Influence of Soil Moisture in Eastern China on the East Asian Summer Monsoon

The sensitivity of the East Asian summer monsoon to soil moisture anomalies over China was investigated based on ensembles of seasonal simulations （March-September） using the NCEP GCM coupled with the Simplified Simple Biosphere Model （NCEP GCM/SSiB）. After a control experiment with free-running soil moisture, two ensembles were performed in which the soil moisture over the vast region from the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River valley to North China （YRNC） was double and half that in the control, with the maximum less than the field capacity. The simulation results showed significant sensitivity of the East Asian summer monsoon to wet soil in YRNC. The wetter soil was associated with increased surface latent heat flux and reduced surface sensible heat flux. In turn, these changes resulted in a wetter and colder local land surface and reduced land-sea temperature gradients, corresponding to a weakened East Asian monsoon circulation in an anomalous anticyclone over southeastern China, and a strengthened East Asian trough southward over Northeast China. Consequently, less precipitation appeared over southeastern China and North China and more rainfall over Northeast China. The weakened monsoon circulation and strengthened East Asian trough was accompanied by the convergence of abnormal northerly and southerly flow over the Yangtze River valley, resulting in more rainfall in this region. In the drier soil experiments, less precipitation appeared over YRNC. The East Asian monsoon circulation seems to show little sensitivity to dry soil anomalies in NCEP GCM/SSiB.

保持土壤湿度对减缓气候变化重要性

A troubling feedback loop, where drier soil contributes to hotter climates, has been widely recognized.This study, drawing on climate model simulations, reveals that maintaining current global soil moisture levels could significantly alleviate 32.9% of land warming under low-emission scenarios. This action could also postpone reaching critical warming thresholds of 1.5 °C and 2.0 °C by at least a decade. Crucially,preserving soil moisture at current levels could prevent noticeable climate change impacts across 42%of the Earth's land, a stark deviation from projections suggesting widespread impacts before the 2060s.To combat soil drying, afforestation in mid-to-low latitude regions within the next three decades is proposed as an effective strategy to increase surface water availability. This underscores the substantial potential of nature-based solutions for managing soil moisture, benefiting both climate change mitigation and ecological enhancement.

Evolution characteristics of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and its thermodynamic and dynamic effects on surface air temperature in the Northern Hemisphere

Based on modern observations,historical proxy data,and climate model simulations,this paper provides a comprehensive overview of the past,present and future evolution characteristics of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation(AMOC),as well as its impact on the surface air temperature(SAT)at regional and hemispherical scales.The reconstruction results based on the proxy data indicate that the AMOC has weakened since the late 19th century and experienced overall weakening throughout the 20th century with low confidence.Direct observations show that the AMOC weakened during 2004–2016,but it is not possible to distinguish between its decadal variability and long-term trend.Climate models predict that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase,AMOC will weaken in the future,but there will not be a sudden collapse before 2100.For the thermodynamic effects of AMOC,the increased surface heat flux release and meridional heat transport(MHT)over the North Atlantic associated with the strong AMOC cause an increase in the hemispherical SAT.At the millennial scale,climate cooling(warming)periods correspond to a weakened(strengthened)AMOC.The enhanced MHT of a strong AMOC can affect Arctic warming and thus influence regional SAT anomalies and SAT extremes through mutual feedback between Arctic sea ice and AMOC.In terms of dynamic effects,a strong AMOC modulates the Rossby wave trains originating from the North Atlantic and spreading across mid-to-high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere and causes an increase in the variabilities in the circulation anomalies over the Ural and Siberian regions.Ultimately,a strong AMOC significantly affects the frequencies of extreme cold and warm events in the mid-to-high latitude regions over Eurasia.In addition,AMOC can also influence regional and global SAT anomalies through its dynamic adjustment of planetary-scale circulation.Decadal variation in AMOC is closely related to the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation(AMO).During positive phases of AMO and AMOC,enhanced surface heat fluxes over the North Atlantic lead to abnormal warming in the Northern Hemisphere,while during negative phases,the reverse case occurs.Under high emission scenarios in the future,the possibility of AMOC collapse increases due to freshwater forcing.However,most advanced climate models underestimate the strength of the AMOC and its impact on the AMO and relevant climate change,which presents a major challenge for future understanding and prediction of the AMOC and its climate effects.

