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Impact of land–sea breezes at different scales on the diurnal rainfall in Taiwan

Climate Dynamics volume 43, pages 1951–1963 (2014)Cite this article

Abstract

The formation mechanism of diurnal rainfall in Taiwan is commonly recognized as a result of local forcings involving solar thermal heating and island-scale land–sea breeze (LSB) interacting with orography. This study found that the diurnal variation of the large-scale circulation over the East Asia-Western North Pacific (EAWNP) modulates considerably the diurnal rainfall in Taiwan. It is shown that the interaction between the two LSB systems—the island-scale LSB and the large-scale LSB over EAWNP—facilitates the formation of the early morning rainfall in western Taiwan, afternoon rainfall in central Taiwan, and nighttime rainfall in eastern Taiwan. Moreover, the post-1998 strengthening of a shallow, low-level southerly wind belt along the coast of Southeast China appears to intensify the diurnal rainfall activity in Taiwan. These findings reveal the role of the large-scale LSB and its long-term variation in the modulation of local diurnal rainfall.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions which greatly improved the manuscript. This research was supported by the National Science Council of Taiwan under NSC 101-2119-M-003-006-MY2 and NSC 102-2621-M-492-001. SYW was supported by Grant MOTC-CWB-101-M-15, Grant NNX13AC37G, and the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, Utah State University as Journal Paper # 8464.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal University, No. 88, Sec. 4, Tingzhou Rd., Wenshan District, Taipei, 11677, Taiwan, ROC

    Wan-Ru Huang

  2. Utah Climate Center, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Shih-Yu Wang

  3. Department of Plants, Soils, and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA

    Shih-Yu Wang

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  1. Wan-Ru Huang
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  2. Shih-Yu Wang
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Correspondence to Wan-Ru Huang.

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Huang, WR., Wang, SY. Impact of land–sea breezes at different scales on the diurnal rainfall in Taiwan. Clim Dyn 43, 1951–1963 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-2018-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-013-2018-z

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