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Comparison of the dryness/wetness index in China with the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas

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Abstract

It is not clear how the frequency and amplitude of droughts have varied over the past 500 years in China, as the instrumental record is too short to identify centennial-scale trends. While the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas (MADA) provides some insights into past drought patterns, its accuracy in eastern China remains uncertain. A comparison of the MADA and Chinese historical documents indicates that the MADA alone cannot effectively represent dryness and wetness in eastern China, so it is not appropriate to use the MADA in this region.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dave Chandler, Sen Zhao and three anonymous reviewers for fruitful comments and suggestions. This study was jointly funded by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2012CB957804), the CAS Strategic Priority Research Program (XDA05080801), Chinese Academy of Sciences 100 Talents Project (29082762) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41030961). Fengmei Yang was supported by Forty-ninth batch of China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2012 T50829) and China Meteorological Administration Drought Research Fund (IAM201109). Feng Shi was supported by the China Meteorological Administration Drought Research (IAM201213) and the West Light Program for Talent Cultivation of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. China Meteorological Administration Training Centre, Beijing, China

    Fengmei Yang & Ziniu Xiao

  2. Key Laboratory for Semi-Arid Climate Change of the Ministry of Education, College of Atmospheric Sciences, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China

    Fengmei Yang & Shigong Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Feng Shi

  4. Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China

    Feng Shi & Shuyuan Kang

  5. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Nagoya University, Chikusa-Ku, Nagoya, Japan

    Takeshi Nakatsuka

  6. College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, China

    Jun Shi

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  1. Fengmei Yang
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Correspondence to Feng Shi.

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Yang, F., Shi, F., Kang, S. et al. Comparison of the dryness/wetness index in China with the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas. Theor Appl Climatol 114, 553–566 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-013-0858-4

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