Association of the Northern Hemisphere circumglobal teleconnection with the Asian summer monsoon during the Holocene in a transient simulation

• Published in: The Holocene
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xiaojian, Jin, Liya
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: SAGE Publications 2015
• Subjects: Indian; Pacific; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0959683615608689; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959683615608689; http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full-xml/10.1177/0959683615608689

This paper provides another look at the response of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) to insolation forcing and oceanic feedback during the Holocene, using a fully coupled general circulation ocean–atmosphere model forced by Earth’s orbital variations. The model results revealed a recurrent circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) pattern in the summertime (June–July–August) mid-latitude circulation of the Northern Hemisphere during the Holocene. The CGT index showed a decreasing trend before ~5 ka BP and a slight increasing trend afterwards, affected by the combined effects of summer insolation, Indian summer monsoon (ISM), North Atlantic and Indian Ocean–western Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature (SST). The CGT showed a close relationship with ASM precipitation and surface air temperature during the Holocene and, therefore, could act as a bridge linking the ASM to insolation, high-latitude forcing (North Atlantic SST), and low-latitude forcing (tropical Ocean SST). We emphasize that the mid-latitude atmospheric circulation has been a key factor for the evolution of the ASM during the Holocene. In addition, the CGT provides a viable explanation for the out-of-phase relationship in the moisture evolution but an in-phase relationship in the speleothem δ 18 O between arid central Asia and the ISM region during the Holocene.