Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The response of the East Asian summer monsoon to strong tropical volcanic eruptions

  • Published:
Advances in Atmospheric Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A 600-year integration performed with the Bergen Climate Model and National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis data were used to investigate the impact of strong tropical volcanic eruptions on the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and EASM rainfall. Both the simulation and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data show a weakening of the EASM in strong eruption years. The model simulation suggests that North and South China experience droughts and the Yangtze-Huaihe River Valley experiences floods during eruption years. In response to strong tropical volcanic eruptions, the meridional air temperature gradient in the upper troposphere is enhanced, which leads to a southward shift and an increase of the East Asian subtropical westerly jet stream (EASWJ). At the same time, the land-sea thermal contrast between the Asian land mass and Northwest Pacific Ocean is weakened. The southward shift and increase of the EASWJ and reduction of the land-sea thermal contrast all contribute to a weakening of the EASM and EASM rainfall anomaly.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Angell, J., and J. Korshover, 1985: Surface temperature changes following the six major volcanic episodes between 1780 and 1980. J. Climate Appl. Meteor., 24(9), 937–951.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bleck, R., C. Rooth, D. Hu, and L. T. Smith, 1992: Salinitydriven thermocline transients in a wind-and thermohalineforced isopycnic coordinate model of the North Atlantic. J. Phys. Oceanogr., 22, 1486–1486.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang, C. P., Y. S. Zhang, and T. Li, 2000: Interannual and interdecadal variations of the East Asian summer monsoon and tropical Pacific SSTs. Part I: Roles of the subtropical ridge. J. Climate, 13(24), 4310–4325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chang, W. Y., H. Liao, and H. J. Wang, 2009: Climate responses to direct radiative forcing of anthropogenic aerosols, tropospheric ozone, and long-lived greenhouse gases in eastern China over 1951–2000. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 26(4), 748–762, doi: 10.1007/s00376-009-9032-4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, H. M., T. J. Zhou, R. B. Neale, X. Q. Wu, and G. J. Zhang, 2010: Performance of the new NCAR CAM 3.5 in East Asian summer monsoon simulations: Sensitivity to modifications of the convection scheme. J. Climate, 23, 3657–3675.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crowley, T. J., S. K. Baum, K. Y. Kim, G. C. Hegerl, and W. T. Hyde, 2003: Modeling ocean heat content changes during the last millennium. Geophys. Res. Lett., 30(18), 1932, doi:10.1029/2003GL017801.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cui, X. D., Y. Q. Gao, D. Y. Gong, D. Guo, and T. Furevik, 2013: Teleconnection between winter Arctic Oscillation and Southeast Asian summer monsoon in the pre-industry simulation of a coupled climate model. Atmos. Oceanic Sci. Lett., 6, 349–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cui, X. D., Y. Q. Gao, J. Q. Sun, D. Guo, S. L. Li, and O. M. Johannessen, 2014: Role of natural external forcing factors in modulating the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, the winter North Atlantic Oscillation and their relationship on interdecadal timescale. Climate Dyn., doi: 10.1007/s00382-014-2053-4.

