scholarly journals The Okhotsk-Japan Circulation Pattern and the Heavy Rainfall in Beijing in 2012 Summer

2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yafei Wang ◽  
Jianzhao Qin ◽  
Lijuan Zhu

Using station precipitation and reanalysis data, we examined the evolution of the large-scale circulations associated with the heavy rainfall event that occurred around July 21, 2012 (721 heavy rainfall). This study focuses on a role that the large-scale circulations named “the Okhotsk-Japan (OKJ) circulation pattern” played in causing the heavy rainfall case. We found that the 721 heavy rainfall occurred under a background of the OKJ circulation that persisted for about 10 days. However, the pattern was different from the normal OKJ circulation, for this circulation pattern accompanied a blocking high between the Ural Mountains and the Baikal Lake. This difference resulted from the seasonal change of the basic flow. The related Rossby wave propagated eastward during the persisting period of the dominated OKJ pattern. This caused the development of a low-pressure system around the Baikal Lake and the weakening of a ridge around the Okhotsk Sea. The slow evolution of the OKJ circulation created a favorable environment for the moisture transport to northern China, assisting in the generation of the 721 heavy rainfall.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwangyong Choi

<p>Since the late 20th century East Asia has frequently experienced unprecedented transboundary extreme ultrafine dust events (TEUDEs) due to a fast economic development based on significant amount of fossil fuel consumption. In this study, spatio-temporal patterns of the TEUDEs in East Asia and the roles of synoptic climate patterns and changing large-scale atmospheric circulation systems in exacerbating the anthropogenic atmospheric pollution events causing considerable human deaths are examined. Analyses of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Aqua and Terra aerosol optical depth (AOD) data (2000-2019) clearly show that the pollutants are produced mainly in northern China and move toward central Korea and southern Japanese islands during cold seasons when coals consumption soars for heating. Synoptic climatic maps drawn from the NCEP-NCAR I reanalysis data for multiple TEUDEs demonstrate that a north clockwise- south anticlockwise wind vector anomaly pattern in cold seasons formed by less southward meandering of Siberian High pressure (SH) helps the stagnation of significant amount of ultrafine dusts over East Asia. It is also notable that the long-term poleward retreating trend of cold season circumpolar vortex, which is associated with less frequent gusty wind flow from the SH, may provide a favorable condition for intense, long-lasting TEUDEs across East Asia under a warmer monsoon climate.</p>


2010 ◽  
Vol 138 (5) ◽  
pp. 1635-1650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chun-Chieh Wu ◽  
Kevin K. W. Cheung ◽  
Jan-Huey Chen ◽  
Cheng-Chuan Chang

Abstract A heavy rainfall event associated with the passage of Tropical Storm Rachel (1999) over southern Taiwan was studied in which a conceptual model was proposed. In the model, Tropical Storm Paul (1999) plays an important role in impeding the movement of Rachel, thus becoming one of the key factors in enhancing the rainfall amount in southern Taiwan. To further quantify the above concept, a mesoscale numerical model is used to evaluate the influence of Paul on the simulated rainfall associated with Rachel near Taiwan. Sensitivity experiments are performed by removing the circulation of Paul, and/or the large-scale monsoon trough system, where Paul is imbedded. The potential vorticity diagnosis shows that the movement of Rachel is indeed affected by the presence of Paul. Nevertheless, a more detailed analysis shows that it is the presence of the entire monsoon trough that impedes the movement of Rachel and steers the storm toward southwestern Taiwan especially before its landfall. In all, these results generally support the conceptual model with regard to the heavy rainfall mechanism proposed in a previous study. Moreover, this study further points out that it is the circulation associated with both Paul and the entire monsoon trough that affects the movement of Rachel. In addition, the analyses based on the no-terrain simulation depict the relationships among the moisture-rich air from the South China Sea associated with Rachel, relatively dry air from South China, and the mechanism of forming a warm and dry region to the eastern side of the Taiwan terrain, which greatly influences the heavy rainfall distribution in the event.


2008 ◽  
Vol 136 (9) ◽  
pp. 3275-3287 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoru Yokoi ◽  
Jun Matsumoto

Abstract This paper reveals synoptic-scale atmospheric conditions over the South China Sea (SCS) that cause heavy rainfall in central Vietnam through case study and composite analyses. The heavy rainfall event discussed in this study occurred on 2–3 November 1999. Precipitation in Hue city (central Vietnam) was more than 1800 mm for these 2 days. Two atmospheric disturbances played key roles in this heavy rainfall. First, a cold surge (CS) northerly wind anomaly in the lower troposphere, originating in northern China near 40°N, propagated southward to reach the northern SCS and then lingered there for a couple of days, resulting in stronger-than-usual northeasterly winds continuously blowing into the Indochina Peninsula against the Annam Range. Second, a southerly wind anomaly over the central SCS, associated with a tropical depression–type disturbance (TDD) in southern Vietnam, seemed to prevent the CS from propagating farther southward. Over the northern SCS, the southerly wind anomaly formed a strong low-level convergence in conjunction with the CS northeasterly wind anomaly, and supplied warm and humid tropical air. These conditions induced by the CS and TDD are favorable for the occurrence of the heavy orographic rainfall in central Vietnam. The TDD can be regarded as a result of a Rossby wave response to a large-scale convective anomaly over the Maritime Continent associated with equatorial intraseasonal variability. Using a 24-yr (1979–2002) reanalysis and surface precipitation datasets, the authors confirm that the coexistence of the CS and TDD is important for the occurrence of heavy precipitation in central Vietnam. In addition, it is observed that CSs without a TDD do not lead to much precipitation.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuranoshin Kato ◽  
Kengo Matsumoto ◽  
Takato Yamatogi ◽  
Chihiro Miyake

