A review of the researches on the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and its climate influence.

The Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation(AMO),which is the fluctuation pattern of North Atlantic sea surface temperature(SST),varies over basin spatial scale and multidecadal temporal scale.It has a period of 65—80 years and an amplitude of 0.4℃.The AMO is found arisen from internal variability of climate system,particularly linked to quasi-periodic fluctuation of the Thermohaline Circulation(THC).Previous studies have revealed that the AMO has significant influences on the global and regional climate of the twentieth century including surface temperature in Eurasia,precipitation in North America,Northeast Brazil,African Sahel and India,as well as hurricanes in Atlantic.Furthermore,the AMO acts as a pacemaker of multidecadal climate variations of the East Asia.The warm-phase AMO intensifies the East Asian summer monsoon but weakens the winter monsoon,and vise versa.This article summarizes the progress of this aspect and discusses the AMO's implications for the climate projection in the future decades.It is argued that significant winter warming in China in the recent two decades has been arisen from both the anthropogenic forcing of greenhouse gas and the natural forcing domained by the AMO.Along with the AMO entering a cold phase,the winter warming in China is projected to slow down,or even reverse by the middle term of 2020s.