Teleconnected influence of the boreal winter Antarctic Oscillation on the Somali Jet: Bridging role of sea surface temperature in southern high and middle latitudes

The teleconnection impact of the boreal winter Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) on the Somali Jet (SMJ) intensity in the following spring and summer is examined in this paper. The variability of the boreal winter AAO is positively related to the SMJ intensity in both spring and summer. The analyses show that the SST in southern high and middle latitudes seems to serve as a bridge linking these two systems. When the AAO is in strong positive phase, SST over the Southern Ocean cools in the high latitudes and warms in the middle latitudes, which persists into summer; however, the variability of SST in southern high and middle latitudes is also closely correlated to SMJ intensity. A possible mechanism that links SST variability with the AAO-SMJ relationship is also discussed. The AAO in boreal winter produces an SST anomaly pattern in southern high and middle latitudes through the air-sea coupling. This AAOrelated SST anomaly pattern modulates the local Ferrel cell anomaly in summer, followed by the regional Hadley cell anomaly in tropics. The anomalous vertical motion in tropics then changes the land-sea thermal contrast between the tropical Indian Ocean and the Asian continent through the variability of low cloud cover and downward surface longwave radiation flux. Finally, the land-sea thermal contrast anomaly between the tropical Indian Ocean and the Asian continent changes the SMJ intensity. The results from Community Atmosphere Model experiments forced by the SST anomaly in southern high and middle latitudes also confirm this diagnostic physical process to some extent.