CONVECTIVE ANOMALIES IN TROPICAL OCEAN AREAS AND LONG-LEAD FORECAST OF SUMMER RAINFALL IN SHANDONG

Abstract:

This study focuses on deep convection anomalies in tropical regions in winter-spring period and their possible influence on the following summer rainfall in Shandong province. On the basis of monthly precipitation wet and dry summers in Shandong are defined according to a precipitation index. Then monthly OLR data, observed by NOAA satellites, are used to diagnose the features of deep convection for both wet and dry summers. It is found that negative anomalies seem dominant prior to wet summers, while large areas of positive anomalies appear prior to dry summers in tropical oceans. The differences are remarkable especially in the western, middle and eastern tropical Pacific as well as in the tropical Indian Ocean. Correlative analysis confirms the relations between OLR and precipitation. Subtropical High, which plays an essential role in summer rainfall, is also connected with the deep conviction. Altogether eight EOF-CCA forecast models are established on the basis of the above study. The assessment of the models relies on the gauge observing precipitation in 1997 and 1998. The results show that models using spring OLR data appear to be more practicable than those using winter OLR data, and the models established with OLR in western Pacific and the Indian Ocean perform better than the others.