The remarkably amplified warming over Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia may have a common dynamical origin - The Silk Road Pattern (SRP) - according to Prof. LI Shuanglin, Dean of Atmospheric Science at the University of Geosciences (Wuhan) and Executive Vice-Director at the Climate Change Research Center, Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Prof. LI Shuanglin and his team - a group of researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics and the University of Geosciences (Wuhan) - used a quantitative diagnostic analysis based on CFRAM (the Climate Feedback-Response Analysis method). Their findings were published in Advances of Atmospheric Sciences.

"The enhanced warming over Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia is primarily attributable to changes in the radiative processes. The radiative processes are dominated by the clouds, followed by the CO₂ concentration and water vapor content, accounting for 62.4% and 95.1% of the warming over Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia, respectively," said Dr. SUN Xueqian, the lead author. "In comparison, the non-radiative processes made a much weaker contribution due to the combined impact of surface sensible heat flux, surface latent heat flux, and dynamical processes," she added.

According to the authors, the resemblance between the influential factors for the amplified warming in these two separated regions implied a common dynamical origin. The SRP caused cloud cover to decrease over both Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia after the mid-1990s. The reduced cloud cover led to amplified warming over these two regions through increased radiative flux reaching the ground, suggesting a substantial role of the dynamical descending motion.

"CFRAM cannot provide a clear explanation of the dynamic processes. Whether other physical processes join to modulate the radiative processes influencing SAT over Europe-West Asia and Northeast Asia is unclear. Moreover, the sea-ice reduction over the Arctic plays a role that cannot be excluded. Further work is needed," said Prof. LI.