Genesis of Upper-Tropospheric Anticyclones over the Asian-Western Pacific Sector from Tropical-Extratropical Interaction Perspective

Abstract

Upper-tropospheric anticyclones (UTACs) emerge throughout the seasons with changing location and intensity. Here, the formation mechanisms of these UTACs, especially in the Asian-Australian-western Pacific sector, were investigated based on the diagnosis of the vorticity equation as well as the contribution of the planetary waves. During June-July-August (JJA), a vigorous UTAC corresponding to the South Asian high (SAH) forms over South Asia, to the south of the Tibetan Plateau, where intense heating associated with the Asian summer monsoon rainfall and the resultant baroclinic Rossby response are the important physical processes. Meanwhile, the produced anticyclonic vorticity is farther transported by the interhemispheric divergent wind toward the Southern Hemisphere (SH), creating the SH UTAC centered over the Maritime Continent. During December-January-February (DJF), two zonally elongated UTACs reside on each side of the equator (∼108 poleward), mainly over theMaritime Continent-western Pacific sector. Upon a closer look at the NH winter, we observed that the northern parts of UTAC cannot be explained by this vorticity balance alone. Diagnosis of the wave activity flux indicated that planetary waves emanating from the cold Eurasian continent converges around the northern parts of the UTAC with its peak in the NH winter, which weakens the subtropical jet, thus generating UTAC. Configuration of the SH summer (DJF) UTAC bears resemblance with that of SAH. These results suggest that the creation of anticyclonic vorticity and its interhemispheric transportation as well as the propagation of planetary wave are the selectively important agents for the genesis of seasonally varying UTACs.