Ocean mesoscale structure–induced air–sea interaction in a high-resolution coupled model

Using the Community Earth System Model framework, the authors build a very-high-resolution quasi-global coupled model by coupling an eddy-resolving quasi-global ocean model with a high-resolution atmospheric model. The model is successfully run for six years under present climate conditions, and the simulations are evaluated against observational and reanalysis data.The model is capable of simulating large-scale oceanic and atmospheric circulation patterns, sea surface temperature(SST) fronts, oceanic eddy kinetic energy, and fine-scale structures of surface winds. The ocean mesoscale structure–induced air–sea interaction characteristics are explored in detail. The model can effectively reproduce positive correlations between SST and surface wind stress induced by mesoscale structures through comparison with observations. The positive correlation is particularly significant over regions with strong oceanic fronts and eddies.However, the responses of wind stress to eddy-induced SST are weaker in the simulation than in the observations, although different magnitudes exist in different areas. Associated with weak wind responses, surface sensible heat flux responses to eddy-induced SST are underestimated slightly, while surface latent heat flux responses are overestimated because of the drier atmospheric boundary layers in the model. Both momentum mixing and pressure adjustment mechanisms play important roles in surface wind changes over oceanic fronts and eddies in the high-resolution model.

Impact of Surface Sensible Heating over the Tibetan Plateau on the Western Pacific Subtropical High: A Land–Air–Sea Interaction Perspective

The impact of surface sensible heating over the Tibetan Plateau （SHTP） on the western Pacific subtropical high （WPSH） with and without air-sea interaction was investigated in this study. Data analysis indicated that SHTP acts as a relatively independent factor in modulating the WPSH anomaly compared with ENSO events. Stronger spring SHTP is usually fol- lowed by an enhanced and westward extension of the WPSH in summer, and vice versa. Numerical experiments using both an AGCM and a CGCM confirmed that SHTP influences the large-scale circulation anomaly over the Pacific, which features a barotropic anticyclonic response over the northwestern Pacific and a cyclonic response to the south. Owing to different background circulation in spring and summer, such a response facilitates a subdued WPSH in spring but an en- hanced WPSH in summer. Moreover, the CGCM results showed that the equatorial low-level westerly at the south edge of the cyclonic anomaly brings about a warm SST anomaly （SSTA） in the equatorial central Pacific via surface warm advection. Subsequently, an atmospheric Rossby wave is stimulated to the northwest of the warm SSTA, which in turn enhances the at- mospheric dipole anomalies over the western Pacific. Therefore, the air-sea feedbacks involved tend to reinforce the effect of SHTP on the WPSH anomaly, and the role of SHTP on general circulation needs to be considered in a land-air-sea interaction framework.

Weak ENSO Asymmetry Due to Weak Nonlinear Air–Sea Interaction in CMIP5 Climate Models

State-of-the-art climate models have long-standing intrinsic biases that limit their simulation and projection capabilities. Significantly weak ENSO asymmetry and weakly nonlinear air-sea interaction over the tropical Pacific was found in CMIP5 （Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 5） climate models compared with observation. The results suggest that a weak nonlinear air-sea interaction may play a role in the weak ENSO asymmetry. Moreover, a weak nonlinearity in air-sea interaction in the models may be associated with the biases in the mean climate--the cold biases in the equatorial central Pacific. The excessive cold tongue bias pushes the deep convection far west to the western Pacific warm pool region and suppresses its development in the central equatorial Pacific. The deep convection has difficulties in further moving to the eastern equatorial Pacific, especially during extreme El Nifio events, which confines the westerly wind anomaly to the western Pacific. This weakens the eastern Pacific El Nifio events, especially the extreme E1 Nifio events, and thus leads to the weakened ENSO asymmetry in climate models. An accurate mean state structure （especially a realistic cold tongue and deep convection） is critical to reproducing ENSO events in climate models. Our evaluation also revealed that ENSO statistics in CMIP5 climate models are slightly improved compared with those of CMIP3. The weak ENSO asymmetry in CMIP5 is closer to the observation. It is more evident in CMIP5 that strong ENSO activities are usually accompanied by strong ENSO asymmetry, and the diversity of ENSO amplitude is reduced.

