The regional climate model(RegCM3), developed by the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics and nested in one-way mode within the latest version of Community Climate System Model from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, is used to conduct a set of experiments to examine its capability of climate simulation for the past 50 years and to explore possible changes in extreme precipitation(EP) in the next 100 years under the A1 B scenario. Compared with the observation from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and CPC Merged Analysis of Precipitation, RegCM3 reasonably reproduces the spatiotemporal distributions of precipitation and EP in eastern China. Based on the present-day analysis, this study examines the changes in monsoonal precipitation over eastern China in mid- and late-21st century relative to the reference period of 1970-1999. It is found that the precipitation will increase over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and areas to its north, and decrease over coastal areas to its south, especially in late-21st century. The various indices reflecting extreme events showed that the EP will enhance 10%-15% over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and areas to its north, and weaken over the areas to its south. The summer monsoon will strengthen and shift northwards under SERS A1 B, bringing more water vapor and energy from the Indian Ocean and South China Sea for precipitation and eventually more precipitation over northern China.
Based on the daily rainfall datasets of 743 stations in China and the NCEP/NCAR monthly reanalysis data during the period of 1960-2003,the relationship between the anomalous extreme precipitation(EP) in the south of China and atmospheric circulation in the Southern Hemisphere is analyzed.The phenomenon of opposite changes in the sea level pressure and geopotential height anomalies over the Ross Sea and New Zealand is defined as RN,and the index which describes this phenomenon is expressed as RNI.The results show that the RN has barotropic structure and the RNI in May is closely related to the June EP amount in the south of China(SCEP) and the East Asian summer monsoon(EASM).The positive correlations between the May RNI at each level and the June SCEP are significant,and the related simultaneous correlations between the RNI and the June SCEP are also positive,suggesting that the potential impact of RN on the SCEP persists from May to June.Therefore,RN in May can be taken as one of the predictive factors for the June SCEP.Furthermore,one possible physical mechanism by which the RN affects the June SCEP is a barotropic meridional teleconnection emanating from the Southern Hemisphere to the western North Pacific.
