KOPRI Repository

Two distinctive influences of Arctic warming on cold winters over North America and East Asia

Cited 335 time in wos
Cited 355 time in scopus
Title
Two distinctive influences of Arctic warming on cold winters over North America and East Asia
Authors
Kug, Jong-Seong
Jeong, Jee-Hoon
Jang, Yeon-Soo
Kim, Baek-Min
Folland, Chris K.
Min, Seung-Ki
Son, Seok-Woo
Subject
Geology
Keywords
Arctic Sea-ice LossArctic WarmingCold Winter
Issue Date
2015
Citation
Kug, Jong-Seong, et al. 2015. "Two distinctive influences of Arctic warming on cold winters over North America and East Asia". Nature Geosciecne, 8(1): 759-762.
Abstract
Arctic warming has sparked a growing interest because of its possible impacts on mid-latitude climate1-5. A number of unusually harsh cold winters have occurred in many parts of East Asia and North America in the past few years2,6,7, and observational and modelling studies have suggested that atmospheric variability linked to Arctic warming might have played a central role13,4,8-11. Here we identify two distinct influences of Arctic warming which may lead to cold winters over East Asia or North America, based on observational analyses and extensive climate model results. We find that severe winters across East Asia are associated with anomalous warmth in the Barents-Kara Sea region, whereas severe winters over North America are related to anomalous warmth in the East Siberian-Chukchi Sea region. Each regional warming over the Arctic Ocean is accompanied by the local development of an anomalous anticyclone and the downstream development of a mid-latitude trough. The resulting northerly flow of cold air provides favourable conditions for severe winters in East Asia or North America. These links between Arctic and mid-latitude weather are also robustly found in idealized climate model experiments and CMIP5 multi-model simulations. We suggest that our results may help improve seasonal prediction of winter weather and extreme events in these regions.
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2517
Type
Article
Appears in Collections  
2014-2016, Investigation of Climate Change Mechanism by Observation and Simulation of Polar Climate for The Past and Present (14-16) / Kim, Seong-Joong (PE14010; PE15010; PE16010)
Files in This Item

Items in DSpace are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Browse