Roles of Intraseasonal Disturbances and Diabatic Heating in the East Asian Jet Stream Variabilities Associated with the East Asian Winter Monsoon

This study evaluates the relative importance of diabatic heating and intraseasonal disturbances with regard to the variabilities of the East Asian jet stream (EAJS) associated with the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM). First, strong and weak monsoon years are selected based on the EAWM index of Jhun and Lee, which is highly correlated with the monsoon northerlies between the Eurasian continent and the Pacific. The EAJS is stronger and narrower in strong monsoon years and weaker and wider in weak monsoon years. Model experiments were performed to investigate the atmospheric response to the diabatic heating and the eddy–mean flow feedback from the intraseasonal disturbances. The diabatic heating is closely related to the convective activities. The intraseasonal disturbances include high-frequency components with periods of 3–10 days and low-frequency components with periods of 10–90 days. The model results indicate that the diabatic heating plays a major role maintaining the stronger and weaker EAJS in the strong and weak monsoon years, respectively, whereas the impacts of the eddy feedback are relatively small.