Interannual Variability of the East Asian Winter Monsoon and Related Modulations of the Planetary Waves

Abstract

Interannual variability of the East Asian winter monsoon is investigated through composite analysis applied to observational data for 50 recent years. Although the monsoon activity itself is confined into the lower troposphere, its midwinter variability tends to accompany upper-tropospheric geopotential height anomalies similar to the Eurasian (EU) and western Pacific (WP) teleconnection patterns. The “EU-like” pattern is characterized by a wavy signature over the Eurasian continent and the North Atlantic, with surface temperature anomalies over the Far East and North America. In the “WP-like” pattern, a meridional dipole of upper-level height anomalies is evident over the Far East. These anomaly patterns related to the anomalous winter monsoon activity are found to accompany marked modulations of the climatological development of the upper-tropospheric planetary waves from late autumn to midwinter. Enhanced monsoon activity in January associated with the WP-like pattern involves anomalous seasonal development of a planetary wave ridge with enhanced positive height tendencies from November to January over eastern Siberia and Alaska, while the corresponding tendencies are anomalously negative under the weakened monsoon activity. The stronger monsoon also accompanies an enhanced seasonal decline of geopotential height over the midlatitude North Pacific, corresponding to the enhanced southeastward development of a planetary wave trough. Similar modulations of the planetary wave evolution are observed with the anomalous monsoon activity associated with the EU-like pattern. In addition, the anomalous midwinter activity of the monsoon is also accompanied by noticeable variability of the seasonal development of the planetary waves over the Euro-Atlantic sector.