Combined effect of El Niño-Southern Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation on the East Asian winter monsoon

Abstract

Using long-term observational data and numerical model experiments, the combined effect of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) on the variability of the East Asian winter monsoon is examined. In the observations, it is found that when the ENSO and PDO are in-phase combinations (i.e., El Nino/positive PDO phase and La Nina/negative PDO phase), a negative relationship between ENSO and East Asian winter monsoon is significantly intensified. In other words, when El Nino (La Nina) occurs with positive (negative) PDO phase, anomalous warm (cold) temperatures are dominant over the East Asian winter continent. On the other hand, there are no significant temperature anomalies when the ENSO and PDO are out-of-phase combinations (i.e., El Nino/negative PDO phase and La Nina/positive PDO phase). Further analyses indicate that the anticyclone over the western North Pacific including the East Asian marginal seas plays an essential role in modulating the intensity of the East Asian winter monsoon under the changes of ENSO–PDO phase relationship. Long-lasting high pressure and warm sea surface temperature anomalies during the late fall/winter and following spring over the western North Pacific, which appear as the El Nino occurs with positive PDO phase, can lead to a weakened East Asian winter monsoon by transporting warm and wet conditions into the East Asian continent through the southerly wind anomalies along the western flank of the anomalous high pressure, and vice versa as the La Nina occurs with negative PDO phase. In contrast, the anomalous high pressure over the western North Pacific does not show a prominent change under the out-of-phase combinations of ENSO and PDO. Numerical model experiments confirm the observational results, accompanying dominant warm temperature anomalies over East Asia via strong anticyclonic circulation anomalies near the Philippine Sea as the El Nino occurs with positive PDO phase, whereas such warming is weakened as the El Nino occurs with negative PDO phase. This result supports the argument that the changes in the East Asian winter monsoon intensity with ENSO are largely affected by the strength of the anticyclone over the western North Pacific, which significantly changes according to the ENSO–PDO phase relationship.