<p>   In East Asia, a significant subtropical front called the Baiu/Meiyu front appears just before midsummer and brings the huge rainfall there, greatly influenced by the Asian summer monsoon. However, large-scale atmospheric features and rainfall characteristics (such as convective or stratiform rain) as well as the total rainfall amount around the front show rather great differences between the western and eastern portions. For example, in the western part of the Japan Islands (especially around Kyushu District, the most western part) and the Changjiang River Basin in Central China, the more frequent appearance of the heavy rainfall events due to the organized deep convective clouds than in the eastern Japan results in the larger climatological precipitation amount there. This is greatly related to the larger moisture transport toward the western part of the Baiu front than toward the eastern part. On the other hand, the rainfall characteristics around the front in the eastern Japan tend to be largely influenced by the cool Okhotsk air mass with rather stable stratification. Furthermore, their year-to-year, intraseasonal and short-period variations including the diversity of the “heavy rainfall types” are also very large.</p><p>The extreme events in association with the Baiu/Meiyu activity are greatly reflected by the above variability of the frontal activity. Inversely, it would be also important viewpoint that detailed examination of some extreme events could lead to the better understanding of the “dynamic climatological features” of the Baiu/Meiyu system itself.</p><p>In such concept, the present study will examine the frontal-scale rainfall features and the atmospheric conditions for the extremely heavy rainfall event around the Baiu front in western to central Japan during 5-7 July 2018. Although it is the common feature for the Baiu frontal rainfall heavy in western Japan that the frequent appearance of the meso-scale intense rain bands results in the huge total rainfall amount there, it is noted that the extremely large total rainfall area was distributed much more widely up to the central Japan with also considerable contribution of the long-persistent “not-so-intense rain” there, as often found in the heavy rainfall in the eastern Japan. Our analyses of the atmospheric fields suggest that this extreme event seems to be characterized by the strong mixture both of the large-scale factors for activating the “western Japan Baiu” and the “eastern Japan Baiu”.</p><p>As for the precipitation analyses, the 10-minute precipitation data at many meteorological stations in the Japan Islands area were used to discuss on the frontal-scale “rainfall characteristics” as well as the total rainfall amounts.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Mazzoglio ◽  
Paolo Pasquali ◽  
Andrea Parodi ◽  
Antonio Parodi

<p>In the framework of LEXIS (Large-scale EXecution for Industry & Society) H2020 project, CIMA Research Foundation is running a 3 nested domain WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) model with European coverage and weather radar data assimilation over Italy. Forecasts up to 48 hours characterized by a 7.5 km resolution are then processed by ITHACA ERDS (Extreme Rainfall Detection System), an early warning system for the heavy rainfall monitoring and forecasting. This type of information is currently managed by ERDS together with two global-scale datasets. The first one is provided by NASA/JAXA GPM (Global Precipitation Measurement) Mission through the IMERG (Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM) Early run data, a near real-time rainfall information with hourly updates, 0.1° spatial resolution and a 4 hours latency. The second one is instead provided by GFS (Global Forecast System) at a 0.25° spatial resolution.<br>The entire WRF-ERDS workflow has been tested and validated on the heavy rainfall event that affected the Sardinia region between 27 and 29 November 2020. This convective event significantly impacted the southern and eastern areas of the island, with a daily rainfall depth of 500.6 mm recorded at Oliena and 328.6 mm recorded at Bitti. During the 28th, the town of Bitti (Nuoro province) was hit by a severe flood event.<br>Near real-time information provided by GPM data allowed us to issue alerts starting from the late morning of the 28th. The first alert over Sardinia based on GFS data was provided in the late afternoon of the 27th, about 40 km far from Bitti. In the early morning of the 28th, a new and more precise alert was issued over Bitti. The first alert based on WRF data was instead provided in the morning of the 27th and the system continued to issue alerts until the evening of the 29th, confirming that, for this type of event, precise forecasts are needed to provide timely alerts.<br>Obtained results show how, taking advantage of HPC resources to perform finer weather forecast experiments, it is possible to significantly improve the capabilities of early warning systems. By using WRF data, ERDS was able to provide heavy rainfall alerts one day before than with the other data.<br>The integration within the LEXIS platform will help with the automatization by data-aware orchestration of our workflow together with easy control of data and workflow steps through a user-friendly web interface.</p>


Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 904
Author(s):  
Lourdes P. Aquino-Martínez ◽  
Arturo I. Quintanar ◽  
Carlos A. Ochoa-Moya ◽  
Erika Danaé López-Espinoza ◽  
David K. Adams ◽  
...  