    Google Scholar 

  • D’Arrigo, R., R. Wilson, and A. Tudhope, 2008: The impact of volcanic forcing on tropical temperatures during the past four centuries. Nature Geosci., 2(1), 51–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Déqué, M., C. Dreveton, A. Braun, and D. Cariolle, 1994: The ARPEGE/IFS atmosphere model: A contribution to the French community climate modelling. Climate Dyn., 10(4), 249–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Efron, B., and R. Tibshirani, 1986: Bootstrap methods for standard errors, confidence intervals, and other measures of statistical accuracy. Statistical Science, 1, 54–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emile-Geay, J., R. Seager, M. A. Cane, E. R. Cook, and G. H. Haug, 2008: Volcanoes and ENSO over the past millennium. J. Climate, 21(13), 3134–3148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eyring, V., and Coauthors, 2006: Assessment of temperature, trace species, and ozone in chemistry-climate model simulations of the recent past. J. Geophy. Res., 111, D22308, doi:10.1029/2006JD007327.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fischer, E. M., J. Luterbacher, E. Zorita, S. F. B. Tett, C. Casty, and H. Wanner, 2007: European climate response to tropical volcanic eruptions over the last half millennium. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L05707, doi:10.1029/2006GL027992.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gu, Y., K. Liou, W. Chen, and H. Liao, 2010: Direct climate effect of black carbon in China and its impact on dust storms. J. Geophys. Res., 115(D7), D00K14, doi:10.1029/2009JD013427.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gillett, N. P., A. J. Weaver, F. W. Zwiers, and M. F. Wehner, 2004: Detection of volcanic influence on global precipitation. Geophys. Res. Lett., 31(12), L12217, doi:10.1029/2004GL020044.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gong, D. Y., and C. H. Ho, 2002: Shift in the summer rainfall over the Yangtze River valley in the late 1970s. Geophys. Res. Lett., 29(10), 1436, doi:10.1029/2001GL014523.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gong, D. Y., and C. H. Ho, 2003: Arctic oscillation signals in the East Asian summer monsoon. J. Geophys. Res., 108(D2), 4066, doi:10.1029/2002JD002193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Handler, P., 1986: Possible association between the climatic effects of stratospheric aerosols and sea surface temperatures in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. J. Climatol., 6(1), 31–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Handler, P., and K. Andsager, 1990: Volcanic aerosols, El Niño and the Southern Oscillation. Int. J. Climatol., 10(4), 413–424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haurwitz, M. W., and G. W. Brier, 1981: A critique of the superposed epoch analysis method: Its application to solar-weather relations. Mon. Wea. Rev., 109(10), 2074–2079.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang, T., Q. Zhang, R. Blender, and K. Fraedrich, 2005: Yangtze Delta floods and droughts of the last millennium: Abrupt changes and long term memory. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 82, 131–141.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalnay, E., and Coauthors, 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77(3), 437–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lambert, F. H., N. P. Gillett, D. A. Stone, and C. Huntingford, 2005: Attribution studies of observed land precipitation changes with nine coupled models. Geophys. Res. Lett., 32(18), L18704, doi:10.1029/2005GL023654.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lean, J., J. Beer, and R. Bradley, 1995: Reconstruction of solar irradiance since 1610: Implications for climate change. Geophys. Res. Lett., 22(23), 3195–3198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liang, X. Z., and W. C. Wang, 1998: Associations between China monsoon rainfall and tropospheric jets. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 124(552), 2597–2623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., G. Huang, and R. H. Huang, 2011: Inter-decadal variability of summer rainfall in Eastern China detected by the Lepage test. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 106(3–4), 481–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y. Q., Y. H. Li, and P. Q. Jia, 1993: A comparative analysis of effect of volcanic eruptions at low and mid-high latitudes on drought/flood in China. Meteorological Monthly, 19(11), 3–7. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu, R., H. Ye, and J. G. Jhun, 2011: Weakening of interannual variability in the summer East Asian upper-tropospheric westerly jet since the mid-1990s. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 28(6), 1246–1258, doi: 10.1007/s00376-011-0222-5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahmood, R., and S. L. Li, 2011: Modeled influence of East Asian black carbon on inter-decadal shifts in East China summer rainfall. Atmos. Oceanic Sci. Lett., 4(6), 349–355.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, A. G., A. A. Scaife, and S. Ineson, 2009: Enhanced seasonal prediction of European winter warming following volcanic eruptions. J. Climate, 22(23), 6168–6180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mass, C. F., and D. A. Portman, 1989: Major volcanic eruptions and climate: A critical evaluation. J. Climate, 2(6), 566–593.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McKeen, S. A., S. C. Liu, and C. S. Kiang, 1984: On the chemistry of stratospheric SO2 from volcanic eruptions. J. Geophys. Res., 89(D3), 4873–4881.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Menon, S., J. Hansen, L. Nazarenko, and Y. Luo, 2002: Climate effects of black carbon aerosols in China and India. Science, 297(5590), 2250–2253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • New, M., M. Hulme, and P. Jones, 1999: Representing twentiethcentury space-time climate variability. Part I: Development of a 1961–90 mean monthly terrestrial climatology. J. Climate, 12(3), 829–856.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otterå, O. H., 2008: Simulating the effects of the 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption using the ARPEGE atmosphere general circulation model. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 25(2), 213–226, doi: 10.1007/s00376-008-0213-3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Otterå, O. H., M. Bentsen, I. Bethke, and N. G. Kvamst, 2009: Simulated pre-industrial climate in Bergen Climate Model (version 2): Model description and large-scale circulation features. Geosci. Model Dev., 2, 197–212.