Simulation and Dynamical Prediction of the Summer Asian-Pacific Oscillation and Associated Climate Anomalies by the NCEP CFSv2

The Asian-Pacific Oscillation (APO) is a dominant teleconnection pattern linking the climate anomalies over Asia, the North Pacific, and other regions including North America. The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Climate Forecast System version 2 (CFSv2) successfully simulates many summer-mean features of the upper-tropospheric temperature, the South Asian high, the westerly and easterly jet streams, and the regional monsoons over Asia and Africa. It also well simulates the interannual variability of the APO and associated anomalies in atmospheric circulation, precipitation, surface air temperature (SAT), and sea surface temperature (SST). Associated with a positive APO are a strengthened South Asian high; a weakened extratropical upper-tropospheric westerly jet stream over North America; strengthened subtropical anticyclones over the Northern Hemisphere oceans; and strengthened monsoons over North Africa, India, and East Asia. Meanwhile, increased precipitation is found over tropical North Africa, South Asia, northern China, and tropical South America; decreased precipitation is seen over subtropical North Africa, the Middle East, central Asia, southern China, Japan, and extratropical North America. Low SAT occurs in North Africa, India, and tropical South America and high SAT appears in extratropical Eurasia and North America. SST increases in the extratropical Pacific and the North Atlantic but decreases in the tropical Pacific. The summer APO and many of the associated climate anomalies can be predicted by the NCEP CFSv2 by up to 5 months in advance. However, the CFSv2 skill of predicting the SAT in the East Asian monsoon region is low.