The Interannual Variability of Summer Upper-Tropospheric Temperature over East Asia

By using 55-yr NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data, two dominant interannual variability modes of summer upper-tropospheric (500-200 hPa) temperature over East Asia are identified. The first empirical orthogonal function (EOF1) mode in its positive sign features a monopole cooling anomaly, while the second mode (EOF2) features a meridional dipole mode, with the positive (negative) center located south (north) of 358 degrees N. The EOF1 (EOF2) mode is associated with ENSO developing (decaying) summers. They are the result of dynamical teleconnections remotely induced by ENSO and local moist processes. During the El Nino developing summer, the Indian summer monsoon precipitation decreases and forces the Silk Road teleconnection pattern at 200 hPa, featuring an anomalous cyclone over the East Asian continent. Coupled with the anomalous northerly wind in eastern China at 850 hPa, rainfall over north (south) China is suppressed (enhanced). The anomalous cyclone in the upper troposphere, associated vertical motion, and precipitation contribute to the heat and vorticity balance and maintain the monopole cooling. In the El Nino decaying summer, driven by the combined effects of a local SST anomaly and remote warm SST anomaly forcing from the Indian Ocean, precipitation is reduced over the western Pacific Ocean. Less latent heat is released and forces the Pacific-Japan teleconnection pattern along the East Asian continent, inducing a tripolar rainfall anomaly over East Asia. The tripolar precipitation and vertical motion anomalies and the zonal extended cyclonic anomaly in the upper troposphere provide the heating and momentum flux balance and maintain the temperature anomaly pattern during the ENSO decaying summer.