Characteristics of Atmospheric Heat Sources over Asia in Summer: Comparison of Results Calculated Using Multiple Reanalysis Datasets

Using 1979-2000 daily NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research) reanalysis data (version 1, hereafter referred to as NCEP1; version 2, hereafter referred to as NCEP2), ECMWF (European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts) reanalysis data(ERA),and the Global Asian Monsoon Experiment (GAME) reanalysis data in summer 1998, the vertically integrated heat source hQ1i in summer is calculated, and results obtained using different datasets are compared. The distributions of hQ1i calculated by using NCEP1 are in good agreement with rainfall observations over the Arabian Sea/Indian Peninsula, the Bay of Bengal (BOB), and East China. The distributions of hQ1i revealed by using NCEP2 are unrealistic in the southern Indian Peninsula, the BOB, and the South China Sea. Using ERA, the heat sources over the tropical Asia are in accordance with the summer precipitation,however, the distributions of hQ1i in East China are unreasonable. In the tropical region, the distributions of the summer heat source given by NCEP1 and ERA seem to be more accurate than those revealed by NCEP2. The NCEP1 and NCEP2 data are better for calculating heat sources over the subtropical and eastern regions of mainland China.