Relative contributions of the Tibetan Plateau thermal forcing and the Indian Ocean Sea surface temperature basin mode to the interannual variability of the East Asian summer monsoon

2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (9-10) ◽  
pp. 2697-2711 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Hu ◽  
Anmin Duan
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-42
Author(s):  
KUI LIU ◽  
LIAN-TONG ZHOU ◽  
ZHIBIAO WANG ◽  
YONG LIU ◽  
XIAOXUE YIN

AbstractThis study conducts correlation and regression analyses of the JRA-55 reanalysis data and observational rainfall datasets from China’s National Climate Center. The analyses reveal that interdecadal enhancement in the relationship between the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and the Indian Ocean Basin mode (IOBM) after the early 1990s, and the diminished correlation between the EASM and the Niño-3 index. The analyses also reveal that the relationship between EASM-related rainfall/circulation with IOBM also experienced an interdecadal shift at the same time. During the first epoch (1977–1989), EASM-related rainfall was correlated significantly with the Niño-3 index, and accompanied by a Pacific–Japan-like anomaly pattern of horizontal winds. In a subsequent epoch (1994–2014), EASM-related rainfall was correlated significantly with IOBM, and accompanied by a meridional dipole pattern in the horizontal winds. After the 1990s, IOBM exerted influence on EASM through land–sea thermal contrast, and the critical land area was the region 33°–47°N, 110°–140°E. The interdecadal strengthening in the EASM–IOBM linkage around the early 1990s may be attributable to a faster rate of decay of El Niño after the 1990s.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun-Hyeok Son ◽  
Kyong-Hwan Seo

Abstract From spring to summer, the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) rainband migrates northwestward. During summer, East Asian countries experience extensive precipitation due to the EASM rainband, but the springtime monsoon rainband lies over the Pacific. The seasonal evolution of the EASM rainband is influenced by the mechanical effect of the Tibetan Plateau, and seasonal changes in the westerly wind speeds impinging on the Tibetan Plateau are a key driver of this process. In this study, using interannual variability of the upstream zonal wind speed, the dynamical mechanism for the interannual variations of the EASM precipitation is revealed based on the topographically forced stationary Rossby wave theory. The dynamical mechanism regulating interannual variability in the EASM rainband is essentially the same mechanism that drives the seasonal evolution of the climatological EASM rainband. If the westerly winds impinging on the Tibetan Plateau are stronger (weaker) than average, then the EASM rainband shifts eastward (westward). Large variations in the upstream westerly wind during May induced considerable interannual variation in the zonal location of the rainband (up to a 20–30º shift). The westerly wind speed exhibited less variations in June and July, resulting in a smaller zonal shift of approximately 10º.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-36
Author(s):  
Soo-Hyun Seok ◽  
Kyong-Hwan Seo

AbstractRecent studies have highlighted that a primary mechanism of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) is the fluid dynamical response to the Tibetan Plateau (TP), that is, orographically forced Rossby waves. With this mechanism in mind, this study explores how changes in the location of the TP affect the EASM precipitation. Specifically, the TP is moved in the four cardinal directions using idealized general circulation model experiments. The results show that the monsoon aspects are entirely determined by the location of the TP. Interestingly, the strongest EASM precipitation occurs when the TP is situated near its current location, a situation in which downstream southerlies are well developed from the surface to aloft. However, southerlies into the EASM region weaken as the TP moves, which in turn reduces the precipitation. Nevertheless, as long as it moves in the east–west direction, the TP is likely to force the stationary waves that induce precipitation over the mid-latitudes (not necessarily over East Asia). In contrast, moving the TP well north of its original location does not induce strong monsoon flows over the EASM region, resulting in the driest case. Meanwhile, although the southward movement of the TP triggers downstream southerlies to some extent, it does not lead to an increase in the precipitation. Overall, these results show that the location of the TP is crucial in determining the EASM precipitation, and the latter is much more sensitive to the displacement of the TP in the meridional direction than in the zonal direction.


2014 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 3052-3072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinqiang Chen ◽  
Simona Bordoni

Abstract This paper investigates the dynamical processes through which the Tibetan Plateau (TP) influences the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) within the framework of the moist static energy (MSE) budget, using both observations and atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) simulations. The focus is on the most prominent feature of the EASM, the so-called meiyu–baiu (MB), which is characterized by a well-defined, southwest–northeast elongated quasi-stationary rainfall band, spanning from eastern China to Japan and into the northwestern Pacific Ocean between mid-June and mid-July. Observational analyses of the MSE budget of the MB front indicate that horizontal advection of moist enthalpy, and primarily of dry enthalpy, sustains the front in a region of otherwise negative net energy input into the atmospheric column. A decomposition of the horizontal dry enthalpy advection into mean, transient, and stationary eddy fluxes identifies the longitudinal thermal gradient due to zonal asymmetries and the meridional stationary eddy velocity as the most influential factors determining the pattern of horizontal moist enthalpy advection. Numerical simulations in which the TP is either retained or removed show that the TP influences the stationary enthalpy flux, and hence the MB front, primarily by changing the meridional stationary eddy velocity, with reinforced southerly wind over the MB region and northerly wind to its north. Changes in the longitudinal thermal gradient are mainly confined to the near downstream of the TP, with the resulting changes in zonal warm air advection having a lesser impact on the rainfall in the extended MB region.


2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (18) ◽  
pp. 7945-7965 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. H. Chiang ◽  
W. Kong ◽  
C. H. Wu ◽  
D. S. Battisti

AbstractThe East Asian summer monsoon is unique among summer monsoon systems in its complex seasonality, exhibiting distinct intraseasonal stages. Previous studies have alluded to the downstream influence of the westerlies flowing around the Tibetan Plateau as key to its existence. We explore this hypothesis using an atmospheric general circulation model that simulates the intraseasonal stages with fidelity. Without a Tibetan Plateau, East Asia exhibits only one primary convective stage typical of other monsoons. As the plateau is introduced, the distinct rainfall stages—spring, pre-mei-yu, mei-yu, and midsummer—emerge, and rainfall becomes more intense overall. This emergence coincides with a pronounced modulation of the westerlies around the plateau and extratropical northerlies penetrating northeastern China. The northerlies meridionally constrain the moist southerly flow originating from the tropics, leading to a band of lower-tropospheric convergence and humidity front that produces the rainband. The northward migration of the westerlies away from the northern edge of the plateau leads to a weakening of the extratropical northerlies, which, coupled with stronger monsoonal southerlies, leads to the northward migration of the rainband. When the peak westerlies migrate north of the plateau during the midsummer stage, the extratropical northerlies disappear, leaving only the monsoon low-level circulation that penetrates northeastern China; the rainband disappears, leaving isolated convective rainfall over northeastern China. In short, East Asian rainfall seasonality results from the interaction of two seasonally evolving circulations—the monsoonal southerlies that strengthen and extend northward, and the midlatitude northerlies that weaken and eventually disappear—as summer progresses.


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