East Asian Monsoon

Meteorol Atmos Phys 89, 117142 (2005) DOI 10.
1007/s00703-005-0125-z
1 2
National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing, China Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
The East Asian summer monsoon: an overview

Ding Yihui1 and Johnny C. L. Chan2
With 17 Figures Received August 16, 2004; revised October 13, 2004; accepted November 7, 2004 Published online: June 20, 2005 # Springer-Verlag 2005
Summary The present paper provides an overview of major problems of the East Asian summer monsoon. The summer monsoon system over East Asia (including the South China Sea (SCS)) cannot be just thought of as the eastward and northward extension of the Indian monsoon. Numerous studies have well documented that the huge Asian summer monsoon system can be divided into two subsystems: the Indian and the East Asian monsoon system which are to a greater extent independent of each other and, at the same time, interact with each other. In this context, the major ndings made in recent two decades are summarized below: (1) The earliest onset of the Asian summer monsoon occurs in most of cases in the central and southern Indochina Peninsula. The onset is preceded by development of a BOB (Bay of Bengal) cyclone, the rapid acceleration of low-level westerlies and signicant increase of convective activity in both areal extent and intensity in the tropical East Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. (2) The seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon displays a distinct stepwise northward and northeastward advance, with two abrupt northward jumps and three stationary periods. The monsoon rain commences over the region from the Indochina Peninsula-the SCS-Philippines during the period from early May to mid-May, then it extends abruptly to the Yangtze River Basin, and western and southern Japan, and the southwestern Philippine Sea in early to mid-June and nally penetrates to North China, Korea and part of Japan, and the topical western West Pacic. (3) After the onset of the Asian summer monsoon, the moisture transport coming from Indochina Peninsula and the South China Sea plays a crucial switch role in moisture supply for precipitation in East Asia, thus leading to a dramatic change in climate regime in East Asia and even more remote areas through
teleconnection. (4) The East Asian summer monsoon and related seasonal rain belts assumes signicant variability at intraseasonal, interannual and interdecadal time scales. Their interaction, i.e., phase locking and in-phase or outphase superimposing, can to a greater extent control the behaviors of the East Asian summer monsoon and produce unique rythem and singularities. (5) Two external forcing i.e., Pacic and Indian Ocean SSTs and the snow cover in the Eurasia and the Tibetan Plateau, are believed to be primary contributing factors to the activity of the East Asian summer monsoon. However, the internal variability of the atmospheric circulation is also very important. In particular, the blocking highs in mid-and high latitudes of Eurasian continents and the subtropical high over the western North Pacic play a more important role which is quite different from the condition for the South Asian monsoon. The later is of tropical monsoon nature while the former is of hybrid nature of tropical and subtropical monsoon with intense impact from mid-and high latitudes.
1. Introduction Based on studies mainly by Chinese meteorologists over many years, it has been found that many differences exist between the monsoon circulation over India and that over East Asia. This fact suggests that the structure and main components of the monsoon system over East Asia is likely to be independent of the Indian monsoon system, even though there exist some signicant interactions. In other words, the huge Asian monsoon system can be divided into two subsystems,
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D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan
the South Asian (or Indian) and the East Asian monsoon systems, which are independent of each other and, at the same time, interact with each other (Zhu, 1934; Yeh et al, 1957; Tao and Chen, 1987). Thus, the summer monsoon over EastAsia (including the South China Sea) cannot be just thought of as the eastward extension of the Indian monsoon, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, the summer monsoon over the mainland of China cannot fully be taken to be the northward extension of the Indian monsoon. One must take into account their own unique regional characters. But Zhu et al (1986) emphasized the interaction between them. They pointed out that this interaction may be accomplished through energy exchange, the propagation of low-frequency oscillation, and moisture transport. The recent work made by Wang and Lin (2002) has lent a conrmative support to the existence of the East Asian monsoon system and further extends the Asian summer system to incorporate the western North Pacic region (the Asian-Pacic monsoon). Thus, the Asian-Pacic monsoon is demarcated into three sub-systems: the Indian summer monsoon (ISM), the western North Pacic summer monsoon (WNPSM) and the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) (Fig. 1). The EASM domain dened by them includes the region of 20 45 N and 110 140 E, covering eastern China, Korea, Japan and the adjacent marginal seas. This denition does not fully agree with the conventional notion used by Chinese meteorologists (Tao and Chen, 1987; Ding, 1994), who usually includes the South China Sea (SCS) in the EASM. Wang and Lin (2002) believe that the ISM and WNPSM are tropical monsoons in which the low
level winds reverse from winter easterlies to summer westerlies, whereas the EASM is a subtropical monsoon in which the low-level winds reverse primarily from winter northerlies to southerlies. However, if the SCS region is included in the EASM, the EASM should be a hybrid type of tropical and subtropical monsoon. In Fig. 1, one can also note that the ISM and WNPSM are separated by a broad transitional zone over Indochina Peninsula and Yun-Gui plateau. This discontinuity provides a broad buffer zone or corridor between the ISM and WNPSM. Over Indochina Peninsula, the rainy season sets in late April or early May, reaches its maximum in intensity in autumn and has double peaks occurring in May and September October (Matsumoto, 1997; Lau and Yang, 1997), respectively, a characteristic that differs substantially from the rainy seasons in the adjacent ISM and WNPSM. The Asian monsoon region assumes the most distinct variation of the annual cycle and the alternation of dry and wet seasons which is in concert with the seasonal reversal of the monsoon circulation features (Webster et al, 1998). However, for different parts of the Asian monsoon region, the durations of dry and wet seasons may be different, depending on their climate regions and the degree of effects of the Asian monsoon. In South Asia, the dry and wet seasons are very well-dened while in East Asia four seasons can be evidently perceived, although the dry and wet seasons are main modes of annual march of the precipitation in this region. In mid-latitude regions of East Asia such as the central China along the Yangtze and Huaihe River Basins and
Fig. 1. This map divides the Asian-Pacic monsoon into three subregions. The ISM and western WNPSM (see the text) are tropical monsoon regions. A broad corridor in the Indochina Peninsula separates them. The subtropical monsoon region is identied as the EASM. It shares a narrow borderline with the WNPSM. (Wang and Lin, 2002)
The East Asian summer monsoon
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Korean Peninsula, they are not generally included in the dry and wet alternative regions because the wet period for theses regions is shorter than one month. These short rainy periods mainly occur during prevalence of the summer monsoon in these regions. For many years, a large amount of literatures has been contributed to the study of the Indian summer monsoon. However, during recent two decades, a more and more attention has been paid to study the East Asian summer monsoon. Recent studies on the East Asian summer monsoon have been devoted to the following aspects (Ding, 1994; Lau et al, 2001; Ding et al, 2004; Chang, 2004): (1) the onset of the East Asian summer monsoon, especially in the South China Sea (SCS); (2) the seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon and associated major seasonal rain belts; (3) the Meiyu=Baiu and associated weather disturbances; (4) multiple-scale variability of the East Asian summer monsoon and their effects on anomalous climate events (droughts=oods), especially intraseaonal (ISO), interannual (e.g., ENSO-monsoon relationship) and interdecadal-scale variability; (5) the remote effect of the East Asian summer monsoon through teleconnection patterns; (6) the physical processes and mechanisms related to the East Asian summer monsoon, and (7) the predictability and prediction of the East Asian summer monsoon. One major thrust for these studies is the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (SCSMEX, 19962001) and the GEWEX Asian Monsoon Experiment (GAME, 1995-present) (Lau et al, 2001; Yasunari, 2000; Ding and Liu, 2001; Ding et al, 2001; Ding et al, 2004). The present paper will make a comprehensive review to highlight major achievements and ndings concerning the above-described problems, except for the item (7). 2. Onset of the East Asian summer monsoon The onset of the Asian summer monsoon is a key indicator characterzing the abrupt transition from the dry season to the rainy season and subsequent seasonal march. Numerous investigators have studied this problem from the regional perspectives. It is to some extent difcult to obtain a unied and consistent picture of the climatological onset dates of the Asian summer monsoon in different regions due to differences in data,
