The impact of strong(weak) intraseasonal oscillation(ISO) over South China Sea(SCS) and South Asia(SA)in summer on the SCS and SA summer monsoon and the summer rainfall in Eastern China are studied by using the NCEP-NCAR analysis data and the rainfall data of 160 stations in China from 1961 to 2010.It is found that the impacts are significantly different in different months of summer.The study shows that in June and July cyclonic(anticyclonic) atmospheric circulation over SCS and SA corresponds to strong(weak) ISO over SCS.In August,however,strong(weak) ISO over SCS still corresponds to cyclonic(anticyclonic) atmospheric circulation over SA.In June and August cyclonic(anticyclonic) atmospheric circulation over South Asia corresponds to strong(weak) ISO over SA while a strong(weak) ISO corresponds to anticyclonic(cyclonic) atmospheric circulation over SA in July.Besides,in June the strong(weak) ISO over SA corresponds to cyclonic(anticyclonic) atmospheric circulation over SCS,while in July and August the atmospheric circulation is in the same phase regardless of whether the ISO over SA is strong or weak.The impacts of the strong(weak)ISO over SCS on the rainfall of eastern China are similar in June and July,which favors less(more) rainfall in Yangtze-Huaihe Rivers basin but sufficient(deficient) rainfall in the south of Yangtze River.However,the impacts are not so apparent in August.In South Asia,the strong(weak) ISO in July results in less(more)rainfall in the south of Yangtze River but sufficient(deficient) rainfall in Yangtze-Huaihe Rivers basin.The influence on the rainfall in eastern China in June and August is not as significant as in July.
In this paper,the relationship between a pair of low-frequency vortexes over the equatorial Indian Ocean and the South China Sea(SCS) summer monsoon onset is studied based on a multi-year(1980-2003) analysis.A pair of vortexes symmetric about the equator is an important feature prior to the SCS summer monsoon onset.A composite analysis shows that the life cycle of the pair of vortexes is closely associated with the SCS summer monsoon onset.The westerly between the twin cyclones is an important factor to the SCS summer monsoon onset process.
This study reveals the barotropic dynamics associated with the formation and growth of tropical cyclone Nargis in 2008,during its formation stage.Strong equatorial westerlies occurred over the southern Bay of Bengal in association with the arrival of an intraseasonal westerly event during the period 22-24 April 2008. The westerlies,together with strong tropical-subtropical easterlies,constituted a large-scale horizontal shear flow,creating cyclonic vorticity and thereby promoting the incipient disturbance that eventually evolved into Nargis.This basic zonal flow in the lower troposphere was barotropically unstable,with the amplified disturbance gaining more kinetic energy from the easterly jet than from the westerly jet during 25-26 April. This finding suggests that more attention should be paid to the unstable easterly jet when monitoring and predicting the development of tropical cyclones.Energetics analyses reveal that barotropic energy conversion by the meridional gradient of the basic zonal flow was indeed an important energy source for the growth of Nargis.
The development and application of a regional ocean data assimilation system are among the aims of the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment. The ocean data assimilation system in the regions including the Indian and West Pacific oceans is an endeavor motivated by this goal. In this study, we describe the system in detail. Moreover, the reanalysis in the joint area of Asia, the Indian Ocean, and the western Pacific Ocean(hereafter AIPOcean) constructed using multi-year model integration with data assimilation is used to test the performance of this system. The ocean model is an eddy-resolving,hybrid coordinate ocean model. Various types of observations including in-situ temperature and salinity profiles(mechanical bathythermograph, expendable bathythermograph, Array for Real-time Geostrophic Oceanography, Tropical Atmosphere Ocean Array, conductivity–temperature–depth, station data), remotely-sensed sea surface temperature, and altimetry sea level anomalies, are assimilated into the reanalysis via the ensemble optimal interpolation method. An ensemble of model states sampled from a long-term integration is allowed to change with season, rather than remaining stationary. The estimated background error covariance matrix may reasonably reflect the seasonality and anisotropy. We evaluate the performance of AIPOcean during the period 1993–2006 by comparisons with independent observations, and some reanalysis products. We show that AIPOcean reduces the errors of subsurface temperature and salinity, and reproduces mesoscale eddies. In contrast to ECCO and SODA products, AIPOcean captures the interannual variability and linear trend of sea level anomalies very well. AIPOcean also shows a good consistency with tide gauges.
North-south displacements and meridional vacillations of the eddy-driven jet are widely accepted as the dominant cause of variability of the observational zonal-mean zonal wind anomalies(denoted [u]').In this study,a new idea regarding the primary variability of the observational [u]' in the middle latitude troposphere is presented.It is hypothesized that there are two different classes of primary variability of the observational [u]':the poleward propagation of the [u]'(abbreviated as PP) and meridional vacillations.To validate this hypothesis,one-point correlation maps of [u]' at 200-hPa during the boreal cold season(November-April) of every year from 1957-2002 are used as a criterion.Twelve PP years,in which the PP events are dominant in the variability of [u]',and 15 no_PP years,in which the PP events are recessive and the meridional vacillations are dominant in the variability of [u]',are examined.The results show that the variabilities of [u]' are different in the chosen PP and no_PP years.In the PP years,the PP events dominate the variability of [u]';however,the meridional vacillations are prevalent in the no_PP years.