Land use land cover (LULC) significantly impacts local circulation in the Mexico Basin, particularly wind field circulations such as gap winds, convergence lines, and thermally induced upslope/downslope wind. A case study with a high-pressure system over the Mexico Basin isolates the influence of large-scale synoptic forcing. Numerical simulations reveal a wind system composed of meridional circulation and a zonal component. Thermal pressure gradients between the Mexico basin and its colder surroundings create near-surface convergence lines as part of the meridional circulation. Experiments show that the intensity and organization of meridional circulations and downslope winds increase when LULC changes from natural and cultivated land to urban. Zonal circulation exhibits a typical circulation pattern with the upslope flow and descending motion in the middle of the basin. Large values of moist static energy are near the surface where air parcels pick up energy from the surface either as fluxes of enthalpy or latent heat. Surface heat fluxes and stored energy in the ground are drivers of local circulation, which is more evident in zonal circulation patterns.


2020 ◽  
Vol 148 (10) ◽  
pp. 4117-4141
Author(s):  
Feng Hsiao ◽  
Yi-Leng Chen ◽  
David Eugene Hitzl

AbstractShort-lived afternoon heavy rainfall events may form over central Oahu during seasonal transition periods (June and October) under favorable large-scale settings. These include a deep moist layer with relatively high precipitable water (>40 mm), blocking pattern in midlatitudes with a northeast–southwest moist tongue from low latitudes ahead of an upper-level trough, absence of a trade wind inversion, and weak (<3 m s−1) low-level winds. Our high-resolution (1.5 km) model results show that immediately before the storm initiation, daytime land surface heating deepens the mixed layer over central Oahu and the top of the mixed layer reaches the lifting condensation level. Meanwhile, the development of onshore/sea-breeze flows, driven by land–sea thermal contrast, brings in moist maritime air over the island interior. Finally, convergence of onshore flows over central Oahu provides the localized lifting required for the release of instability. Based on synoptic and observational analyses, nowcasting with a lead time of 2–3 h ahead of this type of event is possible. In the absence of orographic effects after removing model topography, processes that lead to heavy rainfall are largely unchanged, and subsequent development of heavy showers over central Oahu are still simulated. However, when surface heat and moisture fluxes are turned off, convective cells are not simulated in the area. These results indicate that daytime heating is crucial for the development of this type of heavy rainfall event under favorable large-scale settings.


2016 ◽  
Vol 144 (1) ◽  
pp. 393-408 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken-Chung Ko ◽  
Jyun-Hong Liu

Abstract This study introduces a modified Pacific–Japan (PJ) index that exhibits a substantial periodicity of 5–16 days in the East Asian summer monsoon region. The quasi-periodic fluctuations of the PJ index can indicate changes in the large-scale circulation systems. In the PJ high phase, the wave pattern propagates northwestward from the western North Pacific tropics to an area near northern Luzon and is then forced to move westward because of a stationary, anomalous high pressure system over southern Japan. The tropical cyclones (TCs) associated with the anomalous low pressure systems tend to follow a straight-moving propagation route through the northern South China Sea. The anomalous cyclonic flow causes heavy rainfall in eastern Taiwan. However, in the PJ low phase, the wave pattern and TCs follow a recurving propagation route toward higher latitudes. The circulation pattern typically brings heavy rainfall to northern Taiwan in the PJ low phase. Therefore, wave patterns under the influence of the quasi-periodic fluctuations of the PJ pattern affect rainfall because of the changing propagation routes of the wave patterns, as well as the TC tracks.


2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (15) ◽  
pp. 6175-6187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thando Ndarana ◽  
Mary-Jane Bopape ◽  
Darryn Waugh ◽  
Liesl Dyson

The link between Rossby wave breaking and ridging Atlantic Ocean anticyclones in the South African domain is examined using NCEP–DOE AMIP-II reanalysis data. A simple composite analysis, which used the duration of ridging events as a basis of averaging, reveals that ridging anticyclones are coupled with Rossby wave breaking at levels higher than the dynamical tropopause. Lower-stratospheric PV anomalies extend to the surface, thus coupling the ridging highs with the lower stratosphere. The anomaly extending from the 70-hPa level to the surface contributes to a southward extension of the surface negative anomaly over the Namibian coast, which induces a cyclonic flow, causing the ridging anticyclone to take a bean-like shape. The surface positive anomaly induces the internal anticyclonic flow within the large-scale pressure system, causing the ridging end to break off and amalgamate with the Indian Ocean high pressure system. Lower-stratospheric Rossby wave breaking lasts for as long as the ridging process, suggesting that the former is critical to the longevity of the latter by maintaining and keeping the vertical coupling intact.


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