The decadal abrupt change in the global land vapor pressure deficit

The vapor pressure deficit(VPD) is an important variable used to characterize atmospheric aridity.This paper analyses the spatial and temporal characteristics of the decadal abrupt change(DAC) in the global land VPD after 1980 using monthly scale data from the Climatic Research Unit.The results show that 60.5% of the global land area underwent a significantly increased decadal abrupt change(IDAC) in the VPD,and the persistent IDAC of the VPD was obvious in the middle and low latitudes of Eurasia,Africa and parts of South America but not in central North America or Western Siberia.From 1980 to 2020,most regions experienced no more than two persistent IDACs,while more than two significant increases occurred mainly around the Mediterranean and in eastern South America.The persistent IDAC occurred relatively early in the middle and low latitudes of Eurasia,Africa,and eastern South America and after 2000 in the high latitude regions,Eastern Europe,and near the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.The regions where the persistent IDAC lasted longer than 10 years mainly included North Africa,West Asia,eastern South America,and parts of East Asia,indicating that the persistent increases in atmospheric aridity in these regions were obvious.In general,the persistent IDAC that began in 1993–2000 was significantly more than that occurred in other periods and lasted longer than that before 1990,suggesting that the land area experiencing an abrupt increase has an expansion after the 1990s and that the role of water limitation in this persistent IDAC in Central Asia and most of China strengthened.In addition,the VPD showed another large-scale persistent IDAC over the global land region in 2009,indicating that global atmospheric aridity intensified over the last decade.At the same time,in a few global regions,the VPD has exhibited decreased decadal abrupt changes(DDACs) with durations shorter than 2 years.

Review of Chinese atmospheric science research over the past 70 years: Climate and climate change

Climate and climate change have always been a research focus of atmospheric sciences. This paper summaries research efforts, achievements and international contributions of the Chinese scientific community on climate and climate change over the past 70 years. The review is based on papers published officially in national or international scientific journals,and is organized to cover six aspects:(1) general climate studies;(2) impact of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau;(3) impact of the East Asian monsoon;(4) influences of teleconnection oscillation and westerlies;(5) climate dynamics and development of climate models;and(6) climate change. It is, however, to be noted that the present review can not be considered as an exhaustive one, since there is a huge body of literature in the field.

Changing structures of summertime heatwaves over China during 1961–2017

Despite the prevalence of artificial separation of daytime and nighttime hot extremes, they may actually co-occur or occur sequentially. Considering their potential lead-lag configuration, this study identified an entire heatwave period as consecutive days with either daytime or nighttime hot extremes and investigated the changes of the prevalence and sequence of daytime and nighttime hot extremes during heatwaves over China from 1961 to 2017. It was found that the majority(82%) of heatwaves were compound heatwaves that had both daytime and nighttime hot extremes exceeding the 90 th percentile-based thresholds, while only 7%(11%) were purely daytime(nighttime) heatwaves that contained only daytime(nighttime) hot extremes. During the entire periods of compound heatwaves, daytime hot extremes usually occurred one day or a few days before nighttime hot extremes, which was in accordance with the daily variations in radiation and meteorological conditions, such as the increasing surface humidity and cloud cover, and decreasing solar radiation during the entire heatwave periods. From 1961 to2017, compound heatwave numbers exhibited the sharpest increase with a statistically significant trend of 0.44 times decade-1, in contrast to an insignificant trend of 0.00 times decade-1 for purely daytime heatwaves and a significant trend of 0.09 times decade-1 for purely nighttime heatwaves. Within the compound heatwave periods, hot nights were starting earlier and ending later, and numbers of concurrent daytime-nighttime hot extremes increased significantly at 0.20 days decade-1. In particular,urban area were not only subject to increasingly more frequent and longer compound heatwaves, but also to more occurrences of concurrent daytime-nighttime hot extremes with more serious impact. This study provides instructions for researchers to customize and select appropriate heatwave indices.

