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This paper scrutinizes the zonal oscillation of the western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH) via diagnosing its two extreme phases, which are defined by the top 10% strongest (positive phase) and the weakest (negative phase) WNPSH index (WNPSHI) days during summers in 1979–2016. Key findings include the following: a tripole pattern consisting of intensified (weakened) precipitation over the Maritime Continent and the East Asian summer monsoon regions, and suppressed (strengthened) precipitation over the western North Pacific summer monsoon region during positive (negative) WNPSH phases; a westward movement of WNPSH-induced precipitation anomalies that subsequently affects eastern China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula at different time lags; an OLR–vorticity pattern explained by atmospheric responses to thermal sources is suggested to drive the oscillation; and the competitive interaction of local air–sea feedbacks, especially during the positive phase. In addition, moderate-to-strong positive correlations between the WNPSHI and the Niño-3.4 index are found on 1–2-, 2–3-, and 3–6-yr time scales; both exhibit decadal shifts to a higher-frequency mode, suggesting the intensification of both the zonal WNPSH oscillation and the ENSO under the changing climate and their close interdecadal association. A nonlinear quasi-biennial WNPSH–ENSO relationship is identified: the positive (negative) WNPSH phase sometimes occurs during 1) a decaying El Niño (La Niña) in the preceding summer/autumn, and/or 2) a developing La Niña (El Niño) in the current summer/autumn. A full ENSO transition from moderate-to-strong El Niño to La Niña is often seen during the positive phase, offering potential in predicting ENSO events and extreme WNPSH phases and thereby the summer monsoon rainfall in East Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation around the Daihai Lake, northern China, is very sensitive to climate changes. In this paper, pollen-based quantitative climate reconstructions using three methods [weighted averaging partial least squares method (WAPLS), modern analog technique (MAT), and pollen response surface method (PRS)] were conducted to obtain robust reconstructions of Holocene climate changes in the Daihai Lake area. The result obtained by the three methods all consistently show the annual precipitation to have been 50–100 mm lower in the early Holocene, 100–200 mm higher in the Mid-Holocene, and 50–100 mm lower again in the late Holocene than at present. The WAPLS and the MAT methods also show quasi-synchronous oscillations of the mean annual temperature (Ta); 1°–2°C lower in the Early Holocene and 1°–3°C higher in the Mid-Holocene than today. The time period from 6200 to 5100 cal yr BP was the wettest and the warmest interval, with an annual precipitation (Pa) greater than 550 mm and mean annual temperature Ta higher than 6.5°C. Several cold and dry events can be identified to occur about 8200, 6000, and 4400 cal yr BP, with an annual precipitation less than 400 mm and a mean annual temperature colder than 4.5°C, respectively. The mean temperature of the warmest month (Tw) as reconstructed using both WAPLS and MAT methods was relatively stable during the Holocene, fluctuating about ±2°C relative to the present level, but the PRS method suggests more varied Tw values in both amplitude and frequency. After 1500 cal yr BP, no consistent pattern can be observed from these three different analyses, probably because of the impact of intensified human disturbances on the natural vegetation. The fluctuations of annual precipitation (Pa) correspond to that observed in Dongge Cave in southern China. The differences might be linked to Indian monsoon and East Asia monsoon climates or caused by the different degree of dating precision, different temporal resolution, and different sensitive response of climate proxies to the climate variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coupled climate models project robust wintertime wetting trend over midlatitude East Asia under global warming scenarios, but the projected change in precipitation shows large intermodel uncertainty over subtropical East Asia from southern China to southwestern Japan. Based on an ensemble of climate models participating in CMIP6, this study shows that the weakened southern branch westerly jet (SWJ) on the southern side of Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays a key role in suppressing subtropical East Asian precipitation. The SWJ is deflected into southwesterly wind on the southeastern side of TP, bringing ascent and precipitation to subtropical East Asia primarily through isentropic gliding. As a result of the poleward and upward shift of the planetary-scale westerly jet under global warming, the SWJ becomes weaker and it acts to suppress subtropical East Asian precipitation by weakening the southwesterly wind and ascent. The SWJ-precipitation linkage also exists on interannual time scales, but the sensitivity of precipitation to interannual SWJ variability is systematically underestimated by the models compared with observation. The combined effects of the change in SWJ strength and the sensitivity of precipitation to SWJ explain about 40% of the intermodel spread of the projected precipitation changes. Observational constraint on the SWJ--precipitation relationship amplifies the projected drying trend and narrows the intermodel spread. It shows that the regional-averaged precipitation over subtropical East Asia decreases by 3.3% per degree of warming, and the amplitude of precipitation reduction over subtropical East Asia (southern China) is about 1.4 (3.4) times the raw projection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the multimodel simulations from phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6), we investigate the aridity changes in China and the associated mechanisms during the three geological periods of the Last Interglacial (LIG), Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and mid-Holocene (MH), as well as the three future scenarios of the shared socioeconomic pathways of SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5. The aridity index is used to measure terrestrial moisture, which combines the effects of both