Warming in the Southern Ocean appears to be bringing wetter summers to East Asia, including South Korea.
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SEOUL, April 8 (Korea Bizwire) — Rising ocean temperatures in the distant Southern Ocean could be fueling wetter summers across East Asia, including the Korean Peninsula, according to a new international climate study published in Nature Geoscience.
Led by Dr. Sara Kang of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Germany and Dr. Hanjoon Kim of Cornell University, the research explores how warming in the Southern Ocean—caused by declining heat absorption capacity in deep waters—is altering weather patterns far beyond Antarctica.
The team identified a long-distance climate relationship known as “teleconnection,” through which heat from the Southern Ocean travels toward the equator via southeasterly winds. This warmth interacts with the atmosphere and ocean, amplifying warming in the tropical Pacific by causing low-level clouds to dissipate—clouds that would otherwise reflect solar radiation and cool the surface.
As a result, the eastern tropical Pacific becomes significantly warmer, mimicking El Niño conditions. This triggers a shift in the Asian summer jet stream southward, and in combination with the Tibetan Plateau’s atmospheric influence, drives increased moisture into the East Asian monsoon system.
The outcome, the researchers explain, is more humid and rain-heavy summers for countries like South Korea and others in the East Asian monsoon belt.
The study also noted that this tropical Pacific warming pattern contributes to increased winter rainfall in the western United States by altering atmospheric circulation.
While these changes unfold over centuries due to the slow pace of Southern Ocean warming, the researchers warn that even with successful global climate mitigation efforts, regions like East Asia and the U.S. West Coast will continue to face long-term climatic impacts.
“This is a reminder that climate change’s ripple effects can unfold over centuries,” the authors wrote. “Long-term adaptation strategies must account for these global interconnections, even if emissions are curbed.”
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
