Zhiqiang Gong

A regional extreme low temperature event and its main atmospheric contributing factors

The regional extreme low temperature event from December 30, 2010 to February 2, 2011 was a very rare and protracted cold event with the largest integrated index (Z) since 1979. Two meteorological factors could be responsible for this extreme winter event. First, a persistent blocking pattern existed in the mid-latitudes. This not only allowed cold air to persist in southern China but also enabled each perturbation from the west propagating around the blocking high to trigger downstream cold air intrusions from the north. Second, the consistently downward negative Arctic Oscillation (AO) was favorable for the eastward moving of Rossby waves in middle latitudes, which made the upper reaches positive center in SLP and negative center in Z500 move to East Asia. This stable and consistent situation favored the polar area cold air invasion to the mid-latitude region. Of these two factors, the blocking pattern was likely to be the direct cause, the co-effects of consistently strong downward negative AO from the stratosphere, and the corresponding eastward moving wave train in Z500 and SLP might be the prophase teleconnection culprit.

Enhancement of the relationship between the winter Arctic oscillation and the following summer circulation anomalies over central East Asia since the early 1990s

Considering the possible lag of the impact of the winter Arctic oscillation (AO) on the subsequent summer climate anomalies over East Asia and that the relationship between them may differ during different periods, the non-stationary relationship between these systems and the corresponding mechanism of connection are investigated in this study. A regime shift of the winter AO index was detected around 1988, with mean AO indices of −0.69 and 0.10 for 1958–1987 and 1988–2014, respectively, and their differences passed the 99% confidence level. After the regime shift and especially since the early 1990s, negative (positive) winter AO indices corresponds with positive (negative) height anomalies over central East Asia (CEA) during the following summer. Meanwhile, the westerly jet stream tends to be northward (southward) and the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) is strong (weak), which contributes to the warm (cold) anomalies over central China and the significantly enhanced (reduced) rainfall over northeast China. After the early 1990s, the enhanced connection of the winter AO and the following summer height anomalies over CEA is largely due to the enhanced connection of the winter AO and the following Indian summer monsoon (ISM) rainfall during the same period. The negative (positive) winter AO favors increasing (decreasing) rainfall over the ISM region, which triggers a positive (negative) circumglobal teleconnection (CGT), and results in significantly positive (negative) height anomalies over CEA. One way the winter AO could influence the following ISM rainfall is that the negative (positive) winter AO memories will be maintained by the positive (negative) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies over the tropical Atlantic of the following summer, which are responsible for the La Niña (El Niño) developing phase and increases (decreases) the ISM rainfall.

Nonlinear Dynamical Structure of precipitation in China and its Regional Climatic Characters

The statistical data show that weather(precipitation) in the five dynamic climate characteristic regions simultaneously becomes dry, wet and normal, that is to say, each region possesses a common spatial-temporal characteristic structure. Further analysis of physical mechanisms suggests that the Jianghuai pattern and South China pattern are close related with ENSO, which may results from the effect of the India-East Asia (IEA) tele connection pattern; among the other three patterns North and Northeast China patterns are positively related with the ridge line position of subtropical high, but the ENSO shows no obvious influence on the three patterns, which may be associated with that the regions are mainly out of the weak impact area of ENSO;further more the influence of the ridge line of subtropical high on precipitation in North China is most remarkable. This has instructive significance for the development of regional climate models, and the analysis of precipitation characters and precipitation forecast.