scholarly journals Polarized Response of East Asian Winter Temperature Extremes in the Era of Arctic Warming

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (14) ◽  
pp. 5543-5557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuangmei Ma ◽  
Congwen Zhu ◽  
Boqi Liu ◽  
Tianjun Zhou ◽  
Yihui Ding ◽  
...  

Abstract It has been argued that fewer cold extremes will be expected to occur over most midlatitude areas, because of anthropogenic-induced global warming. However, East Asia repeatedly suffered from unexpected cold spells during the winter of 2015/16, and the low surface air temperature (SAT) during 21–25 January 2016 broke the previous calendar record from 1961. We hypothesize that cold extremes such as these occur because of Arctic amplification (AA) of global warming. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the changes of SAT variability in the winter season over East Asia. Our results show that the SAT variability (measured by the standard deviation of the winter season daily mean SAT) over East Asia has significantly increased in the era of AA during 1988/89–2015/16 and exhibits a polarization between warm and cold extremes, popularly dubbed as “weather whiplash.” This phenomenon is driven by both the thermodynamic effects of global warming and the dynamic effects of AA. Global warming favors a rising SAT and more frequent warm extremes. The AA phenomenon strengthens the wavy components of midlatitude circulation, leading to more frequent blockings over the Ural region and a stronger Siberian high in north Asia. This dynamic effect of AA enhances the intrusion of cold air from Siberia into East Asia and causes cold extremes. Because there is a comparable increase of frequency of both warm and cold extremes, the SAT variability significantly increases in unison with AA, but little change is observed in the seasonal mean SAT of East Asia. This implies increased risks of both cold and warm extremes over East Asia exist even during global warming.

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-142 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniil I. Tislenko ◽  
Boris V. Ivanov

Within last decades, the climate of our planet has underwent remarkable changes. The most notable are those called "Arctic amplification." is the changes comprise a decrease in the area of ​​multi-years ice in 2007 and 2012 in polar regions of the Northern hemisphere, accompanied by the temperature rise of intermediate Atlantic waters, increasing surface temperature. In this paper, an analysis of long-term variability of temperature transformed Atlantic waters (TAW) in the fjords of the West-Spitsbergen island (Isfjorden, Grnfjorden, Hornsund and Kongsfjorden) in the first period (1920–1940) and modern (1990–2009) warming in the Arctic is reported. It is shown that the instrumental observation data corresponds to the periods of rise in temperature in the layer of the TAW and surface air temperature (SAT) for the area of ​​the Svalbard.


Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ye Yang ◽  
Naru Xie ◽  
Meng Gao

The influence of large-scale teleconnection patterns, Western Pacific (WP), Arctic Oscillation (AO) and El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), on the minimum surface air temperature (Tmin) anomalies and extremes over East Asia during the boreal winter from 1979 to 2017 were investigated by the composite analysis in terms of atmospheric and oceanic processes. The relationship between the Tmin and the geopotential height at 500 hPa (Z500) as well as sea surface temperature (SST) were first examined. Then we explored and estimated the contribution of the teleconnection patterns to the occurrence of extremely cold days and months quantitatively, and discussed other key factors in relation to the cold extremes. The WP and AO patterns play an important part in the prevalence of significant Tmin variability, whereas the effect of ENSO is relatively weak. Most of the cold extremes tend to appear in the negative phase of teleconnections, while there some extremes that occur in the opposite phase. In addition, the extreme months are more related to the preferred phase of the dominant pattern when compared to days. We conclude that the daily extremes are primarily triggered by the local-synoptic atmospheric circulations embedded in the large-scale teleconnection patterns, while the monthly extremes have a closer relationship with these low-frequency patterns.


Atmosphere ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Ho Woo ◽  
Jee-Hoon Jeong ◽  
Baek-Min Kim ◽  
Seong-Joong Kim

2009 ◽  
Vol 137 (7) ◽  
pp. 2250-2262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hai Lin ◽  
Gilbert Brunet

Using the homogenized Canadian historical daily surface air temperature (SAT) for 210 relatively evenly distributed stations across Canada, the lagged composites and probability of the above- and below-normal SAT in Canada for different phases of the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) in the winter season are analyzed. Significant positive SAT anomalies and high probability of above-normal events in the central and eastern Canada are found 5–15 days following MJO phase 3, which corresponds to an enhanced precipitation over the Indian Ocean and Maritime Continent and a reduced convective activity near the tropical central Pacific. On the other hand, a positive SAT anomaly appears over a large part of northern and northeastern Canada about 5–15 days after the MJO is detected in phase 7. An analysis of the evolution of the 500-hPa geopotential height and sea level pressure anomalies indicates that the Canadian SAT anomaly is a result of a Rossby wave train associated with the tropical convection anomaly of the MJO. Hence, the MJO phase provides useful information for the extended-range forecast of Canadian winter surface air temperature. This result also provides an important reference for numerical model verifications.


Author(s):  
Sungbo Shim ◽  
Hyunmin Sung ◽  
Sanghoon Kwon ◽  
Jisun Kim ◽  
Jaehee Lee ◽  
...  

