THE CORRELATION BETWEEN THE PACIFIC SEA SURFACE TEMPERATURE (SST) and PRECIPITATION OVER NW CHINA

With the singular value decomposition (SVD), correlation analysis has been conducted between the Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature (SST) and northwestern China precipitation over March –C May (MAM). The result shows that there is good relationship between the North Pacific and spring precipitation in northwestern China. When the SST is of the peak El Niño phase, precipitation is less over this part of the country except for the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau; when the SST for the months DJF is of the mature El Niño phase, precipitation is more over the region in the subsequent March –C May; when the North Pacific SST for DJF is of the La Niña pattern, precipitation is less over the plateau in the subsequent March –C May. For the Pacific SST, the westerly drift, kuroshio current, Californian current and north equatorial current are all significantly correlating with the March –C May precipitation in northwestern China. Specifically, the SST in DJF over the kuroshio current region is out of phase with the precipitation in northern Xinjiang, i.e. when the former is low, the latter is more. In northwestern China, regions in which March –C May precipitation response to the variation of SST in the Pacific Ocean are northern Xinjiang, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and areas off its northeastern part, the desert basin and western part of the Corridor of the Great Bend of Yellow River valley (Corridor).