Comparison of the effects of soil moisture and El Nino on summer precipitation in eastern China

The effects of spring soil moisture over the vast region from the lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River valley to North China(YRNC) and El Ni?o on the East Asian summer monsoon(EASM) and precipitation in eastern China, as well as the relevant mechanisms, are investigated using the modified atmospheric model ECHAM5 coupled with the Common Land Model. These models are the atmospheric and land components of the climate system model developed at the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences(CAMS-CSM). The simulations show that both soil moisture anomalies in eastern China and El Ni?o sea surface temperature(SST) anomalies have significant influences on the EASM, with the effect of soil moisture being slightly greater than that of the El Ni?o. However, the impacts of soil moisture on EASM and rainfall in eastern China are markedly different from those of the El Ni?o. Wetter(drier) soil over the YRNC corresponds to less(more) precipitation over northern and southeastern China, and more(less) precipitation over the Yangtze River basin and northeastern China, as well as a strengthened(weakened) and westward-shifted(eastward-shifted) West Pacific Subtropical High and a deepened(shallower) East Asian trough, representing a weakened(strengthened) EASM pattern. During El Ni?o developing summers, an anomalous anticyclone extends from northeastern to northern China, and an anomalous cyclone occupies the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and southern China. Concurrently, the West Pacific Subtropical High is anomalously weaker than normal. As a result,rainfall anomalously increases over the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and southern China, and decreases over northern and northeastern China. In El Ni?o decaying summers, there is an anomalous cyclone over northeastern China and an anomalous anticyclone over southern China. The convergence of southerly airflow and northerly winds leads to enhanced rainfall around northern China and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and reduced rainfall over other regions.

Role of the warming trend in global land surface air temperature variations

Global warming and its climatic and environmental effects have mainly been investigated in terms of the absolute warming rate.Little attention has been paid to the contribution of absolute warming rate to variability on various time scales of surface air temperature(SAT),which may be a more direct index for measuring the ecoclimatic effect of warming trend.The present study analyzed the role of secular warming trend in the variations of global land SAT for 1901–2016.Less than one-third of annual SAT variations were contributed by the warming trend over large parts of the globe generally.The ratios were up to two-thirds over eastern South America,parts of South Africa and the regions around the southwestern Mediterranean and Sunda islands where the absolute warming rate was moderate but the endemic species were undergoing exceptional loss of habitat.The ratios also exhibited smallest seasonal difference over these regions.Therefore,the ratio of the warming trend to the SAT variations may be a better measure compared to the absolute warming rate for the local ecoclimate.We should also pay more attention to the regions with high ratio,not only the regions with the high absolute warming rate.

Variations of widespread extreme cold and warm days in winter over China and their possible causes

The two leading modes of winter surface air temperature(SAT) over China during 1961–2017 are a spatially consistent pattern and a north-south dipole pattern. Based on the two leading modes, the characteristics of the extreme cold and warm days in the two patterns, defined by the standard deviation larger than 1.28 or smaller than-1.28 in the time series of the two leading modes, are analyzed. With the increase of winter SAT during 1961–2017, the number of spatially consistent extreme cold days decreased and their occurrence was restricted to late December to early January, whereas the number of spatially consistent extreme warm days increased significantly in January and February. Global warming is associated with an increase in the spatially consistent extreme warm days and a decrease in spatially consistent extreme cold days, but has little relation to the sum of extreme cold and warm days of either the spatially consistent or north-south dipole pattern. The Siberian High(SH) is the main factor controlling the sum of spatially consistent extreme warm and cold days. The strong(weak) SH before(after) the1990 s corresponds to an increase(decrease) in the sum of the spatially consistent extreme warm and cold days. The occurrences of extreme south-cold-north-warm and extreme south-warm-north-cold days are related to the north-south difference of the SH.When the center of the SH is in mid-high latitudes, the extreme south-warm-north-cold(south-cold-north-warm) days occur more(less) often. During the winters of 1961–2017, the total number of extreme cold and warm days of the north-south dipole pattern changes negligibly. The North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation(AMOC) may be the main factor affecting the sum of the extreme cold and warm days of the two types of SAT pattern in China.