This study investigates changes in fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration and air-quality index (AQI) in Asia using nine different Coupled Model Inter-Comparison Project 6 (CMIP6) climate model ensembles from historical and future scenarios under shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs). The results indicated that the estimated present-day PM2.5 concentrations were comparable to satellite-derived data. Overall, the PM2.5 concentrations of the analyzed regions exceeded the WHO air-quality guidelines, particularly in East Asia and South Asia. In future SSP scenarios that consider the implementation of significant air-quality controls (SSP1-2.6, SSP5-8.5) and medium air-quality controls (SSP2-4.5), the annual PM2.5 levels were predicted to substantially reduce (by 46% to around 66% of the present-day levels) in East Asia, resulting in a significant improvement in the AQI values in the mid-future. Conversely, weak air pollution controls considered in the SSP3-7.0 scenario resulted in poor AQI values in China and India. Moreover, a predicted increase in the percentage of aged populations (>65 years) in these regions, coupled with high AQI values, may increase the risk of premature deaths in the future. This study also examined the regional impact of PM2.5 mitigations on downward shortwave energy and surface air temperature. Our results revealed that, although significant air pollution controls can reduce long-term exposure to PM2.5, it may also contribute to the warming of near- and mid-future climates.


Author(s):  
Lin Wang ◽  
Wen Chen ◽  
Qiang Fu ◽  
Gang Huang ◽  
Qiulin Wang ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 2153-2171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Tian ◽  
D. Jiang

Abstract. Mid-Holocene ocean and vegetation feedbacks over East Asia are investigated by a set of numerical experiments performed with the version 4 of the Community Climate System Model (CCSM4). With reference to the pre-industrial period, most of the mid-Holocene annual and seasonal surface-air temperature and precipitation changes are found to result from a direct response of the atmosphere to insolation forcing, while dynamic ocean and vegetation modulate regional climate of East Asia to some extent. Because of its thermal inertia, the dynamic ocean induced an additional warming of 0.2 K for the annual mean, 0.5 K in winter (December–February), 0.0003 K in summer (June–August), and 1.0 K in autumn (September–November), but a cooling of 0.6 K in spring (March–May) averaged over China, and it counteracted (amplified) the direct effect of insolation forcing for the annual mean and in winter and autumn (spring) for that period. The dynamic vegetation had an area-average impact of no more than 0.4 K on the mid-Holocene annual and seasonal temperatures over China, with an average cooling of 0.2 K for the annual mean. On the other hand, ocean feedback induced a small increase of precipitation in winter (0.04 mm day−1) and autumn (0.05 mm day−1), but a reduction for the annual mean (0.14 mm day−1) and in spring (0.29 mm day−1) and summer (0.34 mm day−1) over China, while it also suppressed the East Asian summer monsoon rainfall. The effect of dynamic vegetation on the mid-Holocene annual and seasonal precipitation was comparatively small, ranging from −0.03 mm day−1 to 0.06 mm day−1 averaged over China. In comparison, the CCSM4 simulated annual and winter cooling over China agrees with simulations within the Paleoclimate Modeling Intercomparison Project (PMIP), but the results are contrary to the warming reconstructed from multiple proxy data for the mid-Holocene. Ocean feedback narrows this model–data mismatch, whereas vegetation feedback plays an opposite role but with a level of uncertainty.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwang-Yul Kim ◽  
Benjamin D. Hamlington ◽  
Hanna Na ◽  
Jinju Kim

Abstract. Sea ice melting is proposed as a primary reason for the Artic amplification, although physical mechanism of the Arctic amplification and its connection with sea ice melting is still in debate. In the present study, monthly ERA-interim reanalysis data are analyzed via cyclostationary empirical orthogonal function analysis to understand the seasonal mechanism of sea ice melting in the Arctic Ocean and the Arctic amplification. While sea ice melting is widespread over much of the perimeter of the Arctic Ocean in summer, sea ice remains to be thin in winter only in the Barents-Kara Seas. Excessive turbulent heat flux through the sea surface exposed to air due to sea ice melting warms the atmospheric column. Warmer air increases the downward longwave radiation and subsequently surface air temperature, which facilitates sea surface remains to be ice free. A 1 % reduction in sea ice concentration in winter leads to ~ 0.76 W m−2 increase in upward heat flux, ~ 0.07 K increase in 850 hPa air temperature, ~ 0.97 W m−2 increase in downward longwave radiation, and ~ 0.26 K increase in surface air temperature. This positive feedback mechanism is not clearly observed in the Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas, since sea ice refreezes in late fall (November) before excessive turbulent heat flux is available for warming the atmospheric column in winter. A detailed seasonal heat budget is presented in order to understand specific differences between the Barents-Kara Seas and Laptev, East Siberian, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas.


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (11) ◽  
pp. 1494
Author(s):  
Fernanda Casagrande ◽  
Francisco A. B. Neto ◽  
Ronald B. de Souza ◽  
Paulo Nobre

One of the most visible signs of global warming is the fast change in the polar regions. The increase in Arctic temperatures, for instance, is almost twice as large as the global average in recent decades. This phenomenon is known as the Arctic Amplification and reflects several mutually supporting processes. An equivalent albeit less studied phenomenon occurs in Antarctica. Here, we used numerical climate simulations obtained from CMIP5 and CMIP6 to investigate the effects of +1.5, 2 and 3 °C warming thresholds for sea ice changes and polar amplification. Our results show robust patterns of near-surface air-temperature response to global warming at high latitudes. The year in which the average air temperatures brought from CMIP5 and CMIP6 models rises by 1.5 °C is 2024. An average rise of 2 °C (3 °C) global warming occurs in 2042 (2063). The equivalent warming at northern (southern) high latitudes under scenarios of 1.5 °C global warming is about 3 °C (1.8 °C). In scenarios of 3 °C global warming, the equivalent warming in the Arctic (Antarctica) is close to 7 °C (3.5 °C). Ice-free conditions are found in all warming thresholds for both the Arctic and Antarctica, especially from the year 2030 onwards.


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