monsoon indices and denitions of monsoon onset used in these investigations. Ding (2004) has summarised the climatological dates of the onset of the Asian summer monsoon in different monsoon regions based on various sources, with dividing the whole onset process into four stages: (1) Stage 1 (late in April or early in May): the earliest onset in the continental Asia is often observed in the central Indochina Peninsula late in April and early in May, but in some cases, the onset may rst begin in the southern part or the western part of the Indochina Peninsula. (2) Stage 2 (from mid to late May): this stage is characterized by the areal extending of the summer monsoon, advancing northward up to the Bay of Bengal and eastward down to the SCS. (3) Stage 3 (from the rst dekad to second dekad of June): this stage is well known for the onset of the Indian summer monsoon and the arrival of the East Asian rainy season such as the Meiyu over the Yangtze River Basin and the Baiu season in Japan. (4) Stage 4 (the rst or second dekad of July): the summer monsoon at this stage can advance up to North China, the Korean Peninsula (so-called Changma rainy season) and even Central Japan. Figure 2 presents an illustrative description of this onset process (Zhang et al, 2004). During the rst pentad of May (Fig. 2a), the summer monsoon is established only over Sumatra. In the next two pentads (Fig. 2b, c), the tropical monsoon advances up to the land bridge, rst establishing itself over the southwestern Indochina Peninsula and then expanding to the entire southern peninsula. During the pentad of May 1620 (Fig. 2d), the build-up of the summer monsoon is observed over the central Indochina Peninsula. At the same time, the onset location extends into the central and southern SCS, accompanied by a rainfall rate of >5 mm day1 over the entire SCS. In the next pentad, onset expands quickly and almost covers the entire SCS (Fig. 2f ). On the other hand, the Asian summer monsoon also advances northwestward to the Indian monsoon region from the near-equatorial East Indian Ocean and the Indochina Peninsula starting from mid-May (Fig. 2d). Earliest onset of the Asian summer monsoon in this region may be observed over the southern tip of the Indian subcontinent. In early June (Fig. 2g, f ), the Asian summer monsoon rapidly advances northwestward, arriving in the
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Fig. 2. Climatological pentad-averaged precipitation rates (mm day1 ) for the period from May 15 (a) to June 611 (h) in sequence. Light and dark shadings indicate precipitation regions greater than 5 mm day1 and 10 mm day1, respectively. The black dots represent the location of onset of the summer monsoon (Zhang et al, 2004)
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central Indian subcontinent. Meanwhile, the onset over the Arabian Sea and the western coast of the Indian subcontinents is observed, due mainly to the enhancement of the cross-equatorial airow off the Somali coast and the development of the onset vortex in the central and northern Arabian Sea (Krishnamurti et al, 1981; Ding, 1981). This date is generally believed to be normal onset dates for the Indian summer monsoon. So, the onset of the East-and Southeast Asian summer monsoon and the South Asian summer monsoon is closely interrelated in the context of the Asian summer monsoon system. However, the earliest onset of the Asian summer monsoon occurs over the Indochina Peninsula and the SCS. The onset process over the SCS and the Indochina Peninsula is very abrupt, with dramatic changes of large-scale circulation and rainfall patterns occurring during a quite short time period of about one week. After this sudden onset, low-level easterlies and upper-level westerlies rapidly switch to westerlies and easterlies, respectively. At the same time, the dry season which lasts for the cold season rapidly changes into the wet season, indicating the earliest arrival of the summer monsoon rainy season in the Asianwestern North Pacic monsoon region. This sudden change in rainfall is clearly illustrated in Fig. 3. Over the SCS, the major precipitation belt is steadily located in the zonal band of 15 S10 N before mid-May. Another rain belt located in South China (20 28 N) cor-
responds to the pre-summer rainy season there. Around mid-May the near-equatorial rain belt suddenly moves northward and merges with the South China rain belt. It can be seen that this process is accomplished in a quite short time period (Fig. 3b). In contrast, over the Indian longitudes (Fig. 3a) this onset process is more or less gradual, although a large increase in rainfall amount in this region may be noted. This suddenness of the onset process in the SCS has been well documented by numerous investigators with both climatological and case studies, based on the large-scale wind, geopotential height, rainfall and OLR patterns (Lau and Yang, 1997; Matsumoto, 1997; Fong and Wang, 2001; Wang and Lin, 2002). From Figs. 45, it can be seen that a dramatic change clearly occurs from the pentad of May 1115 to the pentad of May 1620 for these elds. The southwesterlies rapidly expand from the equatorial East Indian Ocean region, across the Indochina Peninsula, down to most of the South China Sea (Fig. 4ad). At the same time, the OLR values signicantly decrease from 240 W m2 to values below 240 W m2 during this short trainsition period (Fig. 5), implying that convective clouds and precipitation abruptly develop over the SCS during the onset process, heralding the end of the dry season and the arrival of the wet season in this region. The most signicant change of the low-level wind pattern between prio-and post-onset is the acceleration and eastward extension of tropical westerlies
Fig. 3. Latitude-time cross-sections of mean precipitation (19792001) along 7080 E (a) and 110 120 E (b). The CMAP precipitation dataset is used here. Unit: mm day1 (Sun, 2002)
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Fig. 4. 21-yr (19791999) mean 850 hPa wind patterns: (a) for the pentad of May 610, (b) for the pentad of May 1115, (c) for the pentad of May 1620, (d) for the pentad of May 2125, and (e) the difference of mean 850 hPa wind patterns between May 2125 and May 610. Unit: m s1 . Shading areas denote regions with wind speed greater than 8 m s1 (Ding and Sun, 2001)
from the tropical East Indian Ocean to the central and southern SCS (Fig. 4e). The Somali jet upstream also undergoes a considerable intensication. From the northern part of the Bay of Bengal to the northern SCS, a wind shear line with two cyclonic circulations embedded is generated. This fact indicates the development of the monsoon trough which is connected with the tailing part of mid-latitude frontal systems in the northern SCS. Therefore, the onset of the summer monsoon in the SCS should to be considered as a regional demonstration of the rapid seasonal intensication of the whole Asian summer
monsoon. Correspondingly, the most signicant change in the OLR pattern is also seen in the Arabian Sea, the tropical East Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal, and the SCS and the tropical West Pacic (Fig. 5e). These changes reect abrupt enhancement of cloud and rainfall in these regions. Among them, the change in the SCS is most marked. Another sudden change is the rapid weakening and eastward retreat of the subtropical high over the West Pacic from the Indochina Peninsula and the SCS (gure not shown). At the same time, a trough over the Bay of Bengal continuously
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Fig. 5. Same as Fig. 5, but for OLR patterns. Unit: W m2 . The areas with OLR magnitudes less than 230 W m2 are shaded (Ding and Sun, 2001)
extends southward and deepens, which greatly favors local development of intensive convective activity as well as the acceleration and eastward propagation of low-level westerlies in the tropical East Indian Ocean. Now it is not clear which one, eastward extension of lowlevel southwesterlies or the eastward retreat of the subtropical high, is the primary cause for leading to large-scale abrupt changes in the above chain of events. The most salient feature of the 200 hPa wind patterns is the signicant development and northward movement of the South Asian high over the