A Review of Research on Tropical Air–Sea Interaction, ENSO Dynamics, and ENSO Prediction in China

Remarkable progress has been made in observations,theories,and simulations of the ocean–atmosphere system,laying a solid foundation for the improvement of short-term climate prediction,among which Chinese scientists have made important contributions.This paper reviews Chinese research on tropical air–sea interaction,ENSO dynamics,and ENSO prediction in the past 70 years.Review of the tropical air–sea interaction mainly focuses on four aspects:characteristics of the tropical Pacific climate system and ENSO;main modes of tropical Indian Ocean SSTs and their interactions with the tropical Pacific;main modes of tropical Atlantic SSTs and inter-basin interactions;and influences of the mid–high-latitude air–sea system on ENSO.Review of the ENSO dynamics involves seven aspects:fundamental theories of ENSO;diagnosis and simulation of ENSO;the two types of ENSO;mechanisms of ENSO initiation;the interactions between ENSO and other phenomena;external forcings and teleconnections;and climate change and the ENSO response.The ENSO prediction part briefly summarizes the dynamical–statistical methods used in ENSO prediction,as well as the operational ENSO prediction systems and their applications.Lastly,we discuss some of the issues in these areas that are in need of further study.

SPATIAL PATTERN OF THE AIR-SEA INTERACTION NEAR THE SOUTH CHINA SEA DURING WINTER

This paper delineates the coupled and principal pattrns of sea surface temperture (SST) and surface wind near the South China Sea (SCS), and discusses the mechanisms of air-sea coupling near the SCS and their asspcoiation with the Asian monsoon. Singular value decomposition (SVD) and single field principal component analysis (PCA) are applied to the so and wind anomalies from the 1979 - 1995 NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data.The leading SVD mode explains a predominant amount of squared covariance between the SST and zonal or meridional wind. During winte, the meridional wind’s relation to the SST is betterr than the relation of zonal wind to ase. Despite the large magnitude of the squared covariance between SST and zonalor meridional wind, the spatial patterns of the first mode of SVD between the SST and meridional wind are similar. They both exhibit ellipe-shaped variance with the center near the SCS and a northeast-southwest oriented main axis. The spatial patterne of the leading mode of SVD between the SST and zonal wind are also similar to a certain degree. The zonal wind is not as closely correlated to the SST as the meridional wind is. These results suggest that the meridional wind and SST are stronly coupled during the winter season, and that there is a certain coupled action system in the SCS.

Air-sea Interaction of Typhoon Sinlaku (2002) Simulated by the Canadian MC2 Model

Three experiments for the simulation of typhoon Sinlaku （2002） over the western North Pacific are performed in this study by using the Canadian Mesoscale Compressible Community （MC2） atmospheric model. The objective of these simulations is to investigate the air-sea interaction during extreme weather conditions, and to determine the sensitivity of the typhoon evolution to the sea surface temperature （SST） cooling induced by the typhoon. It is shown from the three experiments that the surface heat fluxes have a substantial influence on the slow-moving cyclone over its lifetime. When the SST in the East China coastal ocean becomes 1℃ cooler in the simulation, less latent heat and sensible heat fluxes from the underlying ocean to the cyclone tend to reduce the typhoon intensity. The cyclone is weakened by 7 hPa at the time of its peak intensity. The SST cooling also has impacts on the vertical structure of the typhoon by weakening the warm core and drying the eye wall. With a finer horizontal resolution of （1/6）° × （1/6）°, the model produces higher surface wind, and therefore more surface heat fluxes are emitted from the ocean surface to the cyclone, in the finer-resolution MC2 grid compared with the relatively lower resolution of 0.25° × 0.25° MC2 grid.

