Surface warming reacceleration in offshore China and its interdecadal effects on the East Asia\u2013Pacific climate

Yulian Tang,Ronghui Huang,Jingliang Huangfu,Wen Chen

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-71862-6

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) have exhibited greater responses to global warming in the offshore area of China and adjacent seas (offshore China) than in the global ocean. This study identified a surface warming reacceleration in offshore China since 2011, following a well-known interdecadal shift from offshore surface warming to cooling in 1998. During the warming reacceleration period, the rate of increase in offshore China SSTs was twice the mean rate of global ocean surface warming, and the significantly warming area was primarily in the north, especially in the East China Sea. Concurrent with the ascending phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, a large area of positive sea level pressure anomalies developed over the tropical Pacific. Accordingly, the surface southerly wind anomalies contributed to the recent surface warming in offshore China, especially in the East China Sea. With greater changes in the warming rate, the spatial mode of the circulation anomalies over East Asia and the western Pacific has shifted westward and has exerted more inshore influence during the recent warming reacceleration period than during the previous periods.

Highlights

Global warming is explicitly based on the fact that the global mean temperatures of both land and ocean surfaces have increased by 0.85 °C from 1,880 to 20121
To detect the recent interdecadal reacceleration in the offshore China sea surface temperatures (SSTs) more objectively, we utilized two more SST datasets, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Extended Reconstructed Sea Surface Temperature V5 (ERSSTv532) dataset and the Centennial Observation-Based Estimates of the Variability of Sea Surface Temperature (COBE-SST33), and employed the method proposed by Yao et al.[2], which has been applied successfully to distinguish distinct global warming periods
This study examined the interdecadal variation in the offshore China SST and its impact on the East Asia–Pacific climate during 1979–2019 under global warming

Summary

Introduction

Global warming is explicitly based on the fact that the global mean temperatures of both land and ocean surfaces have increased by 0.85 °C from 1,880 to 20121. Zhang et al.[20] claimed that the global warming slowdown dissolved in the early 2010s and explained that the combined contributions of the decadal-to-multidecadal component and the long-term warming trend show greater contributions than the interannual component, implying that the warmer years observed recently may occur more frequently in the near future. That global warming has entered a new stage based on the positive phase of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the increasing trend in the North Atlantic Oscillation index

Methods

Results

Conclusion