Abstract
The homogeneous hidden Markov model (HMM), a statistical pattern recognition method, is introduced in this paper. Based on the HMM, a 53-yr record of daily precipitation during the flood season (April–September) at 389 stations in East China during 1961–2013 is classified into six patterns: the South China (SC) pattern, the southern Yangtze River (SY) pattern, the Yangtze–Huai River (YH) pattern, the North China (NC) pattern, the overall wetter (OW) pattern, and the overall drier (OD) pattern. Features of the transition probability matrix of the first four patterns reveal that 1) the NC pattern is the most persistent, followed by the YH, and the SY is the least one; and 2) there exists a SY–SC–SY–YH–NC propagation process for the rain belt over East China during the flood season. The intraseasonal variability in the occurrence frequency of each pattern determines its start and end time. Furthermore, analysis of interdecadal variability in the occurrence frequency of each pattern in recent six decades has identified three obvious interdecadal variations for the SC, YH, and NC patterns in the mid–late 1970s, the early 1990s, and the late 1990s. After 2000, the patterns concentrated in the southern region play a dominant role, and thus there maintains a “flooding in the south and drought in the north” rainfall distribution in eastern China. In summary, the HMM provides a unique approach for us to obtain both spatial distribution and temporal variation features of flood-season rainfall.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barnston A. G., and R. E. Livezey, 1987: Classification, seasonality and persistence of low-frequency atmospheric circulation patterns. Mon. Wea. Rev., 115, 1083–1126, doi: 10.1175/1520-0493(1987)115<1083:CSAPOL>2.0.CO;2.
Chen C., A. M. Greene, A. W. Robertson, et al., 2013: Scenario development for estimating potential climate change impacts on crop production in the North China Plain. Int. J. Climatol., 33, 3124–3140, doi: 10.1002/joc.3648.
Chen L. X., W. Li, P. Zhao, et al., 2000: On the process of summer monsoon onset over East Asia. Climatic Environ. Res., 5, 345–355, doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1006-9585.2000.04.002. (in Chinese)
Chen Y. S., N. Shi, and H. B. Liu, 1995: A study of the diagnostic and prognostic method for distributive patterns of summer rainfall in eastern China. Quart. J. Appl. Meteor., 6, 327–332. (in Chinese)
Dikbas F., M. Firat, A. C. Koc, et al., 2012: Classification of precipitation series using fuzzy cluster method. Int. J. Climatol., 32, 1596–1603, doi: 10.1002/joc.2350.
Ding Y. H., 1992: Summer monsoon rainfalls in China. J. Meteor. Soc. Japan, 70, 373–396, doi: 10.2151/jmsj1965.70.1B_373.
Ding Y. H., and M. Katsuhito, 1994: Monsoons in East Asia. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, 74–92.
Ding Y. H., and H. N. Ma, 1996: The Present Status and Future Research of the East Asian Monsoon. China Meteorological Press, 1–14.
Fasullo J., and P. J. Webster, 2003: A hydrological definition of Indian monsoon onset and withdrawal. J. Climate, 16, 3200–3211, doi: 10.1175/1520-0442(2003)016<3200a:AHDOIM>2.0.CO;2.
Gao H., W. Jiang, and W. J. Li, 2014: Changed relationships between the East Asian summer monsoon circulations and the summer rainfall in eastern China. J. Meteor. Res., 28, 1075–1084, doi: 10.1007/s13351-014-4327-5.
Golian S., B. Saghafian, S. Sheshangosht, et al., 2010: Comparison of classification and clustering methods in spatial rainfall pattern recognition at Northern Iran. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 102, 319–329, doi: 10.1007/s00704-010-0267-x.
Greene A. M., A. W. Robertson, and S. Kirshner, 2008: Analysis of Indian monsoon daily rainfall on subseasonal to multidecadal timescales using a hidden Markov model. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 134, 875–887, doi: 10.1002/qj.254.
Greene A. M., A. W. Robertson, P. Smyth, et al., 2011: Downscaling projections of Indian monsoon rainfall using a nonhomogeneous hidden Markov model. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 137, 347–359, doi: 10.1002/qj.788.
Guo Q. Y., and J. Q. Wang, 1981: Interannual variations of rain spell during predominant summer monsoon over China for recent 30 years. Acta Geogr. Sinica., 36, 187–195, doi: 10.11821/xb198102007. (in Chinese)
He J. H., and B. Q. Liu, 2016: The East Asian subtropical summer monsoon: Recent progress. J. Meteor. Res., 30, 135–155, doi: 10.1007/s13351-016-5222-z.
