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Multi-scale temporospatial variability of the East Asian Meiyu-Baiu fronts: characterization with a suite of new objective indices

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Abstract

The Meiyu-Baiu front (MBF) is the primary weather system modulating the monsoonal rainfall in East Asia, and it exhibits pronounced variability across multiple temporal and spatial scales. A suite of new objective indices based upon daily reanalysis data are developed to characterize such variability, which include an “intensity” index effectively measuring the meridional gradient of equivalent potential temperature across the frontal zone, a “location” index documenting the central latitude and longitude of the front, and a “stationarity” index corresponding to the standard deviation of the daily central latitude. All these indices are characterized by strong interannual to interdecadal variations. Specifically, the MBF has shown a tendency of southwestward shift since the mid-1990s and become more stationary over southern China with reduced intraseasonal meandering. The western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH) is the main circulation feature affecting the location of the MBF on interannual timescales. The MBF moves northward (southward) when the WNPSH is anomalously strong (weak) and the surface high over the region of 35°–50°N/100°–120°E is anomalously weak (strong). When the WNPSH is strong, the MBF is often situated northwest to its climatological position and becomes more stationary. On interdecadal timescales, enhanced activity of high latitude blocking over East Asia is often accompanied with a stronger but less stationary MBF while a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation favors a southward-shifted and more stationary MBF.

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Acknowledgements

The observational data used in this study are from the NOAA CPC (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.unified.html), NCEP-NCAR reanalysis (http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis.html), and European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (https://www.ecmwf.int/en/research/climate-reanalysis/era-interim). Yi Deng and Henian Zhang are supported by the National Science Foundation Climate and Large-Scale Dynamics (CLD) program through grants AGS-1354402 and AGS-1445956. This study is also supported by the National Key Scientific Research Plan of China (Grant 2014CB953900), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 41661144019), the LASW State Key Laboratory Special Fund (2016LASW-B01), the “111-Plan” Project of China (Grant B17049), and the Guangzhou Joint Research Center for Atmospheric Sciences of CMA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, 135 Xingang Xi Road, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Yana Li & Song Yang

  2. School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0340, USA

    Yana Li, Yi Deng & Henian Zhang

  3. Guangdong Province Key Laboratory for Climate Change and Natural Disaster Studies, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Song Yang

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  1. Yana Li
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  2. Yi Deng
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  4. Henian Zhang
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Correspondence to Yana Li or Yi Deng.

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Li, Y., Deng, Y., Yang, S. et al. Multi-scale temporospatial variability of the East Asian Meiyu-Baiu fronts: characterization with a suite of new objective indices. Clim Dyn 51, 1659–1670 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3975-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3975-4

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