Atmospheric pathway of marine heatwaves over the Northwestern Pacific.

This study analyzes the influence of the Pacific-Japan (PJ) atmospheric teleconnection pattern and its interaction with oceanic processes on sea surface warming over the Northwestern Pacific. The PJ pattern is a thermally driven Rossby wave that originates over the tropical western Pacific through deep convection and propagates toward high latitudes. It plays a significant role in sea surface warming by inducing anticyclonic circulation and the corresponding northwestward extension of the subtropical high over the Northwestern Pacific.

Seasonality of Radon-222 near the surface at King Sejong Station (62°S), Antarctic Peninsula, and the role of atmospheric circulation based on observations and CAM-Chem model.

We examined the seasonal cycle of radon concentration observed at King Sejong Station (KSG, 62°S), Antarctic Peninsula, during the period 2013-2016. The distribution of monthly radon concentration was found to be highly positively skewed from March through October (austral autumn to spring) due to large numbers of short-lived periods of high radon concentration. The global atmospheric chemistry model (CAM-Chem), which includes all global terrestrial sources of radon except for those in Antarctica, well reproduces the observed seasonal cycle of monthly-mean radon concentration at KSG.

Influence of the recent winter Arctic sea ice loss in short-term simulations of a regional atmospheric model.

Notable changes in the wintertime Arctic atmospheric circulation have occurred over the last few decades. Despite its importance in understanding the recent changes in the Northern Hemisphere midlatitude climate, it remains unclear whether and how these changes are affected by recent Arctic sea ice loss. In this study, a regional scale model is used to separate the direct sea ice influence from the natural variability of large-scale atmospheric circulation.

The internal origin of the west-east asymmetry of Antarctic climate change.

Recent Antarctic surface climate change has been characterized by greater warming trends in West Antarctica than in East Antarctica. Although this asymmetric feature is well recognized, its origin remains poorly understood. Here, by analyzing observation data and multimodel results, we show that a west-east asymmetric internal mode amplified in austral winter originates from the harmony of the atmosphere-ocean coupled feedback off West Antarctica and the Antarctic terrain.

Major cause of unprecedented Arctic warming in January 2016: Critical role of an Atlantic windstorm.

In January 2016, the Arctic experienced an extremely anomalous warming event after an extraordinary increase in air temperature at the end of 2015. During this event, a strong intrusion of warm and moist air and an increase in downward longwave radiation, as well as a loss of sea ice in the Barents and Kara seas, were observed. Observational analyses revealed that the abrupt warming was triggered by the entry of a strong Atlantic windstorm into the Arctic in late December 2015, which brought enormous moist and warm air masses to the Arctic.