Abstract
The impact of solar activity on climate system is spatiotemporally selective and usually more significant on the regional scale. Using statistical methods and solar radio flux (SRF) data, this paper investigates the impact of the solar 11-yr cycle on regional climate of Northeast Asia in recent decades. Significant differences in winter temperature, precipitation, and the atmospheric circulation over Northeast Asia are found between peak and valley solar activity years. In peak years, temperature is higher over vast areas of the Eurasian continent in middle and high latitudes, and prone to producing anomalous high pressure there. Northeast Asia is located to the south of the anomalous high pressure, where the easterlies prevail and transport moisture from the western Pacific Ocean to the inland of East Asia and intensify precipitation there. In valley years, temperature is lower over the Eurasian continent and northern Pacific Ocean in middle and high latitudes, and there maintain anomalous low pressure systems in the two regions. Over the Northeast Asian continent, north winds prevail, which transport cold and dry air mass from the high latitude to Northeast Asia and reduce precipitation there. The correlation coefficient of winter precipitation in Northeast China and SRF reaches 0.4, and is statistically significant at the 99% confidence level based on the Student’s t-test. The latent heat flux anomalies over the Pacific Ocean caused by solar cycle could explain the spatial pattern of abnormal winter precipitation of China, suggesting that the solar activity may change the climate of Northeast Asia through air-sea interaction.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barron, J. A., and D. Bukry, 2007: Solar forcing of Gulf of California climate during the past 2000 yr suggested by diatoms and silicoflagellates. Mar. Micropaleontol., 62, 115–139, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marmicro.2006.08.003.
Bond, G., B. Kromer, J. Beer, et al., 2001: Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene. Science, 294, 2130–2136, doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1065680.
Camp, C. D., and K. K. Tung, 2007: Surface warming by the solar cycle as revealed by the composite mean difference projection. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L14703, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL030207.
Christoforou, P., and S. Hameed, 1997: Solar cycle and the Pacific ‘centers of action’. Geophys. Res. Lett., 24, 293–296, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/97GL00017.
Crowley, T. J., 2000: Causes of climate change over the past 1000 years. Science, 289, 270–277, doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.289.5477.270.
Curry, J., 2014: Climate science: Uncertain temperature trend. Nat. Geosci., 7, 83–84, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2078.
Elizabeth, N.-R., 1995: The maunder minimum and the deepest phase of the little ice age: Solar output and climate during the Holocene. Proc. 14th EPC/ESF Workshop, German, 131–144.
Fleitmann, D., S. J. Burns, M. Mudelsee, et al., 2003: Holocene forcing of the Indian monsoon recorded in a stalagmite from southern Oman. Science, 300, 1737–1739, doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1083130.
Frisia, S., A. Borsato, N. Preto, et al., 2003: Late Holocene annual growth in three Alpine stalagmites records the influence of solar activity and the North Atlantic Oscillation on winter climate. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 216, 411–124, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00515-6.
Fyfe, J. C., N. P. Gillett, and F. W. Zwiers, 2013: Overestimated global warming over the past 20 years. Nat. Climate Change, 3, 767–769, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1972.
Gray, L. J., J. Beer, M. Geller, et al., 2010: Solar influences on climate. Rev. Geophys., 48, RG4001, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2009RG000282.
Haltia-Hovi, E., T. Saarinen, and M. Kukkonen, 2007: A 2000-year record of solar forcing on varved lake sediment in Eastern Finland. Quat. Sci. Rev., 26, 678–689, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2006.11.005.
Hodell, D. A., M. Brenner, J. H. Curtis, et al., 2001: Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya lowlands. Science, 292, 1367–1370, doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1057759.
Hong, Y. T., D. S. Liu, H. B. Jiang, et al., 2000: Evidence for solar forcing of climate variation from δ18O of peat cellulose. Sci. China Ser. D Earth Sci., 43, 217–224, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02878152.
Hu, F. S., D. Kaufman, S. Yoneji, et al., 2003: Cyclic variation and solar forcing of Holocene climate in the Alaskan subarctic. Science, 301, 1890–1893, doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1088568.
Ineson, S., A. A. Scaife, J. R. Knight, et al., 2011: Solar forcing of winter climate variability in the Northern Hemisphere. Nat. Geosci., 4, 753–757, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1282.
IPCC, 2013: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Stocker, T. F., et al., Eds. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 1535 pp, doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.
Kalnay, E., M. Kanamitsu, R. Kistler, et al., 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-year reanalysis project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437–472, doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077<0437:TNYRP>2.0.CO;2.
Kerr, R. A., 2009: What happened to global warming? Scientists say just wait a bit. Science, 326, 28–29, doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.326_28a.
Kilcik, A., 2005: Regional sun-climate interaction. J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phys., 61, 1573–1579, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2005.09.003.
Knight, J., J. J. Kennedy, C. Folland, et al., 2009: Do global temperature trends over the last decade falsify climate predictions? [in “State of the Climate in 2008”] Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 90, S22–S23, doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-90-8-StateoftheClimate.
Meehl, G. A., W. M. Washington, T. M. L. Wigley, et al., 2003: Solar and greenhouse gas forcing and climate response in the twentieth century. J. Climate, 16, 426–444, doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016<0426:SAGGFA>2.0.CO;2.
