THE CLIMATIC CHARACTERISTICS OF SUMMER MONSOON ONSET OVER THE SOUTH CHINA SEA I.40-YEAR AVERAGE

By using 40-year NCEP reanalysis daily data (1958-1997), we have analyzed the climatic characteristics of summer monsoon onset in the South China Sea (105°E ~ 120°E, 5°N ~ 20°N, to be simplified as SCS in the text followed) pentad by pentad (5 days). According to our new definition, in the monsoon area of the SCS two of the following conditions should be satisfied: 1) At 850hPa, the southwest winds should be greater than 2m/s. 2) At 850 hPa, θse should be greater than 335°K. The new definition means that the summer monsoon is the southwest winds with high temperature and high moisture. The onset of the SCS summer monsoon is defined to start when one half of the SCS area (105°E ~ 120°E,5°N ~ 20°N) is controlled by the summer monsoon. The analyzed results revealed the following: 1) The summer monsoon in the SCS starts to build up abruptly in the 4th pentad in May. 2) The summer monsoon onset in the SCS is resulted from the development and intensification of southwesterly monsoon in the Bay of Bengal. 3) The onset of the summer monsoon and establishment of the summer monsoon rainfall season in the SCS occur simultaneously. 4) During the summer monsoon onset in the SCS, troughs deepen and widen quickly in the lower troposphere of the India; the subtropical high in the Western Pacific moves eastward off the SCS in the middle troposphere; the easterly advances northward over the SCS in the upper troposphere.