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peng, Y. B., C. M. Shen, W.-C. Wang, and Y. Xu, 2009: Response of summer precipitation over Eastern China to large volcanic eruptions. J. Climate, 23(3), 818–824.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robock, A., 1983: Ice and snow feedbacks and the latitudinal and seasonal distribution of climate sensitivity. J. Atmos. Sci., 40(4), 986–997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robock, A., 2000: Volcanic eruptions and climate. Rev. Geophys., 38(2), 191–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riehl, H., T. Yeh, and R. Sutcliffe, 1950: The intensity of the net meridional circulation. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 76(328), 182–188.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Salas-Melia, D., 2002: A global coupled sea ice-ocean model. Ocean Modelling, 4(2), 137–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sato, M., J. E. Hansen, M. P. McCormick, and J. B. Pollack, 1993: Stratospheric aerosol optical depths, 1850-1990. J. Geophys. Res., 98 (D12), 22 987–22 994.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schneider, D. P., C. M. Ammann, B. L. Otto-Bliesner, and D. S. Kaufman, 2009: Climate response to large, high-latitude and low-latitude volcanic eruptions in the Community Climate System Model. J. Geophys. Res., 114, D15101, doi:10.1029/2008JD011222.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen, C. M., W. C. Wang, Z. X. Hao, and W. Gong, 2007: Exceptional drought events over eastern China during the last five centuries. Climatic Change, 85, 453–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen, C. M., W. C. Wang, Z. X. Hao, and W. Gong, 2008: Characteristics of anomalous precipitation events over eastern China during the past five centuries. Climate Dyn., 31(4), 463–476.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shindell, D. T., G. A. Schmidt, M. E. Mann, and G. Faluvegi, 2004: Dynamic winter climate response to large tropical volcanic eruptions since 1600. J. Geophys. Res., 109, D05104, doi:10.1029/2003JD004151.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, Y. and T. J. Zhou, 2014: How does El Niño affect the interannual variability of the boreal summer Hadley Circulation? J. Climate, 27, 2622–2642.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Uccellini, L. M., and D. R. Johnson, 1979: The coupling of upper and lower tropospheric jet streaks and implication for the development of severe convective storms. Mon. Wea. Rev., 107, 682–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallace, J. M., and P. V. Hobbs, 1977: Atmospheric Science: An Introductory Survey. Academic Press, 483 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, H. J., 2000: The interannual variability of East Asian monsoon and its relationship with SST in a coupled atmosphere-ocean-land climate model. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 17(1), 31–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, H. J., 2001: The weakening of the Asian monsoon circulation after the end of 1970’s. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 18(3), 376–386.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, H. J., and K. Fan, 2013: Recent changes in the East Asian monsoon. Chinese J. Atmos. Sci., 37(2), 313–318. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, T., O. H. Otterå, Y. Q. Gao, and H. J. Wang, 2012: The response of the North Pacific decadal variability to strong tropical volcanic eruptions. Climate Dyn., 39(12), 2917–2936.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, T., H. Wang, O. Otterå, Y. Gao, L. Suo, T. Furevik, and L. Yu, 2013: Anthropogenic agent implicated as a prime driver of shift in precipitation in eastern China in the late 1970s. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13(5), 11 997–12 032.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu, S., Y. Yin, D. Zheng, and Q. Yang, 2006: Moisture conditions and climate trends in China during the period 1971–2000. Int. J. Climatol., 26(2), 193–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu, Q., 1986: The abnormal weather of China for summer 1980 and its relationship with the volcanic eruptions of Mount St. Helens. Acta Meteorologica Sinica, 44, 426–432. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu, Q., 2001: Abrupt change of the mid-summer climate in central east China by the influence of atmospheric pollution. Atmos. Environ., 35(30), 5029–5040.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xue, F., 2001: Interannual to interdecadal variation of East Asian summer monsoon and its association with the global atmospheric circulation and sea surface temperature. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 18(4), 567–575.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang, L. M., and Q. Y. Zhang, 2007: Anomalous perturbation kinetic energy of Rossby wave along East Asian westerly jet and its association with summer rainfall in China. Chinese J. Atmos. Sci., 31(4), 586–595. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Yoshimori, M., T. F. Stocker, C. C. Raible, and M. Renold, 2005: Externally forced and internal variability in ensemble climate simulations of the Maunder Minimum. J. Climate, 18(20), 4253–4270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu, L., Y. Q. Gao, H. J. Wang, D. Guo, and S. L. Li, 2009: The responses of East Asian Summer monsoon to the North Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in an enhanced freshwater input simulation. Chinese Science Bulletin, 54(24), 4724–4732.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yu, R. C., B. Wang, and T. J. Zhou, 2004: Tropospheric cooling and summer monsoon weakening trend over East Asia. Geophys. Res. Lett., 31(22), L22212, doi:10.1029/2004GL021270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, D., R. Blender, and K. Fraedrich, 2013: Volcanoes and ENSO in millennium simulations: Global impacts and regional reconstructions in East Asia. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 111, 437–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, F. G., and X. G. Zhang, 1994: The relation between large volcanic eruption in the world and the drought/flood in summer in China. J. Nat. Disasters, 3, 40–46. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, X. G., and F. G. Zhang, 1985: The relationship between large volcanic eruptions and the dryness/wetness and cold/warm in China. Acta Meteorologica Sinica, 43(2), 196–207. (in Chinese)

