As a key chemical component of the stratosphere, ozone affects tropospheric weather and climate through chemical–radiative–dynamical coupling processes. In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to the local impacts of total column ozone (TCO) over the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau (TP). However, the non-local effects of TCO variations over the TP remain poorly understood. The North Pacific lies downwind of the TP. Variations in sea surface temperature (SST) in the North Pacific serve as an important external forcing on climate variability and play a key role in large-scale and regional climate predictability. However, the connection between the wintertime TCO over the TP and the North Pacific SST is rarely studied.
Towards addressing this, researchers from Lanzhou University, China, used various observations and a chemistry–climate model to investigate the connection between wintertime TP TCO and North Pacific SST. The results have recently been published in Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters .
According to this study, when TCO over the TP is anomalously high, SST over the subtropical central-western North Pacific is lower than normal, and vice versa. Further analysis reveals that higher TCO over the TP triggers eastward-propagating Rossby wave trains through modulating the surface temperature of the TP. The resulting cyclonic circulation anomalies drive southward ocean currents in the subtropical central-western North Pacific, transporting colder water from higher latitudes to lower latitudes and producing negative SST anomalies in the subtropical central-western North Pacific. Meanwhile, northerly anomalies over the subtropical western North Pacific carry colder and drier air southward, enhancing evaporation, and consequently, further cooling the SST in this region.
“These findings underscore the importance of considering stratospheric processes in the study of ocean–atmosphere interactions”, says the corresponding author, Prof. Jiali Luo—a researcher focusing on stratosphere–troposphere interactions. “By establishing a mechanistic link between stratospheric composition over the Qinghai Tibetan Plateau and oceanic conditions in the North Pacific, the study opens new avenues for investigating long-range climate connections”.
This research enhances our understanding of the impacts of TCO over the TP. It will be helpful in improving the accuracy of predictions of the SST variations over the North Pacific.
Atmospheric and Oceanic Science Letters
Connection between wintertime total column ozone over the Tibetan Plateau and sea surface temperature over the North Pacific
4-Feb-2026