precipitation and potential evapotranspiration (PET), with the latter representing the amount of water consumed by the atmosphere. The results show that relative to the preindustrial period, the total dryland area in China varies by −15%, 6%, and −13% during the LIG, LGM, and MH, respectively, and slightly varies in the three future scenarios. Over China, LGM dryland expansion and future dryland contraction are mainly attributed to precipitation changes, MH dryland contraction is mainly caused by PET changes, and LIG dryland contraction is comparably caused by PET and precipitation changes. For the LGM and three future scenarios, temperature is the leading factor of PET changes, while during the MH and LIG, the change in relative humidity is the main factor. In comparison, the simulated aridity changes in China are generally consistent with the reconstructed moisture changes for the three past periods, although uncertainties exist in reconstructions during the LGM and MH. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and associated summer precipitation patterns over eastern China have exhibited interannual and interdecadal variations in recent decades, but whether the precipitation modes vary with climate conditions remains unclear. In this study, we investigate the changes in summer precipitation modes over eastern China and associated mechanisms in simulated past and future warm periods, namely, the last interglacial (LIG), mid-Holocene, and the twenty-first century under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathway (SSP) based on representative concentration pathway 8.5 (SSP5–8.5) scenario, using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models. The model evaluation indicates that only one out of nine CMIP6 models, specifically the Community Earth System Model, version 2 (CESM2), can well reproduce the observed summer precipitation modes at the present. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analyses of the CESM2 simulations reveal that during the warm periods induced by either orbital parameters or greenhouse gas concentrations, the first leading mode of summer precipitation switches from its present meridional tripolar structure to a dipole pattern, and the second leading mode is generally a meridional tripolar mode that differs from the present dipole pattern. This summer precipitation regime interchange in the warm intervals is associated with the formation of the dipole and tripolar circulation patterns. The large-scale circulation changes responsible for the altered precipitation modes are attributed to the enhanced EASM and relevant southerly winds due to intensified land–sea thermal contrast, although the external forcings and the magnitude of EASM enhancement are different in the interglacial and future periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snow fraction has a direct impact on water resources in arid regions. The selection of proper methods for estimating snow fraction is thus essential. Two temperature-based and two humidity-based approaches to discriminate precipitation phase were evaluated using daily meteorological observations over the past six decades in Xinjiang in arid northwest China. The main findings included that 1) the finest discrimination was achieved by the wet-bulb temperature (Tw) method whereas the single temperature threshold at 0°C produces the poorest result; the performances of the Dai and humidity-dependent empirical method (TRH) methods were between them, with slightly lower error using the Dai method. Also, the Tw method is the least sensitive to regional heterogeneity and less affected by distinct changes in elevation; the other three methods, however, are biased mostly toward underestimating snow and show larger variations due to the regional discrepancies. Careful adjustment of snow discrimination thresholds based on the local properties of observation spots is needed for these methods. 2) Despite widespread warming, snow fraction perturbations in Xinjiang are characterized mainly by insignificant changes plus pronounced reductions at high mountain sites. Proxy drivers of such changes can be better explained by considering the hydrothermal diversity and changing climatic factors. Across the wetter subregions, snowfall has been significantly increasing, and the positive impact of which on snow fraction was hindered by significant warming, particularly in winter, and summer rainfall; across the drier subregions, however, insignificant change in snow fraction corresponds to a slow and insignificant increase in snowfall joined by the negative impacts of significant winter warming and summer rainfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extreme concentration of population over South Asia makes it critical to accurately understand the global warming impact on the South Asian monsoon (SAM), but the complex orography of the region makes future projections of monsoon intensity technically challenging. Here we describe a series of climate projections constructed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model for South Asia to dynamically downscale a global warming simulation constructed using the Community Earth System Model under the representative concentration pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5) scenario. A physics-based miniensemble is employed to investigate the sensitivity of the projected change of the SAM to the implementation of different parameterization schemes in WRF. We analyze not only the changes in mean seasonal precipitation but also the impact of the warming process on precipitation extremes. All projections are characterized by a consistent increase in average monsoon precipitation and a fattening of the tail of the daily rainfall distribution (more than a 50% decrease in the return periods of 50-yr extreme rainfall events by the end of the twenty-first century). Further analysis based on one of the WRF physics ensemble members shows that both the average rainfall intensity changes and the extreme precipitation increases are projected to be slightly larger than expectations based upon the Clausius–Clapeyron thermodynamic reference of 7% °C−1 of surface warming in most parts of India. This further increase can be primarily explained by the fact that the surface warming is projected to be smaller than the warming in the midtroposphere, where a significant portion of rain originates, and dynamical effects play only a secondary role. