INTERDECADAL CHANGE IN THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOUTH CHINA SPRING RAINFALL AND PRECEDING-SUMMER WARM POOL OCEAN HEAT CONTENT

Abstract:

South China spring rainfall (SCSR) is a unique feature during the seasonal transition from the winter half-year to summer half-year. Abnormal SCSR has great impacts on crop harvests. Seeking previous predictability sources, particularly persistent precursors, is of practical importance in the seasonal prediction of SCSR. The present study investigates the relationship between SCSR and preceding-summer warm pool ocean heat content (WPHC). The SCSR-WPHC relationship is not stationary and has a remarkable interdecadal change around 1983. Before 1983, SCSR and preceding-summer WPHC have a close relationship, with a temporal correlation coefficient (TCC) of ?0.54. After 1983, the relationship disappears, with a TCC of ?0.18. It is further found that the WPHC-associated sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) pattern in the simultaneous spring during the two periods presents dissimilar evolutionary features. Before 1983, a La Niña-like SSTA presents a fast transition during the winter and alters to a developing El Niño during the following spring. The warm SSTA is confined to a limited region over the eastern Pacific. Therefore, the rainfall and circulation responses over the equatorial Maritime Continent are relatively weak. In turn, the Rossby wave response in terms of the cyclonic anomaly to the Maritime Continent diabatic heating is weak and confined to the South China Sea and Philippine Sea, which leads to high pressure and suppressed rainfall over south China, establishing an intimate SCSR–CWPHC relationship. However, after 1983, because the La Niña-like SSTA pattern can persist for more than a year, the rainfall diabatic heating over the Maritime Continent during springtime is enhanced, resulting in a much larger cyclonic response over East Asia but insignificant rainfall anomalies over south China. Therefore, the SCSR–CWPHC relationship becomes weak. Wavelet analysis suggests that the change in the dominant period of WPHC variation is probably responsible for the different SSTA evolutions and corresponding atmospheric responses.