COMPARISON OF THE EFFECTS OF ANOMALOUS CONVECTIVE ACTIVITIES IN THE TROPICAL WESTERN PACIFIC ON TWO PERSISTENT HEAVY RAIN EVENTS IN SOUTH CHINA

Abstract:

The different effects of anomalous convective activities in the tropical western Pacific on two persistent heavy rain events in South China in 2005 and 2006 have been compared in this study. The dataused consist of NOAA Outgoing Longwave Radiation (OLR) data, the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis and precipitation from meteorological stations in South China. Results show that the persistent heavy rain in 2005 was related to the 10-25-day westward propagation of convective activities in the tropical western Pacific from about 150 °E. The physical mechanism is interpreted as a Gill-type response of subtropical anticyclone westward extension during weak convective activities period over the Philippine Sea. Our researches also show that the persistent heavy rain in 2006 has longer period than that in 2005, and the subtropical anticyclone persists westward in the earlier summer which is possibly related to the lasting anomalous strong convective motion in the southern branch of Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) in the tropic western Pacific. The anomalous convective activities affect the local Hadley circulation over the western Pacific with anomalous ascending motion south of the equator and anomalous descend motion north of it, in favor of the westward extension of the subtropical anticyclone for a long time. Comparison between the two persistent heavy rain events indicates different physical effects of convective activities in the tropical western Pacific, though both effects are helpful to the subtropical anticyclone westward extension as a common character of large-scale circulation backgrounds for persistent heavy rain events in South China.