Hughes J. P., and P. Guttorp, 1994: A class of stochastic models for relating synoptic atmospheric patterns to regional hydrologic phenomena. Water Resour. Res., 30, 1535–1546, doi: 10.1029/93WR02983.
Jiang Z. H., J. H. He, J. P. Li, et al., 2006: Northerly advancement characteristics of the East Asian summer monsoon with its interdecadal variations. Acta Geogr. Sinica., 61, 675–686, doi: 10.3321/j.issn:0375-5444.2006.07.001. (in Chinese)
Kim B. J., R. H. Kripalani, J. H. Oh, et al., 2002: Summer mon-soon rainfall patterns over South Korea and associated circulation features. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 72, 65–74, doi: 10.1007/s007040200013.
Kirshner S., 2005: Modeling of multivariate time series using hidden Markov models. Ph. D. dissertation, University of California, Long Beach, CA, USA, 202 pp.
Kulkarni, A, R. H. Kripalani, and S. V. Singh, 1992: Classification of summer monsoon rainfall patterns over India. Int. J. Climatol., 12, 269–280, doi: 10.1002/joc.3370120304.
Kwon M. H., J. G. Jhun, and K. J. Ha, 2007: Decadal change in East Asian summer monsoon circulation in the mid-1990s. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L21706, doi: 10.1029/2007GL031977.
Lau K. M., and S. Yang, 1997: Climatology and interannual variability of the Southeast Asian summer monsoon. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 14, 141–162, doi: 10.1007/s00376-997-0016-y.
Li A. H., and Z. H. Jiang, 2007: Interannual and interdecadal changes of summer rain band propagation over eastern China. J. Nanjing Inst. Meteor., 30, 186–193, doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1674-7097.2007.02.006. (in Chinese)
Li C. Y., 2004: New research progress of the intraseasonal oscillation. Pro. Nat. Sci., 14, 734–741.
Liao Q. S., G. Y. Chen, and G. Z. Chen, 1981: Westerlies Circulation in Northern Hemisphere and Summer Precipitation in China. China Meteorological Press, Beijing, 103–114.
Lyu J. M., C. W. Zhu, J. H. Ju, et al., 2014: Interdecadal variability in summer precipitation over East China during the past 100 years and its possible causes. Chinese J. Atmos. Sci., 38, 782–794, doi: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9895.1401.13227. (in Chinese)
Mares C., I. Mares, H. Huebener, et al., 2014: A hidden Markov model applied to the daily spring precipitation over the Danube basin. Adv. Meteor., doi: 10.1155/2014/237247.
Pineda L. E., and P. Willems, 2016: Multisite downscaling of seasonal predictions to daily rainfall characteristics over Pacific-Andean river basins in Ecuador and Peru using a nonhomogeneous hidden Markov model. J. Hydrometeor., 17, 481–198, doi: 10.1175/JHM-D-15-0040.1.
Ramos M. C., 2001: Divisive and hierarchical clustering techniques to analyze variability of rainfall distribution patterns in a Mediterranean region. Atmos. Res., 57, 123–138, doi: 10.1016/S0169-8095(01)00065-5.
Ren Y. J., L. C. Song, Z. Y. Wang, et al., 2017: A possible abrupt change in summer precipitation over eastern China around 2009. J. Meteor. Res., 31, 397–408, doi: 10.1007/s13351-016-6021-2.
Robertson A. W., S. Kirshner, and P. Smyth, 2004: Downscaling of daily rainfall occurrence over northeast Brazil using a hidden Markov model. J. Climate, 17, 4407–4424, doi: 10.1175/JCLI-3216.1.
Robertson A. W., S. Kirshner, P. Smyth, et al., 2006: Subseasonalto-interdecadal variability of the Australian monsoon over North Queensland. Quart. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 132, 519–542, doi: 10.1256/qj.05.75.
Soltani S., and R. Modarres, 2006: Classification of spatiotemporal pattern of rainfall in Iran using a hierarchical and divisive cluster analysis. J. Spat. Hydrol., 6, 1–12.
Svensson C., 1999: Empirical orthogonal function analysis of daily rainfall in the upper reaches of the Huai river basin, China. Theor. Appl. Climatol., 62, 147–161, doi: 10.1007/s007040050080.
Tan W. L., F. Yusof, and Z. Yusop, 2013: Non-homogeneous hidden Markov model for daily rainfall amount in peninsular Malaysia. Jurnal Teknologi, 63, 75–80, doi: 10.11113/jt.v63.1916.
