A REVIEW ON CLIMATOLOGY OF AFRO-ASIAN SUMMER MONSOON AND ITS LONG-TERM VARIABILITY

DING Yi-hui; LI Yi

doi:10.16032/j.issn.1004-4965.2016.06.002

Abstract：Based on comprehensive reviews on studies of Afro-Asian summer monsoon,progresses of inter-decadal variations of Afro-Asian summer monsoon are summarized.These progresses are shown as follows.(1) In palaeoclimatology,wet and dry conditions of Afro-Asia summer monsoon during Last Glacial Maximum and Holocene.Regardless of warm or cold scenario,Afro-Asia summer monsoon system showed consistent variability,with simultaneous enhancement (weakening) and more (less) precipitation during warm periods.(2) In the past century,modern climatology mainly focused on the retreat and advance of the Afro-Asia monsoon system in Africa and Asia.Pertinent results revealed that the monsoonal precipitation weakened since the 1960s accompanied by a southward retreat of main rainband;after mid-1990s,African monsoon and Asian monsoon strengthened concurrently and advanced northward.(3) The inter-decadal coherent northward advance and southward retreat were jointly modulated by the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation and Pacific Decadal Oscillation.After mid-1990s,simultaneous increases in precipitation in the Sahel in Africa and Huang-Huai in China were more particularly evident.These reviews indicate that whether it is for palaeoclimate or in the last century,the AfroAsians summer monsoon exhibits a coherent system of planetary-scale,manifested by concurrent advance and retreat.