CISK Kelvin Wave with Evaporation-Wind Feedbackand Air-Sea Interaction-A Further Study ofTropical Intraseasonal Oscillation Mechanism

The wave-CISK (cumulus convection heating feedback), the air-sea interaction and the evaporation-wind feedback are together introduced into a simple theoretical model, in order to understand their effect on driving tropical atmospheric intraseasonal oscillation (ISO). The results showed that among the introduced dynamical processes the wave-CISK plays a major role in reducing phase speed of the wave to be closer to the observed tropical ISO. While the evaporation-wind feedback plays a major role in unstabilizing the wave. The air-sea interaction has certain effect on slowing down the phase speed of the wave. Therefore, the wave-CISK and evaporation-wind feedback can be regarded as fundamental dynamical mechanism of the tropical ISO. This study also shows that since the effects of the evaporation-wind feedback and the air-sea interaction were introduced, the excited wave is zonally dispersive, which can dynamically explain the activity feature of the observed ISO in the tropical atmosphere very well.

The Weather Temperature and Air Pollution Interaction and Its Effect on Hospital Admissions due to Respiratory System Diseases in Western China

Air pollution has ever become a global major public health problem.Previous studies showed that air pollution is associated with excessive mortality and morbidity of respiratory disease[1-2].The extreme weather temperature can impact human health and the thermal stresses can lead not only to direct deaths and illnesses,but also to aggravation of respiratory disease[3-4].Though the independent

SEASONAL DEPENDENCE OF LOCAL AIR-SEA INTERACTION OVER THE TROPICAL WESTERN PACIFIC WARM POOL

Based on the air-sea interface heat fluxes and related meteorological variables datasets recently released by Objectively Analyzed Air-Sea Fluxes(OA Flux) Project of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,as well as the outgoing longwave radiation and surface wind datasets from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,the seasonal dependence of local air-sea interaction over the tropical western Pacific warm pool(referred to the region(1o-6oN,144o-154oE)) is revealed and the probable impacts of remote forcing on the air-sea interaction are examined.The results indicated the dominance of oceanic forcing with the significant impact of ENSO in March and that of atmospheric feedback without notable influence of remote forcing in June.While the interannual variability of sea surface temperature anomaly(SSTA) is larger than that of SSTA tendency when oceanic forcing is dominant,the opposite is true when atmospheric feedback is dominant.The magnitude of the oceanic forcing of the atmosphere tends to decrease in March with the occurrence of ENSO,though ENSO has little influence on the atmospheric feedback to the ocean in June.The local air-sea interaction is substantially the same before and after the removal of the effect of Indian Oceanic Dipole.The reduction of shortwave radiation fluxes into the western Pacific warm pool,due to the enhanced overlaying convection in March associated with ENSO,leads to the decline of SST tendency that will weaken the oceanic forcing of the atmosphere.

KEY AREAS OF AIR-SEA INTERACTION IN GLOBAL OCEANS AND STUDY OF THE CLIMATOLOGICAL FEATURES

Seven key areas of air-sea interaction in the global oceans are determined by comprehensive analysis of the global data of monthly mean sea surface temperature (SST), surface wind, temperature, humidity, sea surface sensible heat and latent heat fluxes. The time-lag correlation between SST and each atmospheric element in each key area are focally analyzed to expose the same and the different features of air-sea interaction in different key areas. The results show that the air-sea thermal interaction is strong in each area, SST, tem-perature and humidity can be fairly replaced with one another, particularly in the central eastern Pacific and the south India Ocean. The dynamic effect on SST is different in different areas and in the central western Pacific such effect is more important. The correlation between sensible heat, latent heat and SST is more significant in the eastern Pacific, the western Pacific and the two major monsoon areas — the northwestern Pacific and the south India Ocean. By analyzing the sustainable correlation probability of SST and every atmospheric element in each key area, we further know that the anomalies of which element, in which area and in which period are well sustained or easily destroyed. This is beneficial not only to prediction, but also to discussion of the physical mechanism of air-sea interaction.

