Characteristics of Subtropical Monsoon and Rainfall over Eastern China and Western North Pacific

Using the NCAR/NCEP (National Center for Atmospheric Research/National Centers for Environmental Prediction) reanalysis and the NOAA Climate Prediction Center's merged analysis of precipitation (CMAP)during 1981-2000, we investigated the seasonal evolution of the southwesterly wind and associated precipitation over the eastern China-subtropical western North Pacific area and its relationship with the tropical monsoon and rainfall, and analyzed the reasons responsible for the onset and development of the wind. It was found that the persistent southwesterly wind appears over southern China and the subtropical western Pacific the earliest in early spring, and then expands southwards to the tropics and advances northward to the midlatitudes. From winter to summer, the seasonal variation of surface heating over western China and the subtropical western Pacific may result in an earlier reversal of the westward tropospheric temperature gradient over the subtropics relative to the tropics, which may contribute to the earliest beginning of the subtropical southwesterly wind. Additionally, the strengthening and eastward expanding of the trough near the eastern Tibetan Plateau as well as the strengthening and westward moving of the western Pacific subtropical high also exert positive influences on the beginning and development of the subtropical southwesterly wind.In early summer,the northward expansion of the southwesterly wind over southern China is associated with a northward shift of the subtropical high, while the southward stretch of the southwesterly wind is associated with a southward stretch of the trough in the eastern side of the plateau. With the beginning and northward expansion of the subtropical southwesterly wind (namely southwest monsoon), convergences of the low-level air and water vapor and associated upward motion in front of the strongest southwesterly wind core also strengthen and move northward, leading to an increase in rainfall intensity and a northward shift of the rain belt. Accordingly, the subtropical rainy season occurs the earliest over southern China in spring, moves northward to the Yangtze-Huaihe River valley in early summer, and arrives in North China in mid summer.Compared with the subtropical rainy season, the tropical rainy season begins later and stays mainly over the tropics, not pronouncedly moving into the subtropics. Clearly, the Meiyu rainfall over the Yangtze-Huaihe River valley in early summer results from a northward shift of the spring rain belt over southern China,instead of a northward shift of the tropical monsoon rain belt. Before the onset of the tropical monsoon,water vapor over the subtropical monsoon region comes mainly from the coasts of the northern Indo-China Peninsula and southern China. After the onset, one branch of the water vapor flow comes from the Bay of Bengal, entering into eastern China and the subtropical western Pacific via southwestern China and the South China Sea, and another branch comes from the tropical western North Pacific, moving northwestward along the west edge of the western Pacific subtropical high and entering into the subtropics.