eastern part of the Indochina Peninsula. Before the onset of the SCS summer monsoon, the South Asian high is located in the southern part of the Indochina Peninsula, and has a weaker intensity (gure not shown). Thereafter, this high moves toward the northwest and signicantly intensies. The upper-level westerly jet and the easterly jet on either ank of the high correspondinly accelerates, thus leading to intensication of upper level divergence and convective activity in the Indochina Peninsula and the SCS (Zhang et al, 2004). From the heating pattern during this period, it can be known that this major outow
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region corresponds to an extensive area of the heat source (Q1>0) in these regions. Based on the above analysis, the chain of signicant events during the onset of the SCS summer monsoon may be identied below: the development of a cross-equatorial current in the equatorial East Indian Ocean (80 90 E) and off the Somali coast and the rapid seasonal enhancement of heat sources over the Indochina Peninsula, South China, Tibetan Plateau, and neighboring areas; the acceleration of low-level westerly wind in the tropical eastern Indian Ocean; the development of a monsoon depression or cyclonic circulation and the breaking of the continuous subtropical high belt around the Bay of Bengal; the eastward expansion of tropical southwest monsoon from the tropical East Indian Ocean;
the arrival of the rainy season in the regions of Bay of Bengal and Indochina Peninsula with involvement of impacts from mid-latitudes; further eastward expansion of the southwesterly monsoon into the SCS region; the signicant weakening and eastward retreat of the main body of the subtropical high, and eventual onset of the SCS summer monsoon with convective clouds, rainfall, low-level southwesterly wind and upper-level northeasterly wind suddenly developing in this region. The case of the onset the SCS summer monsoon in 1998 has been extensively studied, because a complete dataset acquired during the SCSMEX eld phase (MayAugust) is available (Ding and Li, 1999; Lau et al, 2001; Johnson and Ciesielski, 2002; Ding et al, 2004). The onset process in this year is in many ways similar to climatological conditions illustrated above, but with the earliest onset occurring over Indochina
Fig. 6. Vertically integrated (from surface to 300 hPa) moisture budgets averaged for 1990 1999 for various monsoon regions prior to the onset (the 1st pentad of Aprilthe 2nd of May) (a) and after the onset of the SCS summer monsoon (JuneAugust) (b). Unit: 106 Kg s1 (Ding and Sun, 2002)
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Peninsula and the northern part of the SCS concurrently. Intense cold air activity coming from mid-latitudes induced extensive area of vigorous meso-scale convective systems (MCSs) in the northern SCS (Ding and Liu, 2001; Johnson and Ciesielski, 2002). The monsoon trough or a stationary tailing part of the cold front was intensied through the feedback effect of atmospheric convective heating caused by the subsequent development of MCSs in the trough. Thus, the tropical southwest monsoon to the south of the monsoon trough rapidly intensied and propagated northward, leading to the onset of the summer monsoon in this region. The onset of the Asian summer monsoon, as a kind of switch, plays a crucial role in heat and moisture transport and hydrological cycle. From Fig. 6, it can be seen that before the onset of the SCS summer monsoon, the interhemispheric moisture transport is rather weak and even southward. The northward moisture transport across the northern boundaries of various regions is generally weak, except for the regions of the Indochina Peninsula and the SCS. The moisture sinks occur in the regions of Bay of Bengal, the Indochina Peninsula and South China, where the enhanced precipitation may be observed. After the onset the whole picture of the moisture transport and budget rapidly changes and becomes well-organized. The cross-equatorial ow has its maximum moisture transport in the western part of the equatorial Indian Ocean. The second maximum moisture transport is located in the equatorial East Indian Ocean. In the South Asian and Southeast Asian monsoon regions, one may see consistent eastward moisture transport, all the way to the SCS. The moisture sinks from the Indian Peninsula to the SCS are consistent with the major observed precipitation regions, with the Bay of Bengal having the maximum. The northward moisture transport through the northern boundaries has its maximum in the region of the Bay of Bengal. The SCS takes the second place. But, if one combines together the moisture transport coming from the Indochina Peninsula and the SCS, the northern moisture transport into the East Asian region will obviously exceeds the northward transport through the Bay of Bengal. This fact implies the critical role of the moisture transport from the SCS in the precipitation in East Asia.
3. Seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon and major seasonal rain belts The seasonal advance and retreat of the summer monsoon in East Asia behaves in a stepwise way, not in continuous way. When the summer monsoon advances northward, it undergoes three standing stages and two stages of abrupt northward shifts. In this process, as does the monsoonal airow, the monsoon rain belt and its associated monsoon air mass also demonstrate a similar northward movement. These stepwise northward jumps are closely related to seasonal changes in the general circulation in East Asia, mainly the seasonal evolution of the planetary frontal zone, the westerly upper-level jet stream and the subtropical high over the West Pacic. Recently, Wu and Wang (2001), and Wang and Lin (2002) have studied the large-scale onset, peak and withdrawal of the Asian monsoon rainy season, and have identied two phases in the evolution process. The rst phase begins with the rainfall surges over the South China Sea in mid-May, which establishes a planetary-scale monsoon rainband extending from the South Asian marginal seas (the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal, and the SCS) to the subtropical western North Pacic (WNP). The second phase of the Asian monsoon onset is characterized by the synchronized initiation of the Indian rainy season
Fig. 7. Latitude-time section of 5-day mean rainfall over eastern China (110 120 E) from April to September averaged for 19611990. Regions of heavy rainfall (> 50 mm) are shaded. Unit: mm. (Ding and Sun, 2002)
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and the Meyu=Baiu in early to mid-June. The peak rainy seasons tend to occur primarily in three stepwise phases, in late June over the Meiyu= Baiu regions, the northern Bay of Bengal and the vicinity of the Philippines; in late July over India and northern China; and in mid-August over the tropical WNP. The rst two stepwise jumps occurs in the East Asian region. Based on the time-latitude cross-section of 5-day rainfall amount for eastern China (Fig. 7) (Sun, 2002), the most conspicuous feature is the monsoon onset between 18 and 25 N as indicated by the steep rise in precipitation starting from the rst 10-day period of May. This rainy episode is so-called pre-summer rainy season in South China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (e.g., Lau et al, 1988). The rst standing stage of the major rain belt generally continues into the rst 10-day period of June, and afterwards it rapidly shifts to the valley of the Yangtze River. This second stationary phase initiates the Meiyu rainy season in central China. The time span of the season on the average lasts for 2030 days (12th June-8th July). The wind and thermal elds in the Meiyu region are usually characterized by a low-pressure trough (the so-called the East Asian summer monsoon trough), a weak stationary front at surface, signicant horizontal wind shear across the front and frequent occurrence of prolonged heavy rainfall. The heaviest rainfall is mostly associated with eastward-moving meso- to synoptic scale disturbances along the front. The Meiyu=Baiu and associated disturbances will be discussed in more details in the next section. The Baiu in Japan and Changma in Korea also occur in a similar situation, but with a regional difference in locations, timing and duration. As indicated by Ninomiya and Muraki (1986), the Baiu in Japan begins in early June when rainfall in Okinawa reaches its peak. In the last ten days of June, the rainfall peak moves to the western and southern parts of Japan. Then the rainfall peak further moves northward in the rst ten days of July. North of 40 N, no rainfall peaks associated with the Baiu can be observed. So, the Baiu season in Japan mainly lasts from early June to mid-July, almost concurrently with the occurrence of the Meiyu in China. The rainy season in Korea, the so-called Changma, accompanied with a belt-like peak rainfall zone, begins with the inuence of the quasi-stationary con-
