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Interdecadal change in autumn rainfall over Southeast China and its association with tropical Pacific SST

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Abstract

In this paper, Japan Meteorological Agency (JRA-55) reanalysis and observational rainfall datasets from the National Climate Center (NCC) of China, as well as satellite datasets from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP), and International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP), are used. The correlation coefficient and fast Fourier transform (FFT) low-pass filter are also used, in order to reveal the interdecadal decrease in autumn rainfall in Southeast China (SEC) after 1990. The close and robust relationship between the interdecadal variation in autumn rainfall in SEC and sea surface temperature (SST) in the tropical Pacific is investigated. The most significant and stable region of correlation is located in 10° S–10° N, 160° E–160° W, in which there also exists interdecadal warming after 1990. Furthermore, the interdecadal warming of SST can induce Gill responses of the atmosphere: a cyclone anomaly is produced on each side of the equator in the lower troposphere, with a westerly anomaly to the west of the dateline, and an anticyclone anomaly is produced in the upper troposphere. In particular, the cyclone anomaly on the northern side of the equator is located in the Northwest Pacific (NWP), and its ambient northerly airflow weakens meridional water vapor transport, as well as the local descending motion and low-troposphere divergence, in favor of the interdecadal decrease in SEC rainfall after 1990. In addition, the sensitive experiments with ECHAM-5.4 model also confirm that the interdecadal warming in the region (10° S–10° N, 160° E–160° W) would motivate the atmospheric Gill response and thereby cause the sinking motion in SEC and support the interdecadal decrease in autumn rainfall in SEC.

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Data availability

The TRMM dataset is available at http://mirador.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/mirador/, the GPCP dataset is available at http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.gpcp.html, the JRA-55 dataset is available at http://jra.kishou.go.jp/JRA-55/, the SODA dataset is available at http://soda.tamu.edu/assim/SODA_2.24, and ISCCP-D2 is available at https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/isccp/table_isccp.html.

Code availability

The codes used for the processing of data can be provided on request to the corresponding author.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 42105063).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Geography and Tourism, Hengyang Normal University, Hengyang, 421002, Hunan Province, China

    Kui Liu

  2. Center for Monsoon System Research, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P. O. Box 2718, Beijing, 100190, China

    Kui Liu, Jilong Chen, Lian-Tong Zhou, Zhibiao Wang & Yong Liu

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  1. Kui Liu
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  2. Jilong Chen
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  3. Lian-Tong Zhou
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  4. Zhibiao Wang
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Contributions

All the authors contributed to the conceptualization and design of the study. Data were gathered by Kui Liu. An initial draft of the paper was prepared by Kui Liu. The article was repeatedly revised to generate the final version by Lian-Tong Zhou, Jilong Chen, Zhibiao Wang, and Yong Liu.

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Correspondence to Lian-Tong Zhou.

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Liu, K., Chen, J., Zhou, LT. et al. Interdecadal change in autumn rainfall over Southeast China and its association with tropical Pacific SST. Theor Appl Climatol 150, 1545–1557 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04249-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04249-4

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