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Y., T. Li, and B. Wang, 2004: Decadal change of the spring snow depth over the Tibetan Plateau: The associated circulation and influence on the east Asian summer monsoon. J. Climate, 17(14), 2780–2793.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Y. C., X. Y. Kuang, W. D. Guo, and T. J. Zhou, 2006: Seasonal evolution of the upper-tropospheric westerly jet core over East Asia. Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L11708, doi:10.1029/2006GL026377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang, Y. C., and D. Q. Huang, 2011: Has the East Asian westerly jet experienced a poleward displacement in recent decades?. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 28(6), 1259–1265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, T., and Z. Li, 2002: Simulation of the East Asian summer monsoon using a variable resolution atmospheric GCM. Climate Dyn., 19(2), 167–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nansen-Zhu International Research Centre, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, Chian

    Xuedong Cui, Yongqi Gao & Jianqi Sun

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Xuedong Cui

  3. Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center, Bergen, Norway

    Yongqi Gao

  4. Bjerknes Center for Climate Research, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway

    Yongqi Gao

Authors
  1. Xuedong Cui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yongqi Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jianqi Sun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yongqi Gao.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Cui, X., Gao, Y. & Sun, J. The response of the East Asian summer monsoon to strong tropical volcanic eruptions. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 31, 1245–1255 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-014-3239-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-014-3239-8

Key words

Search

Navigation