What caused the cool summer over northern Central Asia, East Asia and central North America during 2009?

  • Kyung Ja Ha
  • , Jung Eun Chu
  • , June Yi Lee
  • , Bin Wang
  • , Saji N. Hameed
  • , Masahiro Watanabe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

20 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cool and wet weather conditions hit northern Central Asia, East Asia and central North America during the 2009 summer in concert with a strong jet stream and a prominent meandering upper-level circulation in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes despite the fact that the year 2009 is the fifth warmest year globally in the modern record. It is found that the conspicuous atmospheric variability in the entire Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes during the summer of 2009 was caused by a combination of teleconnections associated with significant tropical thermal forcings, strong polar forcing, and interaction between high-frequency weather events and climate anomalies. The strong negative circumglobal teleconnection pattern associated with the deficient Indian summer monsoon rainfall and developing El Niño condition was the major contributor to the cool and wet summer in June. On the other hand, the July weather conditions were attributable to the high-latitude impact of the unprecedented negative Arctic Oscillation, together with the Rossby wave response to the subtropical heating generated by convective activities over the Western North Pacific summer monsoon region. It is also noted that enhanced storm track activity and frequent cold surges from high-latitudes may have played a role in the cool and wet summer over the regions of interest.

Original languageEnglish
Article number044015
JournalEnvironmental Research Letters
Volume7
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Arctic oscillation
  • El Nino
  • Indian summer monsoon
  • Western North Pacific summer monsoon
  • atmospheric variability
  • circumglobal teleconnection
  • cold surge
  • cool summer

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