IMPACT OF AIR-SEA INTERACTION ON THE GENESIS OF TROPICAL INCIPIENT VORTEX OVER SOUTH CHINA SEA： A CASE STUDY

Based on 6-hourly sensible heat flux and latent heat flux from the NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis(CFSR) and circulation data from the Japanese 25-year Reanalysis(JRA-25),the initial developing process of tropical cyclone Mindulle(1005) in 2010 has been diagnosed to reveal the impact of air-sea interaction over the South China Sea(SCS) on the genesis of its incipient vortex.The results show that the incipient vortex first occurred east of the Luzon Island on 0000 UTC 20 August,suggesting that the topographic forcing of the Luzon Island for easterly winds over the western Pacific might be one of the factors responsible for the formation of the incipient vortex.During the formation stage of the incipient vortex,strong southeasterlies over the SCS caused warm water of the middle and eastern SCS to flow toward the Luzon Island due to Ekman transport resulting from wind stress,leading to an increase of the sea surface temperature and sensible heat flux into the atmosphere.Although the anomalous sensible heating favored surface pressure to reduce,it was not conducive to the increase of local vorticity associated with the vortex above the heating area because,according to the atmospheric thermal adaptation theory,the anticyclonic vorticity would be created in the lower troposphere due to the decreased vertical gradient of the sensible heating.However,the ascending motions occurred over the eastern area of the anomalous sensible heating due to the augmentation of the vorticity advection with increasing height,causing water vapor to condense in the middle and upper troposphere.In turn,cyclonic vorticity was generated in the lower troposphere due to the increased vertical gradient of the condensation latent heating,resulting in the formation and further growth of the incipient vortex.Therefore,the vorticity creation due to the condensation heating played a dominant role during the subsequent enhancing stage of the incipient vortex.

EAWM-Related Air-Sea-Land Interaction and the Asian Summer Monsoon Circulation

Based on the data analysis, this study further explores the characteristics of East Asian winter monsoon (hereafter, EAWM, for brevity) as well as the related air-sea-land system, and illustrates how and to what degree anomalous signals of the subsequent Asian summer monsoon are rooted in the preceding EAWM activity. We identified an important air-sea coupled mode, i.e., the EAWM mode illustrated in Section 3. In cold seasons, strong EAWM-related air-sea two-way interaction is responsible for the development and persistence of the SSTA pattern of EAWM mode. As a consequence, the key regions, i.e., the western Pacific and South China Sea (hereafter, SCS, for brevity), are dominated by such an SSTA pattern from the winter to the following summer. In the strong EAWM years, the deficient snow cover dominates eastern Tibetan Plateau in winter, and in spring, this anomaly pattern is further strengthened and extended to the northwestern side of Tibetan Plateau. Thus, the combined effect of strong EAWM-related SSTA and Tibetan snow cover constitutes an important factor in modulating the Asian monsoon circulation. The active role of the EAWM activity as well as the related air-sea-land interaction would, in the subsequent seasons, lead to: 1) the enhancement of SCS monsoon and related stronger rainfall; 2) the northward displacement of subtropical high during Meiyu period and the related deficient rainfall over Meiyu rainband; 3) above-normal precipitation over the regions from northern Japan to northeastern China in summer; 4) more rainfall over the Arabian Sea and Northeast India, while less rainfall over southwest India and the Bay of Bengal. The strong EAWM-related air-sea interaction shows, to some degree, precursory signals to the following Asian summer monsoon. However, the mechanism for the variability of Indian summer monsoon subsequent to the strong EAWM years remains uncertain.

INFLUENCE OF SEA－AIR INTERACTION ON THEDISCHARGE OF FLOOD SEASON IN THEUPPER REACHES OF THE CHANGJIANG RIVER

On the method of correlation analysis the poper begins with searching theSST (Sea Surface Temperature) and circulation features of some regions with close correlation to the discharge of the flood season (from June to September) in the upperreaches of the Changjiang (Yangtze) River, then discusses the characteristics of sea-airinteraction and the relations between the sea-air interaction and the discharge of theflood season,after that analyzes the possible mechanisms through which the main searegions affect atmospheric circulation, and of the influence of the circulation changes onthe discharge of the flood season.

