A Numerical Experiment on Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies and Warm Winter in Japan

Abstract

Impact of the sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTAs) on atmospheric circulations are studied with emphasis on the winter climate in Japan with the use of an atmospheric general circulation model.
The empirical orthogonal function analyses are performed for precipitation, geopotential height at 500mb and surface air temperature. It is shown that leading eigenvectors of precipitation are zonally elongated in the tropics and that the distribution of positive and negative precipitation anomalies is dependent on the SST and precipitation field in the control run. Surface air temperature in East Asia is mostly governed by the temperature contrast between Japan-East China region and the Sea of Okhotsk. This is associated with high pressure anomalies in the North Pacific Ocean, which weakens the cold surge from Siberia. This circulation is found in the first eigenvector in the present experiment El(Z500) and is dominant in the run which uses the composited January SSTA observed during warm winter in Japan. The simulated anomalies in mid-latitude circulation correspond well with the observations.
An additional run with the SSTA over the equator east of the dateline gives the largest anticyclonic circulation response over the North Pacific Ocean and the warmest surface air temperature anomalies in East Asia. The pattern relevant to warm winter in Japan is not a simple atmospheric response to tropical heating. It is conceivable that inherently there is a dominant circulation mode like El(Z500) and that this mode can be activated either by a direct and/or an indirect orographic effect or by anomalous heating induced by the SSTA. This pattern can be understood as a response to subtropical mass source/sink distribution under the framework of a linear theory.