Abstract
In this paper, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) at the monthly scale was derived based on the ground observations to obtain different drought and wet events at the surface of the Loess Plateau in summer from 2000 to 2017. Using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NECP) Final Analysis (FNL) data for the same period, backward simulations with the FLEXPART model were performed to obtain the water vapor transport characteristics and potential evaporative sources corresponding to different dry and wet events. Finally, the contribution of water vapor sources to precipitation on the Loess Plateau was obtained. The results show that the primary sources of water vapor on the Loess Plateau during dry and wet summer events are concentrated in the Loess Plateau and the Yunnan-Kweichow Plateau regions and sporadically distributed in the Altay region of Xinjiang, as well as at the junction of China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The evaporation extent and intensity in northern Xinjiang and Mongolia increase when the surface experiences wet-normal-dry events. The local internal circulation on the Loess Plateau contributes to 31.3% and 36.8% of the water vapor in drought and wet events, respectively. Influenced by the westerly wind belt and southwest monsoon, the precipitation contributions of the Yunnan-Kweichow Plateau are 11.2% and 13.1%, respectively, and those of Mongolia are 14.6% and 11.9%, respectively. The water vapor contributions from the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal in the south are insignificant. The results aid in understanding the mechanisms of drought and wet events on the Loess Plateau.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
For download of the model, please link to https://www.flexpart.eu/
“Daily Data Set of Surface Climate in China (V3.0)” provided by the National Meteorological Data Service Center (http://data.cma.cn/).
Code availability
Will be available on reasonable request.
References
Ault TR (2020) On the essentials of drought in a changing climate. Science 368(6488):256–260. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaz5492
Chen G, Huang R (2012) Excitation mechanisms of the teleconnection patterns affecting the July precipitation in northwest China. J Clim 25(22):7834–7851. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00684.1
Chen B, Xu X, Yang S, Zhang W (2012) On the origin and destination of atmospheric moisture and air mass over the Tibetan Plateau. Theor Appl Climatol 110:423–435. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0641-y
Chen H, Sun J (2015) Changes in drought characteristics over China using the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. J Clim 28(13):5430–5447. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-14-00707.1
Orsolini YJ, Zhang L, Peters DHW, Fraedrich K, Zhu XH, Schneidereit A, Hurk B (2016) Extreme precipitation events over north China in August 2010 and their link to eastward propagating wave-trains across Eurasia: Observations and monthly forecasting. Q J Roy Meteor Soc 141(693):3097–3105. https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.2594
Heim RR (2002) A review of twentieth-century drought indices used in the United States. B Am Meteorol Soc 83(8):1149–1165. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477-83.8.1149
Hu Q, Jiang D, Lang X, Xu B (2018) Moisture sources of the Chinese Loess Plateau during 1979–2009. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 509:156–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.12.030
Lai X, Yang X, Wang Z, Shen Y, Ma L (2022) Productivity and water use in forage-winter wheat cropping systems across variable precipitation gradients on the Loess Plateau of China. Agr Water Manage 259:107250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2021.107250
Li H, Gao J, Zhang H, Zhang Y, Zhang Y (2017) Response of extreme precipitation to solar activity and el nino events in typical regions of the loess plateau. Adv Meteorol 2017:1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/9823865
Liu R, Wang X, Wang Z, Liu Y (2022a) Atmospheric moisture sources of drought and wet events during 1979–2019 in the Three‑River Source Region, Qinghai‑Tibetan Plateau. Theor Appl Climatol. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04058-9
Liu R, Wen J, Wang X, Wang Z, Liu Y (2022) Case studies of atmospheric moisture sources in the source region of the Yellow River from a Lagrangian perspective. Int J Climatol 42:1516–1530. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7317
Makarieva AM, Gorshkov VG, Li BL (2013) Revisiting forest impact on atmospheric water vapor transport and precipitation. Theor Appl Climatol 111:79–96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-012-0643-9
