Sea Surface Temperature Extremes of Different Intensity in the China Seas During the Global Warming Acceleration and Hiatus Periods

Based on the daily OISST V2 with 0.25 degrees horizontal resolutions, the present study looks into the variations of sea surface temperature (SST) extremes in the China Seas for different segments of the period 1982-2013. The two segments include the warming acceleration period from 1982 to 1997 and the hiatus period from 1998 to 2013 when the global mean surface temperature (GMST) did not significantly increase as expected, or even decreased in some areas. First, we construct the regional average time series over the entire China Seas (15 degrees-45 degrees N, 105 degrees-130 degrees E) for these SST extremes. During the hiatus period, the regionally averaged 10th, lth and 0.1th percentile of SSTs in each year decreased significantly by 0.40 degrees C. 0.56 degrees C and 0.58 degrees C per decade, respectively. The regionally averaged 90th, 99th and 99.9th percentile of SSTs in each year decreased slightly or insignificantly. Our work confirm that the regional hiatus was primarily reflected by wintertime cold extremes. Spatially, the trends of cold extremes in different intensity were nonuniformly distributed. Cold extremes in the near-shore areas were much more sensitive to the global warming hiatus. Hot extremes exhibited non-significant trend in the China Seas during the hiatus period. In short, the variations of the SST extremes in the two periods were non-uniform spatially and asymmetric seasonally. It is unexpected that the hot and cold extremes of each year during 1998-2013 were still higher than those extremes during 1982-1997. It is obvious that compared with the warming acceleration period, hot extremes were far more likely to occur in the recent hiatus as a result of a 0.3 degrees C warmer shift in the mean temperature distribution. Moreover, hot extremes in the China Seas will be sustained or amplified with the end of warming hiatus and the continuous anthropogenic warming.