Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline
Recent studies suggested significant impacts of boreal cryosphere changes on wintertime air stagnation and haze pollution extremes in China. However, the underlying mechanisms of such a teleconnection relationship remains unclear. Here we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to i...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:acp81498 2023-05-15T14:48:43+02:00 Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline Zou, Yufei Wang, Yuhang Xie, Zuowei Wang, Hailong Rasch, Philip J. 2020-04-28 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4999-2020 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/20/4999/2020/ eng eng doi:10.5194/acp-20-4999-2020 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/20/4999/2020/ eISSN: 1680-7324 Text 2020 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4999-2020 2020-05-04T14:42:00Z Recent studies suggested significant impacts of boreal cryosphere changes on wintertime air stagnation and haze pollution extremes in China. However, the underlying mechanisms of such a teleconnection relationship remains unclear. Here we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to investigate dynamic processes leading to atmospheric circulation and air stagnation responses to Arctic sea ice changes. We conduct four climate sensitivity experiments by perturbing sea ice concentrations (SIC) and corresponding sea surface temperature (SST) in autumn and early winter over the whole Arctic and three subregions in the climate model. The results indicate distinct responses in circulation patterns and regional ventilation to the region-specific Arctic changes, with the largest increase of both the probability (by 132 %) and the intensity (by 30 %) of monthly air stagnation extremes being found in the experiment driven by SIC and SST changes over the Pacific sector of the Arctic (the East Siberian and Chukchi seas). The increased air stagnation extremes are mainly driven by an amplified planetary-scale atmospheric teleconnection pattern that resembles the negative phase of the Eurasian (EU) pattern. Dynamical diagnostics suggest that convergence of transient eddy forcing in the vicinity of Scandinavia in winter is largely responsible for the amplification of the teleconnection pattern. Transient eddy vorticity fluxes dominate the transient eddy forcing and produce a barotropic anticyclonic anomaly near Scandinavia and wave train propagation across Eurasia to the downstream regions in East Asia. The piecewise potential vorticity inversion analysis reveals that this long-range atmospheric teleconnection of Arctic origin takes place primarily via the middle and upper troposphere. The anomalous ridge over East Asia in the middle and upper troposphere worsens regional ventilation conditions by weakening monsoon northwesterlies and enhancing temperature inversions near the surface, leading to more and stronger air stagnation and pollution extremes over eastern China in winter. Ensemble projections based on state-of-the-art climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) corroborate this teleconnection relationship between high-latitude environmental changes and midlatitude weather extremes, though the tendency and magnitude vary considerably among each participating model. Text Arctic Chukchi Sea ice Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Arctic Pacific Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 20 8 4999 5017 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Recent studies suggested significant impacts of boreal cryosphere changes on wintertime air stagnation and haze pollution extremes in China. However, the underlying mechanisms of such a teleconnection relationship remains unclear. Here we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to investigate dynamic processes leading to atmospheric circulation and air stagnation responses to Arctic sea ice changes. We conduct four climate sensitivity experiments by perturbing sea ice concentrations (SIC) and corresponding sea surface temperature (SST) in autumn and early winter over the whole Arctic and three subregions in the climate model. The results indicate distinct responses in circulation patterns and regional ventilation to the region-specific Arctic changes, with the largest increase of both the probability (by 132 %) and the intensity (by 30 %) of monthly air stagnation extremes being found in the experiment driven by SIC and SST changes over the Pacific sector of the Arctic (the East Siberian and Chukchi seas). The increased air stagnation extremes are mainly driven by an amplified planetary-scale atmospheric teleconnection pattern that resembles the negative phase of the Eurasian (EU) pattern. Dynamical diagnostics suggest that convergence of transient eddy forcing in the vicinity of Scandinavia in winter is largely responsible for the amplification of the teleconnection pattern. Transient eddy vorticity fluxes dominate the transient eddy forcing and produce a barotropic anticyclonic anomaly near Scandinavia and wave train propagation across Eurasia to the downstream regions in East Asia. The piecewise potential vorticity inversion analysis reveals that this long-range atmospheric teleconnection of Arctic origin takes place primarily via the middle and upper troposphere. The anomalous ridge over East Asia in the middle and upper troposphere worsens regional ventilation conditions by weakening monsoon northwesterlies and enhancing temperature inversions near the surface, leading to more and stronger air stagnation and pollution extremes over eastern China in winter. Ensemble projections based on state-of-the-art climate models in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) corroborate this teleconnection relationship between high-latitude environmental changes and midlatitude weather extremes, though the tendency and magnitude vary considerably among each participating model. |
format |
Text |
author |
Zou, Yufei Wang, Yuhang Xie, Zuowei Wang, Hailong Rasch, Philip J. |
spellingShingle |
Zou, Yufei Wang, Yuhang Xie, Zuowei Wang, Hailong Rasch, Philip J. Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline |
author_facet |
Zou, Yufei Wang, Yuhang Xie, Zuowei Wang, Hailong Rasch, Philip J. |
author_sort |
Zou, Yufei |
title |
Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline |
title_short |
Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline |
title_full |
Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline |
title_fullStr |
Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline |
title_full_unstemmed |
Atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in China with regional Arctic sea ice decline |
title_sort |
atmospheric teleconnection processes linking winter air stagnation and haze extremes in china with regional arctic sea ice decline |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4999-2020 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/20/4999/2020/ |
geographic |
Arctic Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Pacific |
genre |
Arctic Chukchi Sea ice |
genre_facet |
Arctic Chukchi Sea ice |
op_source |
eISSN: 1680-7324 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/acp-20-4999-2020 https://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/20/4999/2020/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4999-2020 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
20 |
container_issue |
8 |
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4999 |
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5017 |
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1766319799231578112 |