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Imprint of the ENSO on rainfall and latent heating variability over the Southern South China Sea from TRMM observations

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Abstract

Analyses of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) datasets revealed a prominent interannual variation in the convective-stratiform rainfall and latent heating over the southern South China Sea (SCS) during the winter monsoon between 1998 and 2010. Although the height of maximum latent heating remained nearly constant at around 7 km in all of the years, the year-to-year changes in the magnitudes of maximum latent heating over the region were noticeable. The interannual variations of the convective- stratiform rainfall and latent heating over the southern SCS were highly anti-correlated with the Niño-3 index, with more (less) rainfall and latent heating during La Niña (El Niño) years. Analysis of the large-scale environment revealed that years of active rainfall and latent heating corresponded to years of large deep convergence and relative humidity at 600 hPa. The moisture budget diagnosis indicated that the interannual variation of humidity at 600 hPa was largely modulated by the vertical moisture advection. The year-to-year changes in rainfall over the southern SCS were mainly caused by the interannual variations of the dynamic component associated with anomalous upward motions in the middle troposphere, while the interannual variations of the thermodynamic component associated with changes in surface specific humidity played a minor role. Larger latent heating over the southern SCS during La Niña years may possibly further enhance the local Hadley circulation over the SCS in the wintertime.

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  1. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, P. R. China

    Lei Wang & Ke Huang

  2. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Coastal Ocean Variation and Disaster Prediction Technologies, College of Ocean and Meteorology, Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang, 524088, P. R. China

    Lei Wang

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Wang, L., Huang, K. Imprint of the ENSO on rainfall and latent heating variability over the Southern South China Sea from TRMM observations. J. Ocean Univ. China 15, 219–231 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-016-2766-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11802-016-2766-6

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