The linkage between the Asian-Pacific oscillation （APO） and the precipitation over central eastern China in spring is preliminarily addressed by use of the observed data. Results show that they correlate very well, with the positive （negative） phase of APO tending to increase （decrease） the precipitation over central eastern China. Such a relationship can be explained by the atmospheric circulation changes over Asia and the North Pacific in association with the anomalous APO. A positive phase of APO, characterized by a positive anomaly over Asia and a negative anomaly over the North Pacific in the upper-tropospheric temperature, corresponds to decreased low-level geopotential height （H） and increased high-level H over Asia, and these effects are concurrent with increased low-level H and decreased high-level H over the North Pacific. Meanwhile, an anticyclonic circulation anomaly in the upper troposphere and a cyclonic circulation anomaly in the lower troposphere are introduced in East Asia, and the low-level southerly wind is strengthened over central eastern China. These changes provide advantageous conditions for enhanced precipitation over central eastern China. The situation is reversed in the negative phase of APO, leading to reduced precipitation in this region.
The vertical structures of atmospheric temperature anomalies associated with El Nio are simulated with a spectrum atmospheric general circulation model developed by LASG/IAP （SAMIL）. Sensitivity of the model’s response to convection scheme is discussed. Two convection schemes, i.e., the revised Zhang and Macfarlane （RZM） and Tiedtke （TDK） convection schemes, are employed in two sets of AMIP-type （Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project） SAMIL simulations, respectively. Despite some deficiencies in the upper troposphere, the canonical El Nio-related temperature anomalies characterized by a prevailing warming throughout the tropical troposphere are well reproduced in both simulations. The performance of the model in reproducing temperature anomalies in ＂atypical＂ El Nio events is sensitive to the convection scheme. When employing the RZM scheme, the warming center over the central-eastern tropical Pacific and the strong cooling in the western tropical Pacific at sea surface level are underestimated. The quadru-pole temperature anomalies in the middle and upper troposphere are also obscured. The result of employing the TDK scheme resembles the reanalysis and hence shows a better performance. The simulated largescale circulations associated with atypical El Nio events are also sensitive to the convection schemes. When employing the RZM scheme, SAMIL failed in capturing the classical Southern Oscillation pattern. In accordance with the unrealistic anomalous Walker circulation and the upper tropospheric zonal wind changes, the deficiencies of the precipitation simulation are also evident. These results demonstrate the importance of convection schemes in simulating the vertical structure of atmospheric temperature anomalies associated with El Nio and should serve as a useful reference for future improvement of SAMIL.
During the past decades, concurrent with global warming, most of global oceans, particularly the tropical Indian Ocean, have become warmer. Meanwhile, the Southern Hemispheric stratospheric polar vortex (SPV) exhibits a deepening trend. Although previous modeling studies reveal that radiative cooling effect of ozone depletion plays a dominant role in causing the deepening of SPV, the simulated ozone-depletion-induced SPV deepening is stronger than the observed. This suggests that there must be other factors canceling a fraction of the influence of the ozone depletion. Whether the tropical Indian Ocean warming (IOW) is such a factor is unclear. This issue is addressed by conducting ensemble atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) experiments. And one idealized IOW with the amplitude as the observed is prescribed to force four AGCMs. The results show that the IOW tends to warm the southern polar stratosphere, and thus weakens SPV in austral spring to summer. Hence, it offsets a fraction of the effect of the ozone depletion. This implies that global warming will favor ozone recovery, since a warmer southern polar stratosphere is un-beneficial for the formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs), which is a key factor to ozone depletion chemical reactions.
LI ShuangLin Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
This study investigates the relationship between the summer North Atlantic Oscillation （SNAO） and the simultaneous Northern Hemisphere （NH） land surface air temperature （SAT） by using the Climate Research Unit （CRU） data. The results show that the SNAO is related to NH land SAT, but this linkage has varied on decadal timescales over the last 52 years, with a strong connection appearing after the late 1970s, but a weak connection before. The mechanism governing the relationship between the SNAO and NH land SAT is discussed based on the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. The results indicate that such a variable relationship may result from changes of the SNAO mode around the late 1970s. The SNAO pattern was centered mainly over the North Atlantic before the late 1970s, and thus had a weak influence on the NH land SAT. But after the late 1970s, the SNAO pattern shifted eastward and its southern center was enhanced in magnitude and extent, which transported the SNAO signal to the North Atlantic surrounding continents and even to central East Asia via an upper level wave train along the Asian jet.
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation （AMOC） transports a large amount of heat to northern high latitudes, playing an important role in the global climate change. Investigation of the freshwater perturbation in North Atlantic （NA） has become one of the hot topics in the recent years. In this study, the mechanism and pathway of meridional ocean heat transport （OHT） under the enhanced freshwater input to the northern high latitudes in the Atlantic are investigated by an ocean-sea ice-atmosphere coupled model. The results show that the anomalous OHT in the freshwater experiment （FW） is dominated by the meridional circulation kinetic and ocean thermal processes. In the FW, OHT drops down during the period of weakened AMOC while the upper tropical ocean turns warmer due to the retained NA warm currents. Conversely, OHT recovers as the AMOC recovers, and the mechanism can be generalized as： 1） increased ocean heat content in the tropical Southern Ocean during the early integration provides the thermal condition for the recovery of OHT in NA; 2） the OttT from the Southern Ocean enters the NA through the equator along the deep Ekman layer; 3） in NA, the recovery of OHT appears mainly along the isopycnic layers of 24.70- 25.77 below the mixing layer. It is then transported into the mixing layer from the ＂outcropping points＂ in northern high latitudes, and finally released to the atmosphere by the ocean-atmosphere heat exchange.
