How can anomalous western North Pacific Subtropical High intensify in late summer?

Baoqiang Xiang, Bin Wang, Weidong Yu, Shibin Xu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

198 Scopus citations

Abstract

The western North Pacific (WNP) Subtropical High (WNPSH) is a controlling system for East Asian Summer monsoon and tropical storm activities, whereas what maintains the anomalous summertime WNPSH has been a long-standing riddle. Here we demonstrate that the local convection-wind-evaporation-SST (CWES) feedback relying on both mean flows and mean precipitation is key in maintaining the WNPSH, while the remote forcing from the development of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation is secondary. Strikingly, the majority of strong WNPSH cases exhibit anomalous intensification in late summer (August), which is dominantly determined by the seasonal march of the mean state. That is, enhanced mean precipitation associated with strong WNP monsoon trough in late summer makes atmospheric response much more sensitive to local SST forcing than early summer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2349-2354
Number of pages6
JournalGeophysical Research Letters
Volume40
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - May 28 2013
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Indian Ocean warming
  • local air-sea interaction
  • seasonal march of mean state
  • western North Pacific subtropical high

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