Comparative tests and analyses on monsoon and regional precipitation

Summary

Due to the strong variation of the Asian monsoon, many countries in Asia often suffer from serious natural disasters. Droughts and floods appear in East China frequently related to the large anomalies of the two branches of East Asian monsoon. Based on rainfall data recorded by 336 Chinese stations in the 1980s, two distinctly opposite rainfall types over East China in summer (JJA) are discovered. Correspondly, 850 hPa anomalous wind fields in the Eastern Hemisphere are also possessed by two types of converse patterns in spring (MAM) and summer (JJA). The onset time and intensity of the Somali jet and the two branches of Southeast and Indian monsoon are quite different. Furthermore, in the 500 hPa geopotential height anomaly fields in spring and summer, the variations of the previous general atmospheric circulation (in spring) are closely correlated to the two kinds of conversely distributed rainfall in summer. These two types of rainfall are also related to two types of conversely distributed sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) in the equatorial Pacific and Indian Oceans. To investigate model capabilities refelecting the above observed features, eight numerical experiments are carried out using the IAP 2-L AGCM, with observed monthly mean global SSTs as external forcing and observed atmospheric data on February 15 as initial conditions. The simulated distributions of rainfall anomalies over East China in summer are in good accordance with observations. With conversely distributed SSTAs in the equatorial Pacific, the simulated 850 hPa anomalous wind fields and the 500 hPa geopotential height anomalies are also conversely distributed, and are closely related to the two types of simulated rainfall anomalies over East China. The cross equatorial wind varies in strength, space and time. The simulated distributions of anomalous 500 hPa geopotential height in spring and the anomalous wind at 850 hPa in spring and summer are quite similar to observations.