SINGULAR CROSS SPECTRUM APPLIED ON DIAGNOSTIC ANALYSIS OF AIR-SEA INTERACTION

The Singular Cross Spectrum Analysis (SCSA) method was employed to investigate the coupledperiods of air-sea/mid-low circulation interaction using 1951-1993 500-hpa geopotential heights and the seasurface temperature (SST) in the Northern Hemisphere. Results show that air-sea correlation is noticeable on the3-7 year scale which is similar to ENSO circle. In this sense, ENSO is a Strong signal. Quasi-ten/quasi-four yearperiods are prominent in the mid-low interaction, and quasi-if our year oscillation is uniform with the ENSO circle.Studies indicate that the mid-low interaction possess quasi-ten year oscillation beside being affected by ENSO.

Progress of Large-Scale Air-Sea Interaction Studies in China

This paper summarizes the progress of large-scale air-sea interaction studies that has been achieved in China in the four-year period from July 1998 to July 2002, including seven aspects in the area of the air-sea interaction, namely air-sea interaction related to the tropical Pacific Ocean, monsoon-related air-sea interaction, air-sea interaction in the north Pacific Ocean, air-sea interaction in the Indian Ocean, air-sea interactions in the global oceans, field experiments, and oceanic cruise surveys. However more attention has been paid to the first and the second aspects because a large number of papers in the reference literature for preparing and organizing this paper are concentrated in the tropical Pacific Ocean, such as the ENSO process with its climatic effects and dynamics, and the monsoon-related air-sea interaction. The literature also involves various phenomena with their different time and spatial scales such as intraseasonal, annual, interannual, and interdecadal variabilities in the atmosphere/ocean interaction system, reflecting the contemporary themes in the four-year period at the beginning of an ara from the post-TOGA to CLIVAR studies. Apparently, it is a difficult task to summarize the great progress in this area, as it is extracted from a large quantity of literature, although the authors tried very hard.

Study on interaction between the coastal water, shelf water and Kuroshio water in the Huanghai Sea and East China Sea

The main processes of interaction between the coastal water, shelf water and Kuroshio water in the Huanghai Sea (HS) and East China Sea (ECS) are analyzed based on the observation and study results in recent years. These processes include the intrusion of the Kuroshio water into the shelf area of the ECS, the entrainment of the shelf water into the Kuroshio, the seasonal process in the southern shelf area of the ECS controlled alternatively by the Taiwan Strait water and the Kuroshio water intruding into the shelf area, the interaction between the Kuroshio branch water, shelf mixed water and modified coastal water in the northeastern ECS, the water-exchange between the HS and ECS and the spread of the Changjiang diluted water.

Observation of interactions between internal tides and near-inertial waves after typhoon passage in the northern South China Sea

During the observational period of our study, Typhoon Hagupit passed over the mooring site and induced strong near-inertial waves （NIWs）, which provided an opportunity to investigate the interactions between internal tides （ITs） and NIWs. Based on the mooring data, we compared the current spectra during the typhoon period and non-typhoon period in the northern South China Sea, and found that the high- frequency waves （fD1 and fD2） were evident during the former. Moreover, the observations of the current revealed that fD1 and fD2 occurred near the depth of strong vertical shear in the NlWs. In order to confirm the generation mechanism of fD1 and fD2, we compared the positions of strong vertical shear in the NIWs and strong vertical velocity in the ITs. It was established that the vertical shear of the horizontal current of the NIWs and the vertical current of the ITs contributed to the generation of fDt and fD2.

