Impact of the Winter North Pacific Oscillation on the Surface Air Temperature over Eurasia and North America: Sensitivity to the Index Definition

This study analyzes the impact of the winter North Pacific Oscillation（NPO） on the surface air temperature（SAT）variations over Eurasia and North America based on six different NPO indices. Results show that the influences of the winter NPO on the SAT over Eurasia and North America are sensitive to the definition of the NPO index. The impact of the winter NPO on the SAT variations over Eurasia（North America） is significant（insignificant） when the anticyclonic anomaly associated with the NPO index over the North Pacific midlatitudes shifts westward and pronounced northerly wind anomalies appear around Lake Baikal. By contrast, the impact of the winter NPO on the SAT variations over Eurasia（North America）is insignificant（significant） when the anticyclonic anomaly over the North Pacific related to the NPO index shifts eastward and the associated northerly wind anomalies to its eastern flank extend to North America. The present study suggests that the NPO definition should be taken into account when analyzing the impact of the winter NPO on Eurasian and North American SAT variations.

Dynamic Mechanism of Interannual Sea Surface Height Variability in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre

In this study, the dynamic mechanisms of interannual sea surface height （SSH） variability are investigated based on the first-mode baroclinic Rossby wave model, with a focus on the effects of different levels of wind stress curl （WSC）. Maximum covariance analysis （MCA） of WSC and SSH anomalies displays a mode with significant WSC anomalies located primarily in the mid-latitude eastern North Pacific and central tropical Pacific with corresponding SSH anomalies located to the west. This leading mode can be attributed to Ekman pumping induced by local wind stress and the westward-propagating Rossby wave driven by large- scale wind stress. It is further found that in the middle latitudes, the SSH anomalies are largely determined by WSC variations associated with the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation （NPGO）, rather than the Pacific Decadal Oscillation （PDO）. The sensitivity of the predictive skill of the linear first-mode baroclinic model to different wind products is also examined.

The NPO/ NAO and Interdecadal Climate Variation in China

This article discusses the interannual variation of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and North Pacific Oscillation (NPO), its relationship with the interdecadal climate variation in China which is associated with the climate jump in the Northern Hemisphere in the 1960’s, using the data analyses. It is clearly shown that both the amplitudes of the NAO and NPO increase obviously in the 1960’s and the main period of the oscillations changes from 3-4 years before the 1960’s to 8–15 years after the 1960’s. Therefore, interdecadal climate variation in China or the climate jump in the 1960’s is closely related to the anomalies of the NAO and NPO. Key words North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) - North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) - Climate Jump - Interdecadal climate variation This work was supported by National Key Basic Science Program in China (G1998040903), Chinese Academy of Science and the National Natural Science Fundation of China (Grant No.49823002).The authors are also grateful to Ms. Wang Xuan for typing the manuscript.

The 2009 Summer Low Temperature in Northeast China and Its Association with Prophase Changes of the Air-Sea System

Under the background of global warming, summer （JJA） low temperature events in Northeast China had not occurred for about 15 yr since 1994, but one such event took place in 2009. By using the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data, the 100-yr station temperature data at Harbin and Changchun, and the Hadley Center sea surface temperature （SST） data, this paper intends to reveal the cause, circulation background, and influencing factors of this event. Analysis of both horizontal and vertical circulations of a low-value system over Northeast China in summer 2009 during the low temperature event shows that anomalous activities of the Northeast China cold vortex （NECV） played the most direct role. A decadal cooling trend of - 0.8℃ （10 yr）-1 over 1999-2008 at Changchun and Harbin was found, which is obviously out-of-phase with the linear warming trend （0.2℃ （10 yr）-1） over 1961-2000 for Northeast China in response to the global warming. The previous winter North Pacific polar vortex （NPPV） area index, significantly positively related to the observed summer temperatures of Harbin and Changchun, was also in a significantly declining tendency. These provide favorable decadal backgrounds for the 2009 low temperature event. Different from the average anomaly field of 500-hPa height for summer 1994-2008 in Northeast China, in the summer of 2009, the Arctic Oscillation （AO） showed a strong negative phase distribution, and significant negative height anomalies dominated Northeast Asia, Aleutian Islands, and North Atlantic. Furthermore, the negative phase of North Pacific Oscillation （NPO） in the winter of 2008 was obviously strong, and it maintained in the spring of 2009. Meanwhile, the SSTA in the equatorial eastern-central Pacific Ocean in the winter of 2008 showed a La Nina phase, but the strength of the La Nina weakened obviously in the spring of 2009. The abnormally strong activities of NECV in June and July of 2009 were related to the disturbances of stationary waves that replaced the original ultra-long waves over the North Pacific region in April and May 2009. The singular value decomposition （SVD） and harmonic analysis results suggest that the anomalous phase of NPO is an important precursor for summer temperature variations over Northeast China, and also a stable planetary-scale component that can be extracted from the atmospheric circulation in addition to the chaotic components on the synoptic scale.

Progress in the Study of the Dynamics of Extratropical Atmospheric Teleconnection Patterns and Their Impacts on East Asian Climate

In the extratropics of the Northern Hemisphere, there exist many kinds of atmospheric teleconnection patterns. According to their spatial structure, these teleconnection patterns are generally divided into two groups. One group comprises north-south dipole patterns, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation and the North Pacific Oscillation, which have two anomalous centers of opposite signs in the north-south direction. The other group includes the wave train-like patterns, which have several anomalous centers of opposite signs distributed mainly in the zonal direction, such as the Pacific/North American and Eurasian Patterns. These teleconnection patterns greatly impact weather and climate not only in the regions where the teleconnection patterns are active~ but atso in the regions thousands of kilometers away. Studying and understanding the formation mechanisms of these teleconnection patterns form the basis for the short-term climate prediction. This paper reviews advances in the study of the dynamics of these teleconnection patterns, with particular attention paid to the teleconnection patterns that significantly influence the weather and climate of East Asia.