vergence zone between the tropical maritime airmass from the south, and both continental and maritime polar airmasses from the north (Oh et al, 1997). Based on the precipitation peak and lower tropospheric circulation features, the onset date of the Northeast Asia summer monsoon or Changma rainy season can be determined as the period of the 37th to 39th pentad (late JunemidJuly), with a signicant interannual variability (Qian and Lee, 2000). Therefore, the Changma is a shorter monsoonal rainy season, with mean period being 20 days long. From mid-July, the rain belt rapidly jumps over North China and Northeast China again, the northernmost position of summer monsoon rainfall. This standing stage of the rain belt causes the rainy season in the North China that generally lasts for one month. In the early or middle part of August the rainy season of North China comes to end, with the major monsoon rain belt disappearing. From the end of August to early September the monsoon rain belt quite rapidly moves back to South China again. At this time, most of the eastern part of China is dominated by a dry spell. The East Asian summer monsoon assumes a marked active-break cycle. As indicated above, the active periods corresponds to major monsoon rainy seasons such as the presummer rainy season in South China, and Meiyu=Baiu rainy season in the Yangtze River Basin and Japan during Maymid-July. Afterwards, a break of the monsoonal rainy period occurs from late July to early August in Japan (Chen et al, 2003). This break of different spans is also observed in South China, central China, Northeast China, Taiwan, and Korea, but with different occurrence time. From mid-July, the second rainy season or the revival of the rainy period (Chen et al, 2003) predominates over South China, with a gap of a time period of about 20 days or one month between the pre-summer rainy season and this rainy season that is mainly caused by typhoons, the movement of the ITCZ and other tropical disturbances in the monsoonal airow. For other regions, after the break spell, monsoon rain resumes for a period from August to SeptemberOctober. Therefore, the monsoon rainfall variation during the warm season in East Asia is generally characterized by two active rainfall periods separated by a break spell. It is clearly seen from Fig. 8 that the Meiyu rain band,
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Fig. 8. Latitudinal-time cross-sections of CMAP rainfall averaged over longitudinal zones of (a) 120 125 E, (b) 125 130 E, and (c) 130 140 E, and rainfall histograms of three regions: (d) Taiwan (120 125 E, 2025 N), (e) Korea (125 130 E, 35 40 N), and (f) Japan (130 140 E, 32.5 40 N). Different phases of summer monsoons in three regions are indicated by active, break and revival. The contour interval of CMAP rainfall in (a)(c) is 1 mm day1, while rainfall amounts larger than 5 mm day1 are stippled by different colors indicated by the scale shown in the lower left corner of the three upper panels. (Chen et al, 2003)
forming in early May, progresses northward until the end of July, and diminishes between 40 and 45 N in Northeast China and Korea, and about 40 N in Japan. The passage of the Meiyu rain band is followed by a break spell (monsoon break) which also propagates northward. Then, the monsoon rainfall revival after the break is clearly observed. Chen et al (2003) has shown that the monsoon revival in East Asia is caused by a different mechanism associated with the development of other monsoon circulation components including the ITCZ and weather systems in midlatitudes. The Changma break in late July is very short, with the duration of a half month. Starting from late August, the revival of the monsoon rainy period is also observed in Fig. 8. The second rain spell is not long based on the study by Chen et al (2003). But, Qian et al (2002) pointed
out that this precipitation surge can maintain until early September, forming the autumn rainy season in Korea. 4. The Meiyu=Baiu and associated weather disturbances Meiyu=Baiu is a unique rainy season in the seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon. It starts nearly concurrently with the onset of the East Asian summer monsoon onset in the South China Sea. Then, as the summer monsoon propagates northward, the Meiyu rain belt sequentially establishes itself in South China and Taiwan, the Yangtze and Huaihe River Basins and Japan, and the Korean Peninsula. As pointed out by Chen (2004), the different terminology has been used for this major seasonal rain belt
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Fig. 9. Annual mean (19751986) frequency distribution of 850 hPa fronts in (a) southern China and Taiwan Meiyu season (15 May15 June), and (b) Yangtze River Valley Meiyu season (16 June15 July). Front frequency is counted at 12 h intervals and analyzed at 1 lat 1 long grid intervals. Heavy dashed line indicates maximum axis (from Chen, 1988)
in different regions. In China, the term Meiyu is used for the rainy season from mid-June to mid-July over the Yangtze River Valley (Tao and Chen, 1987). In Japan, the term Baiu is used both for the rainy season over Okinawa region from early May to mid-June and over the Japanese Main Islands from mid-June to mid-July (Saito, 1985). In Taiwan, on the other hand, the term Meiyu is used both for the rainy season over Taiwan and over South China from mid-May to mid-June (Chen, 1983; 1988; Wang, 1970). Therefore, the Meiyu season over South China and Taiwan discussed in this paper corresponds to the South China pre-summer rainy period used by many Chinese meteorologists (Tao and Chen, 1987; Ding, 1992), and the pre-Meiyu period used by Chang et al (2000 a, b). Figure 9 presents the annual mean frequency distribution of 850 hPa fronts in the Meiyu season of South China and Taiwan (mid-May to mid-June) and of the Yangtze River Valley (midJune to mid-July) (Chen, 1988). For the former case, the axis of maximum frequency, indicating the mean position of the Meiyu front, is oriented approximately in an eastwest direction extending from southern Japan to southern China. The mean position shifts northward to Japan and central China in the Meiyu season of the Yangtze River Valley. The Meiyu front often moves southeastward slowly in the early stage
of its lifetime and appears as a quasi-stationary front in the late stage with an average lifetime of 8 days. Although Meiyu in China and Baiu in Japan both occur in the early summer rainy season in East Asia, their structure and dynamics are not fully same, due to different locations of the planetary frontal zone. As indicated by Chen and Chang (1980), the structure of the eastern (near Japan) and central (the East China Sea) resembles a typical midlatitude baroclinic front with strong vertical lting toward a upper level cold core and a strong horizontal temperature, whereas the western (Southern China and the Yangtze River Basin) section resembles a semitropical disturbance with an equivalent borotropic warm core structure (Ding, 1992), a weak temperature gradient, and a rather strong horizontal wind shear in the lower troposphere. Figure 10 clearly illustrates the synoptic conditions where the Baiu in Japan and Meiyu in China form (Ninomiya, 2004). In this conceptual model the Meiyu=Baiu Baiu cloud zone consists of a few cloud system families, each of which consists of two parts: a sub-synoptic scale cloud system associated with a sub-synoptic-scale Meiyu=Baiu frontal depression (indicated by S), and a few meso--scale cloud systems (indicated by ). The latter are aligned along the trailing portion of the preceding sub-synoptic-scale cloud system. Cold lows and a midlatitude blocking ridge and the Pacic
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Fig. 10. Conceptual model of the Meiyu-Baiu frontal cloud zone (Ninomiya, 2004)
subtropical anticyclone all have strong inuences on the Meiyu=Baiu cloud systems, but with a stronger effect of cold lows on Baiu (eastern section). The subtropical and tropical monsoon airows have a more signicant inuence on Meiyu in China. Rows of large and small arrows
in Fig. 10 indicate the 500-hPa and 850-hPa maximum wind axes, respectively. The short-wave trough that propagates along the northern maximum wind zone becomes coupled with the shortwave trough in the Meiyu=Baiu frontal zone under the inuence of the cold low over Siberia,
Fig. 11. Climatology of the Meiyu composited for Meiyu periods based on 30-yr NCEP datasets and 740 station data in China: (a) total rainfall amount (Unit: mm), (b) the se eld at 850 hPa (Unit: K), (c) 850 hPa temperature elds (Unit: K), and (d) the moisture transport at 850 hPa (Unit: kg(ms)1 ). The maximum transport zone is shaded, (Ding and Liu, 2003)
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leading to the development of a sub-synoptic-scale frontal depression. Subsequently, a few meso-scale cloud clusters form along the trailing portion of the preceding sub-synoptic scale cloud system. Figure 11 show the climatological aspects of Meiyu over the Yangtze and Huaihe River Basins based on the 30-yr (19712000) NECP datasets and 740 surface station data in China (Ding and Liu, 2003). It can be seen that Meiyu rainfalls are mainly distributed over the middle and lower valley of the Yangtze River, with the latter having the maximum rainfall amount ($260 mm), accounting for 45% of total rainfall amount for summer (June, July and August) (Fig. 11a). Therefore, nearly half of summer rainfalls comes from the Meiyu season that on the average lasts for about 25 days (from June 12 to July 8). In the Meiyu zone, the air is very moist, with a high specic humidity belt at low-level along the Meiyu zone observed. Overall, the Meiyu zone is characterized by a high se region (Fig. 11b). An interesting feature of the low-level temperature eld is its sandwich pattern, with the warmer air to south and the north, respectively, and relatively colder air in between (Fig. 11c). This cooling in the Meiyu zone is also noted by Kato (1987). Three reasons may be used to illustrate the colder temperature zone along the Meiyu precipitation region: (1) intrusion of low-level cold air from northeast accompanied by the lowlevel northeasterlies to north of the Meiyu zone; (2) cooling effect of precipitation evaporation
