The relationship between the Asian-Pacific oscillation (APO) and the tropical cyclone frequency over the western North Pacific (WNP) in summer is preliminarily investigated through an analysis of ob- served data. The result has shown clearly that APO is significantly and positively correlated to the tropical cyclone frequency in the WNP. If APO is above (below) the normal in summer, more (less) tropical cyclones will tend to appear in the WNP. The present study also addresses the large-scale at- mospheric general circulation changes underlying the linkage between APO and the WNP tropical cy- clone frequency. It follows that a positive phase of summer APO is concurrent with weakened as well as northward and eastward located western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), low-level convergence and high-level divergence, and reduced vertical zonal wind shear in the WNP, providing favorable envi- ronment for the tropical cyclone genesis, and thus more tropical cyclones will come into being, and vice versa.
ZHOU BoTao1, CUI Xuan2 & ZHAO Ping3 1 Laboratory for Climate Studies, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China
In this study,records from a 3-yr intensified observational experiment at eight stations along the hillside of Seqilashan over the southeastern Tibetan Plateau were analyzed and combined with records at 28 routine observation stations in the Chinese National Meteorological Station Network to investigate the influences of station location on the different diurnal rainfall variations between station records and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data products.The results indicate that the diurnal variation of warm season rainfall is closely related to location of stations.The prevailing nocturnal rainfall peak in observations at routine stations can be largely attributed to the relatively lower location of the stations,which are mostly situated in valleys.The records at Seqilashan stations on hillsides revealed an evident diurnal afternoon peak of warm season rainfall,similar to that indicated by TRMM data.The different diurnal phases between valley and hillside stations are closely related to the orographically induced regional circulations caused by the complex topography over the Tibetan Plateau.The results of this study indicate that the prevailing nocturnal rainfall associated with the relatively lower location of routine observation stations can partially explain the diurnal rainfall variations between observation station records and TRMM data.