Meehl, G. A., J. M. Arblaster, G. Branstator, et al., 2008: A coupled air-sea response mechanism to solar forcing in the Pacific region. J. Climate, 21, 2883–2897, doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/2007JCLI1776.1.
Neff, U., S. J. Burns, A. Mangini, et al., 2001: Strong coherence between solar variability and the monsoon in Oman between 9 and 6 kyr ago. Nature, 411, 290–293, doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/35077048.
Ogurtsov, M., S. Helama, M. Eronen, et al., 2005: Centennial-to-millennial fluctuations in July temperatures in North Finland as recorded by timberline tree rings of Scots pine. Quat. Res., 63, 182–188, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2004.11.001.
Perry, C. A., and K. J. Hsu, 2000: Geophysical, archaeological, and historical evidence support a solar-output model for climate change. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 97, 433–12, 438, doi: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.230423297.
Rigozo, R. N., D. J. R. Nordemann, H. E. da Silva, et al., 2007: Solar and climate signal records in tree ring width from Chile (AD 1587–1994). Planet. Space Sci., 55, 158–164, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pss.2006.06.019.
Roy, I., and J. D. Haigh, 2010: Solar cycle signals in sea level pressure and sea surface temperature. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 3147–3153, doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-3147-2010.
Sakurai, K., and T. Mikami, 1992: Solar activity during the little ice age. Proc. International Symposium on the Little Ice Age Climate. Tokyo Metropolitan University, Department of Geography, Tokyo, Japan, 337–340.
Song, Y., Z. C. Li, Z. N. Xiao, et al., 2016a: Analysis on interdecadal correlation between solar activity and snow depth over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and East Asian atmospheric circulation in winter. Plateau Meteor., 35, 1135–1147. (in Chinese)
Song, Y., Z. C. Li, J. Zhang, et al., 2016b: Review of progress in modulation effects of solar activity on snow depth over the Tibetan Plateau and East Asian summer monsoon. Adv. Meteor. Sci. Technol., 6, 148–154. (in Chinese)
Speranza, A., B. Van Geel, and J. Van der Plicht, 2003: Evidence for solar forcing of climate change at ca. 850 cal BC from a Czech peat sequence. Glob. Planet. Change, 35, 51–65, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8181(02)00091-7.
Takahashi, K., 1966: Key day analysis on the relationship between solar activity and precipitation. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 44, 246–254, doi: https://doi.org/10.2151/jmsj1965.44.5_246.
Tan, L. C., Y. J. Cai, L. Yi, et al., 2008: Precipitation variations of Longxi, northeast margin of Tibetan Plateau since AD 960 and their relationship with solar activity. Climate Past, 4, 19–28, doi: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-4-19-2008.
van Loon, H., G. A. Meehl, and D. J. Shea, 2007: Coupled air-sea response to solar forcing in the Pacific region during northern winter. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 122, D02108, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007378.
Wang, J.-S., and L. Zhao, 2012: Statistical tests for a correlation between decadal variation in June precipitation in China and sunspot number. J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 111, D23117, doi: https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JD018074.
Wang, R. L., Z. N. Xiao, K. Y. Zhu, et al., 2015: Asymmetric impact of solar activity on the East Asian winter climate and its possible mechanism. Chinese J. Atmos. Sci., 39, 815–826, doi: https://doi.org/10.3878/j.issn.1006-9895.1410.14211. (in Chinese)
Wang, Y. J., H. Cheng, R. L. Edwards, et al., 2005: The Holocene Asian monsoon: Links to solar changes and North Atlantic climate. Science, 308, 854–857, doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1106296.
Xiao, Z. N., and W. J. Huo, 2016: Influences of solar activity on climate: The spatio-temporal selectivity of the amplification process. Adv. Meteor. Sci. Technol., 6, 141–147. (in Chinese)
Xiao, Z. N., and D. L. Li, 2016: Solar wind: A possible factor driving the interannual sea surface temperature tripolar mode over North Atlantic. J. Meteor. Res., 30, 312–327, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-016-5087-1.
Xu, H., Y. T. Hong, Q. H. Lin, et al., 2006: Temperature responses to quasi-100-yr solar variability during the past 6000 years based on δ18O of peat cellulose in Hongyuan, eastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 230, 155–164, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.07.012.
Zhai, Q., 2017: Influence of solar activity on the precipitation in the North-central China. New Astron., 51, 161–168, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newast.2016.09.003.
Zhao, J., and Y. B. Han, 2005: Determination of precipitation cycle in Beijing area and comparison with solar activity cycle. Earth Moon Planets, 97, 69–78, doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11038-9051-9.
Zhao, L., and J.-S. Wang, 2014: Robust response of the East Asian monsoon rainband to solar variability. J. Climate, 27, 3043–3051, doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00482.1.
Acknowledgments
The precipitation gauge data in China were provided by Jinghua Chen of the Meteorological Information Center, China Meteorological Administration. Dr. Gang Wang from the First Institute of Oceanography, State Oceanic Administration is thanked for his suggestions and comments to the paper. The power spectrum procedure is prepared and run by Dr. Yuxiang Zhu of the China Meteorological Administration Training Center.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41575091), National (Key) Basic Research and Development (973) Program of China (2012CB957803), and Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20171230)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Song, Y., Li, Z., Gu, Y. et al. The Effect of Solar Cycle on Climate of Northeast Asia. J Meteorol Res 33, 885–894 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-019-8132-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-019-8132-z