A decadal shift of summer surface air temperature over Northeast Asia around the mid-1990s

Abstract

This study identifies a decadal shift of summer surface air temperature (SAT) over Northeast Asia, including southeastern parts of Russia, Mongolia and northern China, around the mid-1990s. The results suggest that the SAT over the Northeast Asia experienced a significant warming after 1994 relative to that before 1993. This decadal shift also extends to northern China, and leads to a warmer summer over Northeast China and North China after the mid-1990s. The decadal warming over Northeast Asia is found to concur with the enhancement of South China rainfall around the mid-1990s. On the one hand, both the Northeast Asian SAT and South China rainfall exhibit this mid-1990s decadal shift only in summer, but not in other seasons. On the other hand, both the Northeast Asian SAT and South China rainfall exhibit this mid-1990s decadal shift not only in the summer seasonal mean, but also in each month of summer (June, July and August). Furthermore, the decadal warming is found to result from an anticyclonic anomaly over Northeast Asia, which can be interpreted as the response to the increased precipitation over South China, according to previous numerical results. Thus, we conclude that the warming shift of summer Northeast Asian SAT around the mid-1990s was a remote response to the increased precipitation over South China.