The projection of China＇s near- and long-term future climate is revisited with a new-generation statistically down- scaled dataset, NEX-GDDP （NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections）. This dataset presents a high-resolution seamless climate projection from 1950 to 2100 by combining observations and GCM results, and re- markably improves CMIP5 hindcasts and projections from large scale to regional-to-local scales with an unchanged long-term trend. Three aspects are significantly improved： （1） the climatology in the past as compared against the ob- servations; （2） more reliable near- and long-term projections, with a modified range of absolute value and reduced inter-model spread as compared to CMIP5 GCMs; and （3） much added value at regional-to-local scales compared to GCM outputs. NEX-GDDP has great potential to become a widely-used high-resolution dataset and a benchmark of modem climate change for diverse earth science communities.
The authors examined the variability in wintertime cyclone activity and storm tracks and their relation to precipitation over China for the period 1951-2006 using the observational data.Two apparent modes of variability were assumed for the cyclone activity and storm tracks.The first mode describes the oscillation in the strength of the storm tracks in East Asia,which significantly increased since the mid-1980s,whereas the second mode describes a seesaw oscillation in the storm track strength between the Central-Southeast China and northem East Asia.The storm tracks over the Central-Southeast China have increased since the late 1960s.The possible causes for the variation of the cyclone activity and storm tracks are also explored.It is shown that wintertime precipitation,which has increased since the mid-1980s,concentrates in Central-Southeast China.The enhancement may be caused by the first mode of variability of storm tracks,whereas the interannual variability of precipitation may be linked to the second mode of the storm track variability.
CHEN LeiTAN Ben-KuiNils Gunnar KVAMSTΦOla M. JOHANNESSEN
In the extratropics of the Northern Hemisphere, there exist many kinds of atmospheric teleconnection patterns. According to their spatial structure, these teleconnection patterns are generally divided into two groups. One group comprises north-south dipole patterns, such as the North Atlantic Oscillation and the North Pacific Oscillation, which have two anomalous centers of opposite signs in the north-south direction. The other group includes the wave train-like patterns, which have several anomalous centers of opposite signs distributed mainly in the zonal direction, such as the Pacific/North American and Eurasian Patterns. These teleconnection patterns greatly impact weather and climate not only in the regions where the teleconnection patterns are active~ but atso in the regions thousands of kilometers away. Studying and understanding the formation mechanisms of these teleconnection patterns form the basis for the short-term climate prediction. This paper reviews advances in the study of the dynamics of these teleconnection patterns, with particular attention paid to the teleconnection patterns that significantly influence the weather and climate of East Asia.
In this study,a newly developed method,termed moving empirical orthogonal function analysis（MEOF）,is applied to the study of midlatitude baroclinic waves over the wintertime North Pacific from 1979 to 2009.It is shown that when the daily,high-pass filtered（2–10 days） meridional wind at 250 h Pa is chosen as the variable of the MEOF analysis,typical features of baroclinic waves/storm tracks over the wintertime North Pacific can be well described by this method.It is found that the first two leading modes of the MEOF analysis,MEOF1 and MEOF2,assume quite different patterns.MEOF1 takes the form of a single wave train running in the east–west direction along 40°N,while MEOF2 is a double wave train pattern running in the east–west direction along 50°N and 30°N,respectively.The shift composites of various anomalous fields based on MEOF1 and MEOF2 assume typical baroclinic wave features.MEOF1 represents a primary storm track pulsing with an intrinsic time scale of two days.It shows significant ＂midwinter suppression＂ and apparent interannual variability.It is stronger after the mid-1990 s than before the mid-1990 s.MEOF2 represents a double-branch storm track,also with an intrinsic time scale of approximately two days,running along 50°N and 30°N,respectively.It shows no apparent seasonal variation,but its interannual and decadal variation is quite clear.It oscillates with larger amplitude and longer periods after the mid-1990 s than before the mid-1990 s,and is heavily modulated by El Ni n°o–Southern Oscillation（ENSO）.