Tao S. Y., Y. J. Zhao, and X. M. Chen, 1958: Meiyu Rainfall in China. Meteorological Proceedings of Central Weather Bureau, Beijing, No. 4, 36 pp.
Venkatanagendra K., and D. Maligelaussenaiah, 2017: Classification of rainfall data using linear Kernel based support vector machines. Int. J. Appl. Eng. Res., 12, 9717–9722. Available at www.ripublication.com. Accessed on 20 May 2018.
Wan R. J., and G. X. Wu, 2007: Mechanism of the spring persistent rains over southeastern China. Sci. China Ser. D Earth Sci., 50, 130–144, doi: 10.1007/s11430-007-2069-2.
Wang B., and H. Lin, 2002: Rainy season of the Asian–Pacific summer monsoon. J. Climate, 15, 386–398, doi: 10.1175/1520-0442(2002)015<0386:RSOTAP>2.0.CO;2.
Wang S. W., J. L. Ye, D. Y. Gong, et al., 1998: Study on the patterns of summer rainfall in eastern China. Quart. J. Appl. Meteor., 9 (suppl), 65–74. (in Chinese)
Wang S. W., J. N. Cai, J. H. Zhu, et al., 2002: The interdecadal variations of annual precipitation in China during the 1880s–1990s. Acta Meteor. Sinica, 60, 637–639, doi: 10.11676/qxxb2002.076. (in Chinese)
Woolhiser D. A., and J. Roldán, 1982: Stochastic daily precipitation models: 2. A comparison of distributions of amounts. Water Resour. Res., 18, 1461–1468, doi: 10.1029/WR018i005p01461.
Xu L., Z. G. Zhao, Y. G. Wang, et al., 2000: A study of summer rainfall patterns in eastern China. Scientia Meteor. Sinica, 20, 270–276, doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1009-0827.2000.03.005. (in Chinese)
Xu L., Z. G. Zhao, L. H. Sun, et al., 2005: Distinguishing wetter/drier rainfall patterns in China and analysis of associated characteristics of general circulation. J. Appl. Meteor. Sci., 16, 77–84, doi: 10.3969/j.issn.1001-7313.2005.z1.010. (in Chinese)
Yao X. P., and Y. B. Yu, 2005: Activity of dry cold air and its impacts on Meiyu rain during the 2003 Meiyu period. Chinese J. Atmos. Sci., 29, 973–985, doi: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9895.2005.06.13. (in Chinese)
Yoo J. H., A. W. Robertson, and I. S. Kang, 2010: Analysis of intraseasonal and interannual variability of the Asian summer monsoon using a hidden Markov model. J. Climate, 23, 5498–5516, doi: 10.1175/2010JCLI3473.1.
Yu Y. X., S. G. Wang, Z. A. Qian, et al., 2013: Climatic linkages between SHWP position and EASM rainy belts and areas in East China in the summer half year. Plateau Meteor., 32, 1510–1525, doi: 10.7522/j.issn.1000-0534.2013.00033. (in Chinese)
Zhang Q. Y., J. M. Lyu, L. M. Yang, et al., 2007: The interdecadal variation of precipitation pattern over China during summer and its relationship with the atmospheric internal dynamic processes and extra-forcing factors. Chinese J. Atmos. Sci., 31, 1290–1300, doi: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9895.2007.06.23. (in Chinese)
Zhang R., Z. J. Dong, J. Z. Min, et al., 2006: A mechanism analyses of East Asia monsoon and its rainfall influencing West Pacific subtropical high activity. J. Basic Sci. Eng., 14, 332–336. (in Chinese)
Zhu C. W., X. J. Zhou, P. Zhao, et al., 2011: Onset of East Asian subtropical summer monsoon and rainy season in China. Sci. China Earth Sci., 54, 1845–1853, doi: 10.1007/s11430-011-4284-0.
Zhu Y. M., and X. Q. Yang, 2003: Relationships between Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO) and climate variabilities in China. Acta Meteor. Sinica, 61, 641–654, doi: 10.3321/j.issn:0577-6619.2003.06.001. (in Chinese)
Acknowledgments
We greatly thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41675081) and National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0603804).
Electronic supplementary material
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Guo, L., Jiang, Z. & Chen, W. Using a Hidden Markov Model to Analyze the Flood-Season Rainfall Pattern and Its Temporal Variation over East China. J Meteorol Res 32, 410–420 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-018-7107-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-018-7107-9