enhanced air–sea coupling strength and intraseasonal variability associated with ENSO. From the oceanic side, the stronger stratification and the shallower-than-observed thermocline over the eastern Pacific also contribute to the excessive ENSO. The impacts of the revised physical processes on the seasonal predictability are investigated in two sets of the hindcast experiment performed using the two versions of CGCMs. The prediction skill measured by anomaly correlation coefficients of monthly-mean SSTA shows that the new version has a higher skill over the tropical Pacific regions compared to the old version. The better atmospheric responses to the ENSO-related SSTA in the revised version lead to the basin-wide SSTA maintained and developed in a manner that is closer to observations. The symptom of an excessively strong ENSO of the new version in the free integration is not prominent in the hindcast experiment because the thermocline depth over the eastern Pacific is maintained as initialized over the arc of time of the hindcast (7?months).     

高低层纬向风切变的年际变率及气候学意义

用1959～1998共40年全球格点风场资料计算了200 hPa与850 hPa的纬向风速差, 即对流层纬向风切变(简称TZWS),并在此基础上得到其距平值。为了全面考察对流层中环流异常的年际变率特征, 根据TZWS的标准差分布, 文中选出了7个TZWS标准差数值大于5 m/s的代表性区域。这7个区域分别位于赤道中太平洋、赤道东太平洋、北太平洋亚热带地区、南太平洋亚热带地区、赤道大西洋、亚洲西南部以及东北部。前5个分别位于赤道、亚热带太平洋和大西洋的区域TZWS指数, 其年际变率与ENSO循环有密切联系, 反映了热带海洋温度异常对低纬度地区对流层环流的影响; 后2个区域的TZWS指数反映的是亚洲西南部和东北部的气候统变率, 在年际时间尺度上与ENSO循环有着明显的区别。通过对全球陆地降水和温度场的分析, 比较了热带、副热带的TZWS指数以及北极涛动指数的异同, 发现后2个区域TZWS指数能很好且能独立反映出北半球中高纬度地区陆地降水及陆地温度的异常模态。     

Asian summer monsoon prediction in ECMWF System 4 and NCEP CFSv2 retrospective seasonal forecasts

The seasonal prediction skill of the Asian summer monsoon is assessed using retrospective predictions (1982–2009) from the ECMWF System 4 (SYS4) and NCEP CFS version 2 (CFSv2) seasonal prediction systems. In both SYS4 and CFSv2, a cold bias of sea-surface temperature (SST) is found over the equatorial Pacific, North Atlantic, Indian Oceans and over a broad region in the Southern Hemisphere relative to observations. In contrast, a warm bias is found over the northern part of North Pacific and North Atlantic. Excessive precipitation is found along the ITCZ, equatorial Atlantic, equatorial Indian Ocean and the maritime continent. The southwest monsoon flow and the Somali Jet are stronger in SYS4, while the south-easterly trade winds over the tropical Indian Ocean, the Somali Jet and the subtropical northwestern Pacific high are weaker in CFSv2 relative to the reanalysis. In both systems, the prediction of SST, precipitation and low-level zonal wind has greatest skill in the tropical belt, especially over the central and eastern Pacific where the influence of El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is dominant. Both modeling systems capture the global monsoon and the large-scale monsoon wind variability well, while at the same time performing poorly in simulating monsoon precipitation. The Asian monsoon prediction skill increases with the ENSO amplitude, although the models simulate an overly strong impact of ENSO on the monsoon. Overall, the monsoon predictive skill is lower than the ENSO skill in both modeling systems but both systems show greater predictive skill compared to persistence.     