at low-level and near the surface; and (3) the intense airmass modication over North and Northwest China through the surface sensible heating (Kato, 1987). This reverses meridional thermal contrast between the Meiyu zone and the region to its north. From the view point of wind elds, to the south of the Meiyu zone, there are extensive southwest and southeast monsoon at 850 hPa that merge together in the Meiyu and Baiu zones. The strong low-level jet (LLJ) and its vertical coupling with the upper level jet may be observed (Chen, 2004), and the Meiyu precipitation zone is located in between. Major Meiyu rainfalls generally occurs in the right quadrant of entrance sector of upper-level jet which is dominated by upward motion (Cressman, 1981). The positive vorticity to the left side of the LLJ is also favorable for occurrence of rainfalls. A large amount of moisture is transported into the Meiyu=Baiu zone by the summer monsoon. The South China Sea is a major moisture channel for the Meiyu precipitation (Fig. 11d). Signicant moisture convergence is observed in the middle and lower valleys of the Yangtze River and the western Japan where the Meiyu and Baiu precipitation is highly concentrated. Chen and Chang (1980) studied dynamics of the Meiyu front. The vorticity budget calculated by them showed that generation of cyclonic vorticity by horizontal convergence was counteracted by cumulus damping in the eastern section and by boundary layer friction in the mountainous
Fig. 12. Climatologically averaged (19712000) Meiyu frontal structure along 117.5 E. Solid lines are se isolines (Unit: K) and dashed lines are isolines of specic humidity (Unit: g kg1 ). Horizontal bar at the bottom represents the averaged latitudinal range of precipitation greater than 200 mm (2730 N) (Ding and Liu, 2003)
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western section. Results from theoretical, modeling and observational studies suggest that the Meiyu frontogenetic process is initiated and maintained by the CISK mechanism through the interaction between the potential vorticity (PV) anomaly and the convective latent heating (Chen et al, 1998; Chen, 2003). The Meiyu front affecting South China and Taiwan forms in the subtropical latitude, which is a distinct area from that for the formation of polar front in the Meiyu season. It resembles a semitropical disturbance with an equivalent barotropic warm core structure, a weak horizontal temperature gradient, a rather strong horizontal wind shear, and a positive low-level PV anomaly (Chen, 2004). Figure 12 is the mean structure of the Meiyu front averaged for 19712000. An interesting feature is the highly moist air column ahead of the Meiyu front which very much resembles the eye-wall region of a typical tropical cyclone. The Meiyu rainfall intensively occurs in this region. This implies the signicant importance of convective precipitation and associated latent heat release. Generally, the frontal structure at lowlevel or near the surface disappears or even changes its sloping from northward tilting to southward tilting. So, Xie (1956) previously dened the low-level part of the Meiyu front as the equatorial front, with the relatively cold air in the south of the Meiyu front and relatively warm air in the north. Corresponding to the Meiyu front shown in Fig. 12, the mean cross-front vertical circulation is characterized by strong upward motion throughout the entire troposphere located in the region of Meiyu rainfalls, the southerly component at low-level and the northerly component at upper-level in the region to the south of the Meiyu front. Therefore, a so-called monsoon circulation cell (anti-Hadley cell) is clearly evident. To the north of the Meiyu front, there is a thermally direct cell. From Fig. 12, it can be seen that the MeiyuBaiu frontal zone associated with intense convective precipitation is not characterized by the strong convective instability, but by nearly moist neutral stratication. This indicates the release of the convective instability associated with the cumulus convection. For the sustenance of the strong convective precipitation during the Meiyu period, some large-scale process must generate convective instability against the stabilizing ef-
fect of the convective clouds. The local time change of convective stability is due to the differential advection of e. Ninomiya (2004) has indicated that area of negative differential advection (generation of convective instability) are present over the Meiyu=Baiu frontal zone, which indicates that the differential advection generates successively convective instability against the release of the instability by the convective clouds. As the result of these two processes, the large precipitation and nearly moist neutral stratication are maintained within the frontal precipitation zone. The heavy rainfalls during the Meiyu period are mainly generated by the meso-- and meso-scale disturbances which are embedded within and propagated along the Meiyu-Baiu cloud and rain band or frontal zone with horizontal length scale of several thousand kilometers (Ding, 1992). Results of a case study of the heavy rain event in 2325 June 1983 over the Yangtze River Valley by Ma and Bosart (1987) revealed that a quasistationary frontal boundary, separating very warm and moist tropical Pacic air from slightly cooler but still moist air, served to focus the rains in a relatively narrow latitudinal band. The meso-scale systems during the Meiyu period may be classied into two types: the Yangtze River Valley shear line and the low-level vortex. The Yangtze River Valley (112120 E, 3035 N) shear line is the major synoptic system, which generates heavy rainfalls in this region (Chen, 2004). There were at least two kinds of low-level vortices that generated heavy rains during the Meiyu season. One was the SW (southwest) vortex. It was generated on the lee-side of the Tibetan Plateau and tended to be stationary if there was no upper-level trough to steer it out of the Sichuan Basin. It could produce heavy rainfalls locally in Sichuan Basin. Once it is steered out and moves eastward, it moves along the Meiyu shear line in most cases and moves northeastward or southeastward in some cases. Another kind of low vortex is the intermediate-scale cyclone which forms along the Meiyu front with a horizontal scale of 10003000 km (Ninomiya and Murakami, 1987; Ninomiya, 2001). In general, the SW vortex is dened as a 700 hPa closed cyclonic circulation over southwestern China, mainly over the western part of the Sichuan Basin. It is a low-level circulation
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Fig. 13. Distributions of daily geopotential height and wind vector (unit: ms1 ) at 850 hPa during the Meiyu period from June 29 to July 1, 1999. C3 denotes a southwest vortex which brought about a heavy rainfall episode in the middle and lower Yangtze River basin (Ding et al, 2001)
system, often only visible on 850 and 700 hPa analyses. On the surface weather map, one may often observe a negative pressure tendency during 24 hours over the low-vortex region. In this sense, the SW vortex is also called the SW low vortex. The SW vortex may provide strong orographic lifting to trigger convection and, consequently, a large amount of rainfalls on the steep topography surrounding the Sichuan Basin. Many cases may be exemplied, for example, the heavy rainfalls in the Sichuan Basin on 114 July of 1981 which have been extensively studied by numerous meteorologists (Chen and DellOsso, 1984; Kuo, Cheng and Anthes, 1986; Wang and Orlanski, 1987). Figure 13 is a notable example of consecutive genesis, development and eastward movement of a SW vortex in the 1999 Meiyu season (Ding et al, 2001). From the synoptic viewpoint, the genesis and development of the SW vortex needs to meet two requirements: (1) the existence of a vigorous southerly airow from the eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau to the Sichuan Basin. It may play a dual role in the genesis of the SW vortex. Dynamically, this southerly wind produces differential frictional effects, a mechanism rst discussed by Newton (1956) in connection with Colorado cyclone formation, thus leading to the
