Impact of tropical and subtropical SSTs on mid-latitude tropospheric warming in the northern summer of 2010

Abstract

The relationship between mid-latitude tropospheric warming (MLTW) and the tropical sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in June–August (JJA) of 2010 has been investigated using an atmospheric general circulation model forced with the evolving observed SSTs. The simulation results indicate that the SST anomalies (SSTAs) in the equatorial Pacific in JJA 2010, indicating La Niña condition, did not contribute simultaneously to produce the MLTW in JJA 2010, and, instead, the SSTAs in the northern subtropics (the whole latitudinal band between 10°N and 30°N) contributed. However, it is shown by the results that enough magnitude of the atmospheric height anomalies over the northern mid-latitude was not reproduced by the SSTAs over the northern subtropical Indo-western Pacific (IWP) alone or over the northern subtropical Atlantic alone. It implies that both the SSTA over the northern subtropics of IWP and Atlantic were necessary to reproduce the MLTW. The possible role of convective activity for the MLTW is also discussed.