Interdecadal Enhancement of the Walker Circulation over the Tropical Pacific in the Late 1990s

The Walker circulation is one of the major components of the large-scale tropical atmospheric circulation and variations in its strength are critical to equatorial Pacific Ocean circulation.It has been argued in the literature that during the 20th century the Walker circulation weakened,and that this weakening was attributable to anthropogenic climate change.By using updated observations,we show that there has been a rapid interdecadal enhancement of the Walker circulation since the late 1990s.Associated with this enhancement is enhanced precipitation in the tropical western Pacific,anomalous westerlies in the upper troposphere,descent in the central and eastern tropical Pacific,and anomalous surface easterlies in the western and central tropical Pacific.The characteristics of associated oceanic changes are a strengthened thermocline slope and an enhanced zonal SST gradient across the tropical Pacific.Many characteristics of these changes are similar to those associated with the mid-1970s climate shift with an opposite sign.We also show that the interdecadal variability of the Walker circulation in the tropical Pacific is inversely correlated to the interdecadal variability of the zonal circulation in the tropical Atlantic.An enhancement of the Walker circulation in the tropical Pacific is associated with a weakening zonal circulation in the tropical Atlantic and vise versa,implying an inter-Atlantic-Pacific connection of the zonal overturning circulation variation.Whether these recent changes will be sustained is not yet clear,but our research highlights the importance of understanding the interdecadal variability,as well as the long-term trends,that influence tropical circulation.     

北半球500hPa 3—5年周期的初步研究

本文用带通时间滤波器，对北半球500hPa高度距平（从1951年1月—1986年12月共432个连续月）的每个格点的时间序列进行滤波计算，初步结果如下:1．北半球500 hPa普遍存在3—5年周期，该周期的相对方差都在30%以上。35°N以南相对方差可达50%以上，在太平洋、大西洋、欧亚低纬地区最大相对方差高于70%。2．3—5年周期的水平结构要比Wallace的遥相关型更具有波列结构，通过波列的射线路径可以把能量从低纬度频散到高纬度。3．从分析1982/1983 El Nino年个例可以看到，赤道东太平洋海水异常增暖对大气的影响，除了一般公认的通过PNA型影响北美外，可能还存在另一条路径。     

Origin of regional climate differences: role of boundary conditions and model formulation in two GCMs

Model differences in projections of extratropical regional climate change due to increasing greenhouse gases are investigated using two atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs): ECHAM4 (Max Planck Institute, version 4) and CCM3 (National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model version 3). Sea-surface temperature (SST) fields calculated from observations and coupled versions of the two models are used to force each AGCM in experiments based on time-slice methodology. Results from the forced AGCMs are then compared to coupled model results from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 2 (CMIP2) database. The time-slice methodology is verified by showing that the response of each model to doubled CO₂ and SST forcing from the CMIP2 experiments is consistent with the results of the coupled GCMs. The differences in the responses of the models are attributed to (1) the different tropical SST warmings in the coupled simulations and (2) the different atmospheric model responses to the same tropical SST warmings. Both are found to have important contributions to differences in implied Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter extratropical regional 500 mb height and tropical precipitation climate changes. Forced teleconnection patterns from tropical SST differences are primarily responsible for sensitivity differences in the extratropical North Pacific, but have relatively little impact on the North Atlantic. There are also significant differences in the extratropical response of the models to the same tropical SST anomalies due to differences in numerical and physical parameterizations. Differences due to parameterizations dominate in the North Atlantic. Differences in the control climates of the two coupled models from the current climate, in particular for the coupled model containing CCM3, are also demonstrated to be important in leading to differences in extratropical regional sensitivity.     

FGOALS模式4个版本太平洋年代际气候变率模拟的比较

本文选用中国科学院大气物理研究所大气科学和地球流体力学数值模拟国家重点实验室(LASG/IAP)发展的全球海洋—大气—陆面气候系统模式(FGOALS)的4个版本g2.0、s2.0、g1.1和g1,利用模式的长时间积分结果,结合观测、再分析资料比较、评估模式对太平洋年代际变率的模拟能力,并通过对海气相互作用及其海洋动力过程分析,探讨了模式中太平洋年代际振荡形成机制.研究发现,FGOALS 模式g2.0和s2.0版本对太平洋年代际振荡(PDO/IPO)的模拟能力优于 g1.1和g1.模式中太平洋年代际变率的正反馈过程与Bjerknes(1969)提出的海气相互作用正反馈机制有关,其负反馈则主要与海洋内部动力过程有关.太平洋异常经向热量输送将热带与中纬度海洋联系在一起,可以抑制正反馈作用,但无法使得年代际振荡变化位相发生反转;FGOALS模式中,热带海表温度(SST)暖距平信号通过大气桥影响热带外大气环流,在海气作用下,热带与热带外海洋次表层分别以Kelvin 波和Rossby 波的形式传播,使得冷暖位相反转,4个版本均能再现这种负反馈机制.但不同版本Rossby波所处的纬度不同,太平洋SST异常年代际变化信号最明显的范围越宽,则由此激发的Rossby 波便更为偏北,纬度越高Rossby 波西传的时间也越长,PDO/IPO的周期与其SST异常的经向尺度密切相关.     