formation of a cyclonic circulation at low level. Thermally, the southerly wind may transport abundant warm, moist air into the eastern slope of the Plateau and the Sichuan Basin, providing the major moisture source for precipitation and the release of latent heat; (2) the necessary triggerning mechanism. Most of the time, the low pressure troughs passing over the Tibetan Plateau may act as a triggering mechanism for the SW vortex. Chang et al (1998) has studied the development of a low-level SW vortex which was involved in its coupling with two upper-level disturbances. Both disturbance appeared later than and upstream of the low-level vortex. Faster eastward movements allowed them to catch up with the low-level vortex and led to a strong vertical coupling and deep tropopause folding. From the regional viewpoint, the topography of the Tibetan Plateau is extremely important. The development of the SW vortex is expected to depend greatly on the effect of latent heat release, due to the fact that this vortex is usually accompanied by a large amount of rainfall and convective activity. In order to document better the effects of strong latent heat release associated with convection, Kuo et al (1986) calculated mesoscale heat and moisture budget associated with a SW vortex which resulted in a ood catastrophe
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in the Sichuan Basin, on 1115 July, 1981. With weak stability at the middle levels, latent heat release can induce strong, upward vertical motion, which in turn enhances low-level convergence spin-up and convective cloud development, establishing a positive feedback between the circulation of the SW vortex and the cumulus (Chang et al, 2000). Wang et al (1993) further indicate that the mesoscale vortex in the lee of the Tibetan Plateau is driven diabatically. As indicated by Chen (2004), due to the observational spatial data limitations in China, very little work has been done on meso--scale systems. The Meiyu experiment over the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River (19801983) for the rst time provided an opportunity for studying this system on the horizontal scale of 25250 km, by using the denser network of the upper-air and surface observations. The major ndings have been summarized in the monograph by Zhang (1990). It was found that the meso--scale systems occurred in advance of the forward tilting minor wave trough which was located near the Meiyu cloud and rain bands, on the right side of the upper-level jet, and the left side of the low-level jet. In general, this system was associated with the mesoscale shear line. During past ten years, the availability of mesoscale observational data has been considerably improved due to several Meiyu rainstorms experiment projects carried out in South China, Taiwan
and the Yangtze and Huaihe River Basins, such as HUAMEX, TAMEX, GAME=HUBEX and the Mesoscale Rainstrom Experiment in the Yangtze River Basin. Some new results have been achieved in relation to meso-scale disturbances in Meiyu fronts. A typical example of Meiyu=Baiu frontal mesoscale disturbances is shown in Fig. 14 (Ninomiya, 2004). The Meiyu-Baiu cloud zone appears as the chain of cloud systems on the subsynoptic-scale and mesoscale. The wavelength of the major disturbances in Fig. 14 is estimated to be $2000 km, which falls on the border between macro-- and meso--scale. Therefore, these disturbances are identied as subsynoptic-scale Meiyu=Baiu frontal disturbances in the present report. Some authors (Matsumoto and Nimomiya, 1971) classied them as medium-scale disturbances. The meso--scale cloud systems are very favorable for occurrence of meso-scale convective systems (MCSs). The MCSs are often observed to develop in the region of the meso--scale cloud systems. By denition, mesoscale convective systems (MCS) are a well organized, meso--scale (with horizontal resolution of 2002000 km) convective system which has a nearly elliptic shape and smooth edge. MCS includes the meso-scale convective complex (MCC) that has been extensively studied. Activities of the MCSs are quite frequent in China. They mainly occur in Southwest China, but are often observed in connection
Fig. 14. The longitude-time section of TBB at 32.5 N for 1991 Meiyu=Baiu period The isopleths are at 10 C intervals, and the minus sign of TBB is omitted (Ninomiya, 2000; 2004)
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with the major seasonal rain belts such as those during the presummer rainy season in South China and Meiyu in the Yangtze-Huaihe River Basins. During the Baiu season in Japan MCS are sometimes observed as an important intense rain-producing system (Ninomiya and Murakami, 1987). The preferred locations of occurrence of MCS are the northwestern periphery of the subtropical high over the western North Pacic where the warm and cold air have a frequent and vigorous interaction. Sometimes, the MCSs also may be produced in East and South China due to strong surface heating and local unstable stratication. The MCC have been intensively studied in 80s and early 90s. In the gure produced by Miller and Fritsch (1991), the MCCs in China were only observed in Southwest China which are associated with the Southwest Vortex. But, based on studies by Chinese meteorologists, the gensis regions of MCCs are not only conned in this region, they may occur over a number of other regions. In late spring and early summer, MCCs often occur over the southern part of China (Xiang and Jiang, 1995) in relation to Meiyu season. Their mean lifetime is about 18 hours, slightly longer than that (about 10 hours) in North America. MCCs generally generate and develop in late afternoon and early evening, further grow into MCC at nighttime and disspate in the morning of the next day. Wu and Chen (1988) studied the composite structure of environment conditions for the 12 cases of meso--scale MCS (i.e., MCC)
over South China selected in MayJune 1981 1986 at their formation and mature stages. The overall structure was quite similar to that for the midlatitude MCCs in the North America as obtained by Maddox (1983). The MCCs form and intensify in the warm sector to the south of the Meiyu front=shear line. The strong warm advection and speed convergence (i.e., convergence due to the downstream speed decrease) in the lowertropospheric southwesterlies, possible lifting mechanisms at the formation and intensication stages, prevail over the area of MCCs. The MCCs tended to form and to intensify on the cyclonic side of the LLJ exit region. Anticyclonic circulation and difuent ow in the upper troposphere provided conditions favorable for the intensication of MCCs. At the genesis and development stages, the precipitation amount is relatively small, with severe convective weather dominating. The heavy rainfalls mainly occur at the mature stage, with intense rainfall rate of 3050 mm hr1. Therefore, the MCCs are an important rainproducing system in the summer monsoon season in South China and the Yangtze River Basin. Finally, the conceptual model of the Meiyu front in the Yangtze River Basin and South China is presented (Fig. 15). Ahead of the Meiyu front, a so-called monsoon vertical circulation is observed, with the upward motion in Meiyu precipitation region and downward motion in the south. The Meiyu front at low-level evolves into the so-called equatorial front or nearly disappears. In the Meiyu precipitation zone, the air
Fig. 15. Synoptic model of the Meiyu season in East China (Liu et al, 2003)
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in the deep troposphere is highly moist, with high e observed. The LLJ is observed to the south of the Meiyu front within the lower return branch of the secondary circulation. It is often vertically coupled with the upper-level jet stream. 5. Intraseasonal oscillations (ISO) and teleconnection patterns During last two decades, a large amount of research works have been devoted to study the intraseasonal oscillation of the Asian monsoon. On the intraseasonal scale, the monsoon uctuateds mainly on two preferred time scales: 1020-day and 3060-day, with the latter often referred to as the Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO). In the South China Sea and the East Asian summer monsoon regions, the ISO can play three
fold roles: the triggering of the onset of the summer monsoon, modulation of active and break cycles of the summer monsoon and rainy seasons and connection of summer monsoon activity of the neighbouring regional monsoon systems of the South Asian, the East Asian and Western North Pacic. When the ISO can propagate or uctuate on an even larger-scale or the hermispheric scale, this remote connection may excite some kind of atmospheric teleconnection patterns or Rossby wave trains. Figure 16a is the Morlet wavelet analysis of 850 hPa zonal wind in the SCS region for MayAugust of 1998 during the SCSMEX eld experiment (Xu and Zhu, 2002). Two main modes of 3060-day and 1020-day low frequency oscillations can be identied. Figure 16b has shown that the phase of the westerly wind of the
Fig. 16a. Morlet wavelet analyses of zonal wind at 850 hPa in the SCS. Unit: day (Xu and Zhu, 2002). (b) Observed 850 hPa zonal wind over the SCS region (520 N, 105 120 E) in 1998 (shaded) and the temporal variations of the 3060 day low-frequency oscillation (solid line) and corresponding kinetic energy (dashed line). Unit: ms1 for wind and m2 s2 for kinetic energy (Mu and Li, 2000)