Trophic interactions, ecosystem structure and function in the southern Yellow Sea

The southem Yellow Sea is an important fishing ground, providing abundant fishery resources. However, overfishing and climate change have caused a decline in the resource and damaged the ecosystem. We developed an ecosystem model to analyze the trophic interactions and ecosystem structure and function to guide sustainable development of the ecosystem. Atrophic mass-balance model of the southern Yellow Sea during 2000-2001 was constructed using Ecopath with Ecosim software. We defined 22 important functional groups and studied their diet composition. The trophic levels of fish, shrimp, crabs, and cephalopods were between 2.78 and 4.39, and the mean trophic level of the fisheries was 3.24. The trophic flows within the food web occurred primarily in the lower trophic levels. The mean trophic transfer efficiency was 8.1%, of which 7.1% was from primary producers and 9.3% was from detritus within the ecosystem. The transfer efficiency between trophic levels II to III to IV to V to 〉V was 5.0%, 5.7%, 18.5%, and 19.7%-20.4%, respectively. Of the total flow, phytoplankton contributed 61% and detritus contributed 39%. Fishing is defined as a top predator within the ecosystem, and has a negative impact on most commercial species. Moreover, the ecosystem had a high gross efficiency of the fishery and a high value of primary production required to sustain the fishery. Together, our data suggest there is high fishing pressure in the southern Yellow Sea. Based on analysis of Odum＇s ecological parameters, this ecosystem was at an immature stage. Our results provide some insights into the structure and development of this ecosystem.

Protist Interactions and Seasonal Dynamics in the Coast of Yantai, Northern Yellow Sea of China as Revealed by Metabarcoding

Facilitated by the high-throughput sequencing(HTS)technique,the importance of protists to aquatic systems has been widely acknowledged in the last decade.However,information of protistan biotic interactions and seasonal dynamics is much less known in the coast ecosystem with intensive anthropic disturbance.In this study,year-round changes of protist community composition and diversity in the coastal water of Yantai,a city along the northern Yellow Sea in China,were investigated using HTS for the V4 region of 18S rDNA.The interactions among protist groups were also analyzed using the co-occurrence network.Data analyses showed that Alveolata,Chlorophyta,and Stramenopiles are the most dominant phytoplanktonic protists in the investigated coastal area.The community composition displayed strong seasonal variation.The abundant families Dino-Group-I-Clade-1 and Ulotrichales_X had higher proportions in spring and summer,while Bathycoccaceae exhibited higher ratios in autumn and winter.Alpha diversities(Shannon and Simpson)were the highest in autumn and the lowest in spring(ANOVA test,P<0.05).Nutrients(SiO42−,PO43−),total organic carbon(TOC),and pH seemed to drive the variation of alpha diversity,while temperature,PO43−and TON were the most significant factors influencing the whole protist community.Co-variance network analyses reveal frequent co-occurrence events among ciliates,chlorophytes and dinoflagellate,suggesting biotic interactions have been induced by predation,parasitism and mixotrophy.

Wave-current interaction during Typhoon Nuri(2008)and Hagupit(2008):an application of the coupled ocean-wave modeling system in the northern South China Sea

The northern South China Sea(SCS) is frequently affected by typhoons. During severe storm events, wave-current interactions produce storm surges causing enormous damage in the path of the typhoon. To evaluate the influence of wave-current interactions on storm surge, we used a coupled ocean-atmospherewave-sediment transport(COAWST) modeling system with radiation-stress and vortex-force formulations to simulate two typically intense tropical storms that invaded the SCS, namely Typhoons Nuri(2008) and Hagupit(2008), and compared results with observations from the Hong Kong Observatory. Both radiationstress and vortex-force formulations significantly improved the accuracy of the simulation. Depending on which typhoon and the topography encountered, the influence of surface waves on the oceanic circulation showed different characteristics, including the differences of range and intensity of storm surge between vortex-force and radiation-stress experiments. During typhoon landing, strong sea-surface elevation in concert with wave set-up/set-down caused the adjustment of the momentum balance. In the direction perpendicular to the current, but especially in the cross-shore direction, the pressure gradient and wave effects on the current dominated the momentum balance.