Sodemann H, Schwierz C, Wernli H (2008) Interannual variability of Greenland winter precipitation sources: Lagrangian moisture diagnostic and North Atlantic Oscillation influence. J Geophys Res-Atmos 113: D03107. 101029/2007jd008503
Sun B, Wang H (2014) Moisture sources of semiarid grassland in China using the Lagrangian particle model FLEXPART. J Clim 27:2457–2474. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-13-00517.1
Sun B, Wang H (2018) Interannual variation of the spring and summer precipitation over the three river source region in China and the associated regimes. J Clim 31:7441–7457. https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-17-06801
Trenberth KE (1998) Atmospheric moisture residence times and cycling: Implications for rainfall rates and climate change. Clim Change 39(4):667–694. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1005319109110
Xu Y, Zhu X, Cheng X, Gun Z, Lin J, Yao L, Zhou C (2022) Drought assessment of China in 2002–2017 based on a comprehensive drought index. Agr Forest Meteorol 319:18922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agrformet.2022.108922
Wang X, Wang B, Xu X (2019) Effects of large-scale climate anomalies on trends in seasonal precipitation over the Loess Plateau of China from 1961 to 2016. Ecol Indic 107:105643. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2019.105643
Wang X, Zhuo L, Li C, Engel BA, Sun S, Wang Y (2020) Temporal and spatial evolution trends of drought in northern Shaanxi of China: 1960–2100. Theor Appl Climatol 139:965–979. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-019-03024-2
Wells N, Goddard S, Hayes MJ (2004) A self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index. Jclim 17(12):2335–2351. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0442
Wu Z, Lu G, Wen L, Lin C (2011) Reconstructing and analyzing China’s fifty-nine year (1951–2009) drought history using hydrological model simulation. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 15(9):2881–2894. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-15-2881-2011
Vicente-Serrano SM, Begueria S, Lopez-Moreno JI (2010) A multiscalar drought index sensitive to global warming: The standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index. J Clim 23(7):1696–1718. https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JCLI2909.1
Vicente-Serrano SM, Begueria S, Lopez-Moreno JI (2011) Comment on “characteristics and trends in various forms of the Palmer Drought Severity Index(PDSI)during 1900–2008” by Aiguo Dai. J Geophys Res 116:19112. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JD016410
Zhang Q, Yue P, Zhang L, Wang S, Zhang J, Zhao J, Wang R, Yang F (2019) Land-atmosphere interaction over the summer monsoon transition zone in China: a review and prospects. Acta Meteorol Sinica 77:758–773. https://doi.org/10.11676/qxxb2019a.038
Zhao G, Zhai J, Tian P, Zhang L, Mu X (2018) Variations in extreme precipitation on the Loess Plateau using a high-resolution dataset and their linkages with atmospheric circulation indices. Theor Appl Climatol 133:1235–1247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2251-1
Zhao Y, Xu X, Zhao T, Xu H, Mao F, Sun H, Wang Y (2016) Extreme precipitation events in East China and associated moisture transport pathways. Sci China Earth Sci 46(8):1123–1144. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-016-5315-7
Zhao G, Zhai J, Tian P, Zhang L, Mu M, An Z, Han M (2018) Variations in extreme precipitation on the Loess Plateau using a high-resolution dataset and their linkages with atmospheric circulation indices. Theor Appl Climatol 133:1235–1247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-017-2251-1
Funding
This work was jointly supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFF1302600); The National Natural Science Foundation of China (52179026, 42075065); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (lzujbky-2021-kb02).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Rong Liu: conceptualization, funding acquisition writing-original draft, writing-review. Xin Wang: data curation, formal analysis, project administration. Zuoliang Wang: methodology, resources, validation. Rui Quan: resources.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Ethics approval
No ethical issues involved. No ethics committee approval was required for this paper.
Consent to participate
The authors declare that they have consent to participate.
Consent for publication
The authors have consented to the publication.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, R., Wang, X., Wang, Z. et al. Characteristics of water vapor sources and precipitation contributions to drought and wet events on the Chinese Loess Plateau. Theor Appl Climatol 150, 1613–1626 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04256-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04256-5