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3060-day mode occurred concurrently with bursting of the westerly monsoon at 850 hPa in this region (Mu and Li, 2000). Also based on the data from the SCSMEX in 1998, Chan et al (2002) have shown that the onset and maintenance of 1998 SCS summer monsoon were controlled by the 3060-day oscillation and further modied by the 1020-day mode. Chen and Chen (1995) previously indicated that the onset of the 1979 SCS summer monsoon occurs under the condition of a phase-lock between the 3060-day and the 1020-day modes over the Northern SCS. Recently, Mao and Chan (2004) have obtained a more general conclusion that the 3060-day mode and 1020-day mode oscillations control the behavior of the SCS summer monsoon activities for most of years. The 3060-day oscillation of the SCS summer monsoon exhibits a trough-ridge seesaw over the SCS, with anomalous cyclones (anticyclones) along with enhanced (suppressed) convection migrating northward. On the other hand, the 1020-day oscillation manifests as an anticyclone=cyclone system over the western tropical Pacic with a largely zonal orientation propagating westward into the SCS. The arrival of the ISO oscillation is not only to be a possible triggering mechanism for the sudden onset, but also can play a crucial role in the stepwise northward advance of the East Asian summer monsoon and in modulating the regional rainy seasons. Qian et al (2002) have shown that the onset of the East Asian summer monsoon occurs when a wet phase of the climatological intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) arrives or develops, and the northward propagating summer monsoon consists of several phase-locking wet ISO. In the East Asian summer monsoon region, the seasonal process of the summer monsoon and the ISO propagation are both northward and they are interconnected at all the stages of the seasonal march and in all the subregions of East Asia. Wang and Xu (1997) have further identied four cycles of statistically signicant climatological intraseasonal oscillation (CISO) from May to October in the Asian summer monsoon regions. The peak wet phase of these cycles corresponds to active stage of the summer monsoon while the dry phase corresponds to the monsoon break. It should be pointed out that though the climatological ISO is often the primary reason for the sudden onset, the onset is paced by the seasonal
evolution of large-scale circulation and thermodynamics that determines the direction of the onset advance. With the large-scale background established by the seasonal evolution, the arrival of several one-after-another ISO wet phases triggers the development of deep convection. Due to the seasonal regulation, the ISO has a tendency to be phase-locked with respect to the calendar year so that the climatological onset displays multiple stages. The stepwise march of the onset is observed each year (Wu and Wang, 2001). Two teleconnection patterns associated with the Asian summer monsoon have been revealed. Nitta (1986), and Huang and Li (1988) indicated that heating sources caused by convective activity over the SCS and the region around the Phillipines (over the Warm Pool) may excite a stationary wave train, thus producing a teleconnection pattern, so-called JP pattern (JapanPacic). The immediated downstream effect of the propagation of this wave train is exerted upon the behavior of the subtropical high over the western Pacic, and especially on its position. Then, the summer rainfall will be inuenced by the anomalous behavior of the subtropical high. Huang and Sun (1990) further analyzed the relationship between the conditions of anomalous summer precipitation in the eastern China and the temperature in surface and subsurface layers of the Warm Pool at depths of between 50 and 300 m. Recently, Li and Zhang (1999), and Lau and Wang (2002) have indicated that the thermal forcing excited by convective activity and rainfalls in the SCS and western tropical Pacic, through this teleconnection pattern, may affect weather and climate not only in China, Korea and Japan, but also possibly in North America. Another teleconnection pattern originates from a large amount of monsoon rainfalls and associated intense heating forcing in India, which can exert a signicant remote effect on the general circulation on a large-scale basis. Liang (1988) has found that the summer rainfall between India and North China has a stable and signicant positive correlation relationship, especially with a fairly consisitent occurrence of droughts and ooding events in these two regions. Meanwhile, Guo and Wang (1988) used a longer set of data (19511980) for 110 stations in China and 31 subregions in the Indian Peninsula to further study this problem, and have
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justied the above relationship indicating that the most signicant correlative region with a signicance level of 0.95 is North China which demonstrates a positive correlation, with their correlation coefcient being 0.65 (the condence level exceeding 99.9%). In recent years, a number of investigators have paid attention to this teleconnection patterns and have well documented its existence with signicant statistical relationship and physical explanation (Hu and Nitta, 1996; Kripalani and Kulakarni, 1997; 2001). In addition, a negative correlation between summer rainfall variations in India and southern Japan is further found, which reects downward propagation of a wave-type circulation pattern over mid-latitude Asia. 6. Physical processes and mechanisms related to the onset and the seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon In the Asian monsoon region, the thermal contrast due to differential heating between land and sea in the process of seasonal march of solar radiation acts as a seasonal precondition for the onset. However, the Asian monsoon is not only forced by the thermal effect of land-sea contrast, but also by the elevated heat source produced by
the huge massif of the Tibetan Plateau (Yeh and Gao, 1979; Murakami and Ding, 1982; Luo and Yanai, 1984; Ding, 1992). Based on the estimate of heat budget made by Yeh and Gao (1979) and others, the total energy supplied by the Tibetan Plateau has its maximum in late spring and early summer, with a peak occurring in May. This heat ux from the surface to the atmosphere has its maximum contribution from the sensible heat. Thus, the atmosphere over the Tibetan Plateau in May and June becomes the strongest atmospheric heat source in a year, and has abnormally high temperature with the warmest region in July and August found in the region of the longitudinal range of 50 110 E. It is very interesting that during the transition season from spring to summer, the warming in this region occurs earlier than in other zones of the same latitude. In March, the increase in thickness (500300 hPa) is also evident and attains its maximum in May and June (Yeh and Gao, 1979), preceding the onset of the Asian summer monsoon in timing. All of these studies have well documented the thermal forcing of land-sea contrast, especially the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas, on the onset of the Asian summer monsoon. Next, one may naturally ask why the earliest onset occurs in the Indochina Peninsula and the
Fig. 17. Hovemoller diagrams of vertical shear of zonal wind (m s1 ) between a 200 hPa and 850 hPa averaged over 10 20 N, (b) temperature difference ( C) between 20 N and 10 N averaged over the 850200 hPa layer and (c) instability index (K=1000 hPa) averaged over 10 20 N. Shading in (a), (b) and (c) denotes, respectively, easterly vertical shear, positive temperature difference, and instability index over 65 K=1000 hPa. The instability index is dened as the difference of the saturated equivalent potential temperature between 1000 hPa and 700 hPa (divided by the pressure difference) (Wu and Wang, 2001)
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SCS, rather than in other locations. The study by He et al (1987) made an initial attempt to provide some evidence to address this important problem by using the data of 1979. They found that a sudden temperature increase over the eastern Plateau and the central China plain (85 115 E) occurred during the period from 6 May to 15 May. At the same time, the reversal of the meridonal temperature gradient rst occurred over the longitudes east of 85 E and then over the longitudes west of 85 E. The two stages of the reversal of the temperature gradient (as well as the geopotential height gradient) coincide with the two stages of the onset of the low-level southwesterlies and organized rains over the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The dominant role played by the temperature increases over the land areas including the plateau in this reversal has been further documented by the works of Wu and Wang (2001), and Zhang et al (2004). Wu and Wang (2001) also pointed out that the change of the wind direction or the vertical shear (200850 hPa) (Fig. 17a) can be explained by the reversal of the meridional temperature gradient (Fig. 17b). The meridional temperature gradient averaged over the layer of 850200 hPa reverses rst over the Indochina Peninsula because the atmosphere heats up more quickly over the land than over the ocean. The thermal advection of the warm air from the Tibetan Plateau in relation to the westerly winds at middle and upper levels before the onset is also important. The latent heat released by the pre-summer or spring rainfall in South China and the Indochina Peninsula possibly make some contribution to heating of the atmosphere. This view is supported by the development of the zone of high convective instability (Fig. 17c). As a result, the easterly vertical shear and the onset of the Asian summer monsoon develops rst along Southeast Asian longitudes. The arrival of the MJO oscillation is likely to be a triggering mechanism for the sudden onset and northward propagation of the summer monsoon. But, the MJO alone is not sufcient to trigger the onset of the summer monsoon in some years and some regions. In such cases, the midlatitude events (troughs and ridges) may play a substantial role in the monsoon onset (Davidson et al, 1983; Chang and Chen, 1995; Hung and Yanai, 2002; Liu et al, 2002). However, very few investigators have studied the physical pro-