Inverse relationship between the equatorial eastern Pacific annual-cycle and ENSO amplitudes in a coupled general circulation model

We propose a dynamical interpretation of the inverse relationship between the tropical eastern Pacific annual-cycle (AC) amplitude and the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) amplitude, based on a pre-industrial simulation of Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Couple climate model 2.0 with a fixed concentration of greenhouse gases spanning approximately 500 years. The slowly varying background conditions over more than a decade alternately provided favorable conditions for two opposite regimes, namely the ‘strong AC—weak ENSO regime’ and the ‘weak AC—strong ENSO regime’. For the weak AC—strong ENSO regime, the tropical eastern Pacific shows meridional-asymmetric surface warming with an emphasis on the southern part, leading to weakening of both the zonal trade wind and the cross equatorial southerly wind, as well as deepening of both the thermocline and mixed layer. The deeper mixed layer, weaker southerly wind, and reduced zonal gradient of the mean sea surface temperature due to tropical eastern Pacific warming all acts to reduce the AC. Conversely, the ENSO was intensified by the deeper mixed layer and deeper thermocline depth (thermocline feedback), but suppressed by the deeper thermocline depth (Ekman feedback) and the reduced zonal temperature gradient. We also computed the coupling strengths of the ENSO and AC, defined as the linear regression coefficients of the zonal and meridional wind stresses against the eastern Pacific SST, respectively. The coupling strengths of both the AC and ENSO are larger when they are intensified, and vice versa. All processes for the weak AC—strong ENSO regime operate in the opposite manner for the strong AC—weak ENSO regime.     

2000年北半球大气环流特征及其对中国气候的影响

2000年受La Nina结束后冷水事件的影响，北半球大气环充的要主特征表现为：500hPa东亚中纬度呈经，纬向环流交替分布，西太平洋副热带高压偏弱，偏北，偏东，热带对流活动冬季偏强，夏季偏弱，赤道辐合带偏弱，在上述大气环流的影响下，台风偏少，夏季主要多雨带位于黄河与长江之间，黄河以北地区干旱严重。     

Understanding and simulating the link between African easterly waves and Atlantic tropical cyclones using a regional climate model: the role of domain size and lateral boundary conditions

Using a suite of lateral boundary conditions, we investigate the impact of domain size and boundary conditions on the Atlantic tropical cyclone and african easterly Wave activity simulated by a regional climate model. Irrespective of boundary conditions, simulations closest to observed climatology are obtained using a domain covering both the entire tropical Atlantic and northern African region. There is a clear degradation when the high-resolution model domain is diminished to cover only part of the African continent or only the tropical Atlantic. This is found to be the result of biases in the boundary data, which for the smaller domains, have a large impact on TC activity. In this series of simulations, the large-scale Atlantic atmospheric environment appears to be the primary control on simulated TC activity. Weaker wave activity is usually accompanied by a shift in cyclogenesis location, from the MDR to the subtropics. All ERA40-driven integrations manage to capture the observed interannual variability and to reproduce most of the upward trend in tropical cyclone activity observed during that period. When driven by low-resolution global climate model (GCM) integrations, the regional climate model captures interannual variability (albeit with lower correlation coefficients) only if tropical cyclones form in sufficient numbers in the main development region. However, all GCM-driven integrations fail to capture the upward trend in Atlantic tropical cyclone activity. In most integrations, variations in Atlantic tropical cyclone activity appear uncorrelated with variations in African easterly wave activity.