Characteristics, Processes, and Causes of the Spatio-temporal Variabilities of the East Asian Monsoon System

Recent advances in the study of the characteristics, processes, and causesof spatio-temporal variabilities of the East Asian monsoon (EAM) system arereviewed in this paper. The understanding of the EAM system has improved inmany aspects: the basic characteristics of horizontal and verticalstructures, the annual cycle of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) systemand the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) system, the characteristics of thespatio-temporal variabilities of the EASM system and the EAWM system, andespecially the multiple modes of the EAM system and their spatio-temporalvariabilities. Some new results have also been achieved in understanding theatmosphere--ocean interaction and atmosphere--land interaction processesthat affect the variability of the EAM system. Based on recent studies, theEAM system can be seen as more than a circulation system, it can be viewedas an atmosphere--ocean--land coupled system, namely, the EAM climatesystem. In addition, further progress has been made in diagnosing theinternal physical mechanisms of EAM climate system variability, especiallyregarding the characteristics and properties of the East Asia-Pacific (EAP)teleconnection over East Asia and the North Pacific, the Silk Roadteleconnection along the westerly jet stream in the upper troposphere overthe Asian continent, and the dynamical effects of quasi-stationary planetarywave activity on EAM system variability. At the end of the paper, somescientific problems regarding understanding the EAM system variability areproposed for further study.