cesses and mechanisms of triggering the onset by the intrusion of mid-latitude troughs or frontal systems in detail. Ding and Liu (2001) summarized the possible triggering mechanisms in their study on the effect of change in circulation features at mid-latitudes on the onset of the northern SCS summer monsoon based on various previous studies: (1) lifting effect to release the existing convectively potential instability for occurrence of convection and precipitation; (2) accelerating the low-level northeasterly wind with enhancing the meridional pressure gradient to increase the shear vorticity and cyclonic circulation of wind shear line; (3) enhancing the baroclinicity due to increase of horizontal temperature gradient, thus providing some amount of available potential energy for development of disturbances or mesoscale systems in the frontal zone; (4) exciting the growth of extensive convective cloud systems, which is a favorable environment for development of meso-scale systems in the low-level wind shear zone between northeasterly and southwesterly winds and associated low troughs which may force the subtropical high to retreat southward and eastward through some kind of feedback process. Chan et al (2000) also emphasized the importance of southward intrusion of cold air from mid-latitudes to trigger the onset of the SCS summer monsoon. Its role is to lift the warm, moist and unstable air to release the convective available potential energy (CAPE), when the atmospheric convective instability is already established before the onset through the heat and moisture transport by the low-level tropical or subtropical southwesterlies. The impact from mid-latitudes may be observed not only for the onset of the East Asian summer monsoon, but also for all stages of its seasonal progress. The continuous southward intrusion of cold air and accompanying frontal systems (the so-called Meiyu=Baiu front) is excited by the development and prevailing of blocking highs in the mid-and high latitudes over Eurasia. The dual blocking high situation, one located over the Ural Mountains and another located over the Okhotsk Sea, is the most favorable situation for prolonged Meiyu=Baiu heavy rainfall (Ding, 1991; Zhang and Tao, 1998; Wu, 2002). So, one of the main differences between the Indian and East Asian summer monsoon is the different effect of mid-latitudes events.
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The East Asian summer monsoon assumes a great interannual variability. Numerous investigators have linked this variability to changes in Eurasian or Tibetan snow cover (Liu and Yanai, 2002) and the Pacic SST. National Climate Center of China (1998) has identied a positive correlative relationship between the snow cover over the Tibetan Plateau in preceding winter and spring and rainfalls in the following summer in the region of the Yangtze River Basin. Recently, Zhang et al (2003) has further indicated the existence of a close relationship between the interdecadal increase of snow depth over the Tibetan Plateau during the preceeding spring, and the excessive summer rainfall over Yangtze River Basin. It is proposed that the excessive snow results in decrease in heat sources over the Tibetan Plateau, through the increased albedo and spring snow melting, thus reducing the land-sea thermal contrast, the driving force of the Asian summer monsoon (Ding and Sun, 2003). The effect of ENSO events on the East Asian summer monsoon and related seasonal rainfalls has been extensively studied. It has been found that the most signicant inuence occurs in the following year after the onset of El Ni~o events n (NCCC, 1998) with above-normal rainfalls observed in the Yangtze River Basin. Under this condition, the weak summer monsoon may be expected. Recently, Wang et al (2000) have found that ENSO events can affect the East Asian climate through a Pacic-East Asian (PEA) teleconnection, with an anomalous anticyclonic east of the Phillipines during El Ni~o events n often observed over West-Pacic and the southward shift of the seasonal rain belt. The interdecadal variability of the East Asian summer monsoon is now of considerable concern for many investigators (Lau and Wang, 1999; Wang et al, 1999; Chang et al, 2000; Ding and Sun, 2003). They have linked the interdecadal variability of the East Asian monsoon to an interdecadal change in the background state of the coupled ocean-atmospheric system or a longterm warming tend in the tropical Indian Ocean and Pacic. Among these contributing factors, the Pacic Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) may play a very important role. Their relationship to the East Asian summer monsoon remains to be further studied.
7. Conclusions The present paper provides an overview of major problems of the East Asian summer monsoon. The major conclusions drawn upon this review can be summarized below: (1) The earliest onset of the Asian summer monsoon occurs in most of cases in the central and southern Indochina Peninsula. The onset process over the SCS and the Indochina Peninsula is very abrupt, with dramatic changes of large-scale circulation and rainfall occurring during a quite short time period of about one week. (2) The onset of the summer monsoon over the Indochina Peninsula and the SCS is preceded by development of circulation features and convective activity in the tropical East Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal that is characterized by the development of a twin cyclone crossing the equator, the rapid acceleration of low-level westerlies and signicant increase of convective activity in both areal extent and intensity. (3) The seasonal march of the East Asian summer monsoon displays a distinct stepwise northward and northeastward advance, with two abrupt northward jumps and three stationary periods. The monsoon rain commences over the region from the Indochina Peninsula-the SCS-Philippines during the period from early May to mid-May, then it extends abruptly to the Yangtze River Basin, and western and southern Japan, and the southwestern Philippine Sea in early to mid-June and nally penetrates to North China, Korea and part of Japan, and the topical western West Pacic. (4) After the onset of the Asian summer monsoon, the moisture transport coming from Indochina Peninsula and the South China Sea plays a crucial switch role in moisture supply for precipitation in East Asia, thus leading to a dramatic change in climate regime in East Asia and even more remote areas through teleconnection. (5) The East Asian summer monsoon and related seasonal rain belts assumes signicant variability at intraseasonal, interannual and interdecadal time scales. They can strongly affect and modulate the onset, active-break cycle
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and propagation of the East Asian summer monsoon. Their interaction, i.e., phase locking, and in-phase or out-phase superimposing, can to a greater extent control the behaviors of the East Asian summer monsoon and produce unique rythem and singularities. (6) Tow external forcing, i.e., Pacic and Indian Ocean SSTs and the snow cover in the Eurasia and the Tibetan Plateau, are believed to be primary contributing factors to physical processes and mechanism related to the East Asian summer monsoon. However, the internal variability of the atmospheric circulation is also very important to affect the activity of the East Asian summer monsoon. In particular, the blocking highs in mid-and high latitudes of Eurasian continents and the subtropical high over the western Pacic play a more important role which is quite different from the condition for the South Asian monsoon. The later is of of tropical monsoon nature while the former is of hybrid nature of tropical and subtropical monsoon with intense impact from mid-and high latitudes.
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Authors addresses: Ding Yihui, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081 (E-mail: dingyh@cma.gov.cn); Johnny C. L. Chan, Department of Physics and Materials Science, City University of Hong Kong, 83 Tat Chee Ave., Kowloon, Hong Kong, China (E-mail: Johnny.chan@cityu.edu.hk)

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Meteorol Atmos Phys 89, 117142 (2005) DOI 10.

The East Asian summer monsoon: an overview

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

D. Yihui and J. C. L. Chan

The East Asian summer monsoon

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