Impact of El Nio on atmospheric circulations over East Asia and rainfall in China： Role of the anomalous western North Pacific anticyclone

This paper presents a review on the impact of El Nio on the interannual variability of atmospheric circulations over East Asia and rainfall in China through the anomalous anticyclone over western North Pacific(WNPAC). It explains the formation mechanisms of the WNPAC and physical processes by which the WNPAC affects the rainfall in China. During the mature phase of El Nio, the convective cooling anomalies over western tropical Pacific caused by the weakened convections trigger up an atmospheric Rossby wave response, resulting in the generation of the WNPAC. The WNPAC can persist from the winter when the El Nio is in its peak to subsequent summer, which is maintained by multiple factors including the sustained presence of convective cooling anomalies and the local air-sea interaction over western tropical Pacific, and the persistence of sea surface temperature anomalies(SSTA) in tropical Indian and tropical North Atlantic. The WNPAC can influence the atmospheric circulations over East Asia and rainfall in China not only simultaneously, but also in the subsequent summer after an El Nio year, leading to more rainfall over southern China. The current paper also points out that significant anomalies of atmospheric circulations over East Asia and rainfall over southern China occur in El Nio winter but not in La Nio winter, suggesting that El Nio and La Nio have an asymmetric effect. Other issues, including the impact of El Nio diversity and its impact as well as the relations of the factors affecting the persistence of the WNPAC with summer rainfall anomalies in China, are also discussed. At the end of this paper some issues calling for further investigation are discussed.

The ENSO’s Effect on Eastern China Rainfall in the Following Early Summer

ENSO＇s effect on the rainfall in eastern China in the following early summer is investigated by using station precipitation data and the ERA-40 reanalysis data from 1958 to 2002. In June, after the E1 Nifio peak, the precipitation is significantly enhanced in the Yangtze River valley while suppressed in the Huaihe River-Yellow River valleys. This relationship between ENSO and the rainfall in eastern China is established possibly through two teleconnections： One is related to the western North Pacific （WNP） anticyclonic anomaly in the lower troposphere leading to enhanced precipitation in the Yangtze River valley, and the other is related to the southward displacement of the Asian jet stream （AJS） in the upper troposphere resulting in suppressed precipitation in the Huaihe River-Yellow River valleys. This southward displacement of the AJS is one part of ENSO＇s effect on the zonal flow in the whole Northern Hemisphere. After the E1 Nifio peak, the ENSO-related warming in the tropical troposphere persists into the following early summer, increasing the meridional temperature gradient and through the thermal wind balance, leads to the enhancement of westerly flow in the subtropics south of the westerly jet stream and results in a southward displacement of the westerly jet stream.

Cause of Extreme Heavy and Persistent Rainfall over Yangtze River in Summer 2020

Record-breaking heavy and persistent precipitation occurred over the Yangtze River Valley(YRV)in June-July(JJ)2020.An observational data analysis has indicated that the strong and persistent rainfall arose from the confluence of southerly wind anomalies to the south associated with an extremely strong anomalous anticyclone over the western North Pacific(WNPAC)and northeasterly anomalies to the north associated with a high-pressure anomaly over Northeast Asia.A further observational and modeling study has shown that the extremely strong WNPAC was caused by both La Niña-like SST anomaly(SSTA)forcing in the equatorial Pacific and warm SSTA forcing in the tropical Indian Ocean(IO).Different from conventional central Pacific(CP)El Niños that decay slowly,a CP El Niño in early 2020 decayed quickly and became a La Niña by early summer.This quick transition had a critical impact on the WNPAC.Meanwhile,an unusually large area of SST warming occurred in the tropical IO because a moderate interannual SSTA over the IO associated with the CP El Niño was superposed by an interdecadal/long-term trend component.Numerical sensitivity experiments have demonstrated that both the heating anomaly in the IO and the heating anomaly in the tropical Pacific contributed to the formation and maintenance of the WNPAC.The persistent high-pressure anomaly in Northeast Asia was part of a stationary Rossby wave train in the midlatitudes,driven by combined heating anomalies over India,the tropical eastern Pacific,and the tropical Atlantic.

Understanding the role of SST anomaly in extreme rainfall of 2020 Meiyu season from an interdecadal perspective

Extreme Meiyu rainfall in 2020,starting from early June to the end of July,has occurred over the Yangtze River valley(YRV),with record-breaking accumulated precipitation amount since 1961.The present study aims to examine the possible effect of sea surface temperature(SST)on the YRV rainfall in Meiyu season from the interdecadal perspective.The results indicate that YRV rainfall in June exhibits more significant variability on interdecadal time scale than that in July.The interdecadal-filtered atmospheric circulation in June,compared with the counterpart in July,shows a more predominant and better-organized Western North Pacific Anticyclone(WNPAC)anomaly,which could transport abundant moisture to the YRV by anomalous southwesterly prevailing in northwestern flank of anomalous WNPAC.Both observation and numerical experiment indicate that the interdecadal change of the SST anomaly in tropical western Indian Ocean(TWI)from preceding May to June can significantly affect the anomalous WNPAC,leading to enhanced YRV rainfall in June.The TWI SST anomaly shifts from a cold phase to a warm phase around the early 2000s,with a magnitude of 0.7°C in 2020,which implies that such interdecadal warming might partly contribute to the heavy rainfall in June 2020 by providing a large-scale favorable background flow.

Formation of the Anomalous Summer Precipitation in East China in 2010 and 1998: A Comparison of the Impacts of Two Kinds of El Nio

In the summers of 1998 and 2010, severe floods occurred in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Although an El Nifio event took place preceding each of the summer floods, significant differences between the two summer floods and the two E1 Nifio events were identified. The 1997/98 E1 Nifio is a conventional one with strongest warming in the central-eastern Pacific, whereas the 2009/10 event is an E1 Nifio Modoki with strongest warming in the central Pacific. In this study, summer rainfall anomalies （SRA） in the two years were first compared based on the rainfall data at 160 stations in China's Mainland, and a significant difference in SRA was found. To understand the underlying mechanism for the difference, the atmospheric circulation systems, particularly the western North Pacific anticyclone （WNPAC）, the western Pacific subtropical high （WPSH）, and the low-level air flows, were compared in the two years by using the NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data. The results display that the WNPAC was stronger in 2010 than in 1998, along with a northwestward shift, causing weakened southwesterly from the Bay of BengM to the South China Sea but intensified southerly in eastern China. This resulted in less water vapor transport from the tropical Indian Ocean and the South China Sea but more from the subtropical western Pacific to East Asia. Subsequently, the rainband in 2010 shifted northward. The difference in the WNPAC was causedby the anomalous ascending motion associated with the warming location in the two E1 Nifio events. ~rthermore, the role of tropical sea surface temperature （SST） in modulating these differences was investigated by conducting sensitivity experiments using GFDL AM2.1 （Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Atmospheric Model）. Two experiments were performed, one with the observed monthly SST and the other with June SST persisting through the whole summer. The results suggest that the model well reproduced the primary differences in the atmospheric circulation systems in the two years. It is found that the difference in E1 Nifio events has shaped the rainfall patterns in the two years of 1998 and 2010. At last, the case of 2010 was compared with the composite of historical E1 Nifio Modoki events, and the results indicate that the impact of E1 Nifio Modoki varies from case to case and is more complicated than previously revealed.