Abstract
In this paper, the spatial and temporal characteristics of convective precipitation (CP) and large-scale precipitation (LSP) in southern China during 1980–2020 are analyzed using monthly mean precipitation data from MERRA-2. In addition, the possible effects of relative humidity on CP and LSP are explored. The results indicate the following. (1) The LSP dominates the proportion of total precipitation (TP). Both LSP and CP are more prevalent in the south and less prevalent in the north, but there is a difference in the regions of their maximum centers. (2) Significant interannual and seasonal variations are observed in precipitation. TP and LSP tended to be higher than average after the 1990s, while for the CP, a significant negative trend has dominated the past ten years. There are significant increasing trends for TP and LSP, with area-averaged linear trends of 78.1 mm/decade and 85.9 mm/decade, respectively, while that of CP is − 17.1 mm/decade. The increasing trends of LSP are mainly contributed by the precipitation of summer and autumn. (3) The variations of LSP are affected by relative humidity in the troposphere, while CP is only influenced by the changes in relative humidity due to air temperature or specific humidity. The trend of relative humidity is − 0.33%/decade, mainly due to rising temperature in the troposphere. (4) Changes in relative humidity caused by temperature or specific humidity alone act on large-scale precipitation through both interannual and interdecadal processes, causing large-scale precipitation to increase, and the convective precipitation is mainly affected by the interdecadal processes.
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Data availability
The MERRA2 Reanalysis datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. The observed daily precipitation data for 2,374 stations that are available from the National Weather Information Center of the China Meteorological Administration.
Code availability
The code analyzed during the current study is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Zhao Junhu for the helpful comments on the original manuscript. The daily precipitation data were obtained from the CMA at http://data.cma.cn/. The relative humidity, specific humidity, and temperature data were obtained from https://disc.gsfc.nasa.gov/datasets?keywords=merra2&page=1.
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This study was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) [grant number 42130610, 42075017, 41875096, 41875093 and]; the National Key Research and Development Program of China [grant numbers 2017YFC1502303 and 2018YFA0606301].
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualization: Han Zhang, Junhu Zhao, Guolin Feng; methodology: Han Zhang, Junhu Zhao, Bicheng Huang, Naihui Zang; formal analysis and investigation: Han Zhang, Junhu Zhao, Jie Yang; writing: Han Zhang.
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Zhang, H., Zhao, J., Huang, B. et al. The variabilities of convective precipitation and large-scale precipitation in southern China for the period 1980–2020. Theor Appl Climatol 148, 1529–1543 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04017-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04017-4