Abstract
Abstract
The Asia–Pacific region suffered record rainfall in summer 2020, which was accompanied by the strongest Asian subtropical westerly jet (ASWJ) of the past four decades. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic spread rapidly around the world, resulting in an abrupt reduction in emissions in East Asia. Here, we investigate whether the enhanced ASWJ induced by plummeting aerosols contributed to the record-breaking rainfall. The results show that tropospheric warming in Southeast Asia, in particular southern China, due to local aerosol reduction, acted to increase the meridional temperature gradients in the mid–lower troposphere, which supported a strong ASWJ in the upper troposphere via the thermal wind balance. The latter enhanced divergence in the upper troposphere over the Asia–Pacific region, which provided a favorable ascending motion for the record rainfall that took place there. Therefore, against a background of carbon neutrality (i.e. the reduction in aerosols), our results imply more strong summer rainfall in the Asia–Pacific region.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Subject
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health,General Environmental Science,Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献