Dominant Anomalous Circulation Patterns of Tibetan Plateau Summer Climate Generated by ENSO-Forced and ENSO-Independent Teleconnections

Abstract

Abstract The interannual variability of Tibetan Plateau (TP) summer climate has tremendous impacts on both regional hydrological cycles and global climate. In this study, we extract four dominant modes of the summertime large-scale circulation over the TP and surrounding areas from both the observation and simulations by a coupled general circulation model, CAS-FGOALS-f3-L. Based on the 10-member tropical Pacific pacemaker experiments, the ENSO-forced and ENSO-independent signals are isolated, each of which is represented by two dominant modes. The two ENSO-forced modes correspond to ENSO developing and decaying summer, respectively. The positive phase of the developing (decaying) ENSO-related mode is characterized by an anomalous baroclinic cyclone (anticyclone) over the western TP excited by the variations of the tropical summer monsoon rainfall. During the El Niño developing summer, the Indian monsoon rainfall variation is driven by an eastward shift of the Walker circulation due to warm anomalies in the equatorial central-eastern Pacific, whereas during the El Niño decaying summer it is caused by the basinwide warming in the tropical Indian Ocean. The two ENSO-independent modes are associated with the summer North Atlantic Oscillation (SNAO) and the circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) pattern, respectively. The positive phases of the SNAO- and CGT-related modes are characterized by an anomalous anticyclone over the western TP and zonal cyclone–anticyclone dipole pattern over the TP, respectively, both of which are associated with mid- and high-latitude stationary Rossby wave trains.