Abstract
In recent decades, droughts have occurred in the western-to-central United States (US), significantly affecting food production, water supplies, ecosystem health, and the propagation of vector-borne diseases. Previous studies have suggested natural sea surface temperature (SST) forcing in the Pacific as the main driver of precipitation deficits in the US. Here, we show that the aerosol forcing in China, which has been known to alter the regional hydrological cycle in East Asia, may also contribute to reducing the precipitation in the western-to-central US through atmospheric teleconnections across the Pacific. Our model experiments show some indications that both the SST forcing and the increase in regional sulphate forcing in China play a similar role in modulating the western-to-central US precipitation, especially its long-term variation. This result indicates that regional air quality regulations in China have important implications for hydrological cycles in East Asia, as well as in the US.
Highlights
Space Administration (MERRA NASA)[16] to explore the relative contributions of natural sea surface temperature (SST) forcing and anthropogenic aerosol forcing
We focus our observational analysis on the period 1985–2010, which is limited by the reliability of precipitation observations and by the availability of anthropogenic emissions used in the model
Previous studies suggested that the increase in rainfall amount in southeastern China in the past decade could be associated with the SST forcing over the tropical Pacific[17,18]
Summary
Space Administration (MERRA NASA)[16] to explore the relative contributions of natural SST forcing and anthropogenic aerosol forcing. The regressed geopotential height anomalies show a zonally elongated atmospheric teleconnection pattern linking the variability of summertime precipitation over southeastern China and the western-to-central US5,6 (Fig. 1A).
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