New Metrics of the Tropospheric Biennial Oscillation in the East Asian Summer Monsoon and Its Interdecadal Shift

Abstract

AbstractThis study designed a simple index for measuring irregular tropospheric biennial oscillation (TBO) activities, which was used to determine that the TBO in the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM), the most important summer precipitation system for China, has strengthened rather than weakened since the late 1970s. The lead/lag correlations between the EASM and tropical Indian-Pacific sea surface temperature (SST) suggest a relationship between interbasin SST and EASM coupling processes and that this alternative correlation pattern is likely related to TBO. Significant correlation occurred only in recent decades, which implies a reinforcement of TBO in the EASM. From records of representative points in the Indian-Pacific, the interdecadal intrinsic SST modes of the areas can be obtained with ensemble empirical mode decomposition owing to its good temporal locality. Statistical results show Indian-Pacific SST interdecadal trends that include out-of-phase and in-phase warming before and after the late 197...