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mountain precipitation is often strongly underestimated as observations are scarce, biased toward lower-lying locations and prone to wind-induced undercatch, while topographical heterogeneity is large. This presents serious challenges to hydrological modeling for water resource management and climate change impact assessments in mountainous regions of the world, where a large population depends on water supply from the mountains. The headwaters of the Tarim River, covering four remote and highly glacierized Asian mountain ranges, are vital water suppliers to large agricultural communities along the Taklamakan Desert, northwest China. Assessments of future changes to these water towers have been hampered because of the large precipitation uncertainties. In this study, six existing precipitation datasets (observation-based reanalysis datasets, satellite observation datasets, and the output of high-resolution regional climate models) were compared over five headwaters of the Tarim River. The dataset incorporating the highest observation density (APHRODITE) is then corrected by calibrating the glacio-hydrological model Soil and Water Integrated Model-Glacier Dynamics (SWIM-G) to observed discharge, glacier hypsometry, and modeled glacier mass balance. Results show that this form of inverse modeling is able to inform the precipitation correction in such data-scarce conditions. Substantial disagreement of annual mean precipitation between the analyzed datasets, with coefficients of variation in catchment mean precipitation of 68% on average, was found. The model-based precipitation estimates are on average 1.5-4.3 times higher than the APHRODITE data, but fall between satellite-based and regional climate model results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study introduces a new daily high-resolution land-only observational gridded dataset, called SA-OBS, for precipitation and minimum, mean, and maximum temperature covering Southeast Asia. This dataset improves upon existing observational products in terms of the number of contributing stations, in the use of an interpolation technique appropriate for daily climate observations, and in making estimates of the uncertainty of the gridded data. The dataset is delivered on a 0.25° × 0.25° and a 0.5° × 0.5° regular latitude-longitude grid for the period 1981-2014. The dataset aims to provide best estimates of grid square averages rather than point values to enable direct comparisons with regional climate models. Next to the best estimates, daily uncertainties are quantified. The underlying daily station time series are collected in cooperation between meteorological services in the region: the Southeast Asian Climate Assessment and Dataset (SACA&D). Comparisons are made with station observations and other gridded station or satellite-based datasets (APHRODITE, CMORPH, TRMM). The comparisons show that vast differences exist in the average daily precipitation, the number of rainy days, and the average precipitation on a wet day between these datasets. SA-OBS closely resembles the station observations in terms of dry/wet frequency, the timing of precipitation events, and the reproduction of extreme precipitation. New versions of SA-OBS will be released when the station network in SACA&D has grown further. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Annual and seasonal trends of precipitable water (PW) and relative humidity (RH) at 850, 700, and 500 hPa are studied using the data from 106 radiosonde stations over China during the period 1979-2005. Analysis shows evidence of an increase in PW associated with the slight warming observed in the lower to midtroposphere over China. The northern part of China shows a significant upward trend of PW in summer, and drying of the atmosphere in winter is found in most regions over China. Annual and seasonal trends in RH at the 850-, 700-, and 500-hPa levels show no significant trends in most regions in China except for Xinjiang, which shows an upward trend, and central China, where there was a downward trend in RH at 500 hPa. It is found that changes in PW are coincident with the warming of the surface and the lower to midtroposphere. The RH in the lower to midtroposphere in most regions over China has remained steady during the most recent 30 years, as might be expected given the increasing of PW and the warming above the surface. The long-term trend of precipitation over China may be linked to the trends of PW and RH at the lower level and midlevel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates a decadal climate shift over East Asia in winter, focusing on the changes in hydrological cycle as well as large-scale circulation using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Regional Spectral Model (RSM). The RSM is forced by perfect boundary conditions for winter (December-February) from 1979 to 2007. Analyses for two separate periods (1979-87 and 1999-2007) are performed to investigate the regional climate model's ability to simulate climate change in precipitation as well as large-scale circulation. The RSM reproduces differences in large-scale features associated with winter climate change over East Asia when the winter monsoon is modulated on decadal time scales with its weakening pattern observed since the late 1980s. The model adequately reproduces a weakening of the Siberian high and shallowness of the Aleutian low in the lower troposphere and a weakened East Asian coastal trough and East Asian jet in the upper troposphere during 1999-2007, as compared to the first nine winters of 1979-87. Conversely, the decadal shift in precipitation is not well reproduced by the model. The model is capable of reproducing the power spectrum of daily precipitation with maxima at 8.5 days and 45 days in 1979-87, whereas widely spread peaks in 1999-2007 are not captured. The increase of precipitation due to parameterized convection is prominent. This study shows that the dynamical numerical model has a limited capability to reproduce the wintertime hydrological climate over East Asia associated with global warming in recent years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]