Correlation and anti-correlation of the East Asian summer and winter monsoons during the last 21,000 years.
Understanding the past significant changes of the East Asia Summer Monsoon (EASM) and Winter Monsoon (EAWM) is critical for improving the projections of future climate over East Asia. One key issue that has remained outstanding from the paleo-climatic records is whether the evolution of the EASM and EAWM are correlated. Here, using a set of long-term transient simulations of the climate evolution of the last 21,000 years, we show that the EASM and EAWM are positively correlated on the orbital timescale in response to the precessional forcing, but are anti-correlated on millennial timescales in response to North Atlantic melt water forcing. The relation between EASM and EAWM can differ dramatically for different timescales because of the different response mechanisms, highlighting the complex dynamics of the East Asian monsoon system and the challenges for future projection.
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences &Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Xinyu
X
Wen
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences &Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.|Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences &Center for Climatic Research, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Zhengyu
Z
Liu
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences &Laboratory for Climate and Ocean-Atmosphere Studies, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
Shaowu
S
Wang
Polar Climate System and Global Change Laboratory, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
Jun
J
Cheng
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences &Center for Climatic Research, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI 53706, USA.
Jiang
0000-0002-0908-5130
J
Zhu