Link between convection and meridional gradient of sea surface temperature in the Bay of Bengal

We use daily satellite estimates of sea surface temperature (SST) and rainfall during 1998–2005 to show that onset of convection over the central Bay of Bengal (88–92°E, 14–18°N) during the core summer monsoon (mid-May to September) is linked to the meridional gradient of SST in the bay. The SST gradient was computed between two boxes in the northern (88–92°E, 18–22°N) and southern (82–88°E, 4–8°N) bay; the latter is the area of the cold tongue in the bay linked to the Summer Monsoon Current. Convection over central bay followed the SST difference between the northern and southern bay (ΔT) exceeding 0.75°C in 28 cases. There was no instance of ΔT exceeding this threshold without a burst in convection. There were, however, five instances of convection occurring without this SST gradient. Long rainfall events (events lasting more than a week) were associated with an SST event (ΔT ≥ 0.75°C); rainfall events tended to be short when not associated with an SST event. The SST gradient was important for the onset of convection, but not for its persistence: convection often persisted for several days even after the SST gradient weakened. The lag between ΔT exceeding 0.75°C and the onset of convection was 0–18 days, but the lag histogram peaked at one week. In 75% of the 28 cases, convection occurred within a week of ΔT exceeding the threshold of 0.75°C. The northern bay SST, T _N , contributed more to ΔT, but it was a weaker criterion for convection than the SST gradient. A sensitivity analysis showed that the corresponding threshold for T _N was 29°C. We hypothesise that the excess heating (∼1°C above the threshold for deep convection) required in the northern bay to trigger convection is because this excess in SST is what is required to establish the critical SST gradient.     

Variability of Convective Activity over the North Indian Ocean and its Associations with Monsoon Rainfall over India

The present study is an attempt to examine the variability of convective activity over the north Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal and Arabian Sea) on interannual and longer time scale and its association with the rainfall activity over the four different homogeneous regions of India (viz., northeast India, northwest India, central India and south peninsular India) during the monsoon season from June to September (JJAS) for the 26 year period (1979 to 2004). The monthly mean Outgoing Long-wave Radiation (OLR) data obtained from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar orbiting spacecraft are used in this study and the 26-year period has been divided into two periods of 13 years each with period-i from 1979 to 1991 and period -ii from 1992 to 2004. It is ascertained that the convective activity increases over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal in the recent period (period -ii; 1992 to 2004) compared to that of the former period (period -i; 1979 to 1991) during JJAS and is associated with a significantly increasing trend (at 95% level) of convective activity over the north Bay of Bengal (NBAY). On a monthly scale, July and August also show increase in convective activity over the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal during the recent period and this is associated with slight changes in the monsoon activity cycle over India. The increase in convective activity particularly over the Arabian Sea during the recent period of June is basically associated with about three days early onset of the monsoon over Delhi and relatively faster progress of the monsoon northward from the southern tip of India. Over the homogeneous regions of India the correlation coefficient (CC) of OLR anomalies over the south Arabian Sea (SARA) is highly significant with the rainfall over central India, south peninsular India and northwest India, and for the north Arabian Sea (NARA), it is significant with northwest India rainfall and south peninsular rainfall. Similarly, the OLR anomalies over the south Bay of Bengal (SBAY) have significant CC with northwest India and south peninsular rainfall, whereas the most active convective region of the NBAY is not significantly correlated with rainfall over India. It is also found that the region over northeastern parts of India and its surroundings has a negative correlation with the OLR anomalies over the NARA and is associated with an anomalous sinking (rising) motion over the northeastern parts of India during the years of increase (decrease) of convective activity over the NARA.     

山东夏季降水量场预测模型研究及预测试验

从预测山东夏季降水场的需要出发，用山东1961－2001年夏季降水资料，研究了山东夏季降水的基本分布型式及其与北半球500hPa月平均高度、大气环流特征量及北太平洋海温之间关系。结果表明：不同的分布型存在不同的前期预测强信号。以这些强信号为主要预报因子结合考虑降水趋势振荡，构建出山东夏季降水场预测模型，并进行了预测试验。     

干旱条件下夏玉米耗水分析

根据田间试验结果，分析干旱年份夏玉米不同发育阶段耗水状况，对比了不同日降水量对玉米田3米剖面的水分分布状况的影响，讨论了土壤失熵过程中的不同深度的水分的变化以及土壤水对玉米干物质积累的影响，为干旱年份玉米水分的科学管理提供依据。     

1998年我国东部大陆夏季风特征研究

利用NCEP／NCAR再分析资料和OLR资料，研究了1998年我国东部大陆夏季风的特征。结果指出，1998年夏季副高脊线的平均位置偏南，华南地区和长江流域的夏季风较强，强对流维持时间长；华北地区的夏季风较弱，对流比常年偏弱；我国东部大陆夏季风存在明显的低频振荡现象。     

大气环流的变化与南海夏季风活动的关系

通过对近20年观测资料的计算分析表明，在南海夏季风活跃与中断期，南北半球副热带西风急流和热带东风急流以及青藏高压和墨西哥高压有明显的差异。从南半球向北传播的散度场低频振荡以及从北半球高纬向南传播的西风场低频振荡等的有利位相同时传入南海并共同作用可引起南海夏季风的活跃或中断。各种低频振荡的有利位相传播到南海并发生锁相的时间决定着南海夏季风明显的活跃或中断发生的时间。     

江苏省夏季气温异常的海气背景

通过1961－1998年江苏省11个站点夏季（6－8月）平均气温的EOF分析，探讨江苏省夏温异常的时空分布结构，并在此基础上，分析其前期及同期500hPa高度距平场、海温距平场的特征，得到了一些对本地夏季气温异常预测有意义的结果。     

冬季积雪对我国夏季降水预测的评估分析

根据高原积雪和高纬积雪与我国夏季降水相关分析的结果，将高原积雪和高纬积雪作为独立因子分别对我国夏季降水预测做了检验，结果表明：高原积雪较高纬积雪效果要好，冬季高原积雪异常偏多时，长江流域夏季易发生洪涝，这也是预测汛期降水的一个重要信号。     

陇南伏期旱涝指数及预测模型

从陇南气候规律及农业生产实际出发，制定出客观定量衡量陇南伏期旱涝特征的旱涝指数，并利用1967－1996年旱涝指数，用EOF对陇南伏期旱涝进行分片，分析其时空分布特征，建立各片伏期旱涝均生函数预测模型，通过应用，预报准确率有较大提高。     

两种反映东亚夏季风异常的指数的比较研究

本文利用文献^ [4]提出的一种新的反映东亚夏季风异常的海陆温差指数分析了夏季风异常时我国气温、降水异常以及东亚环流状况，通过分析指出，东亚夏季风偏强，则中国东部夏季气温偏高，江淮干旱，华北多雨；夏季风偏弱则夏季气温偏低，江淮多雨，易涝，华北少雨。通过两种夏季风指数的对比，海陆温差指数能更好地反映东亚夏季环流及天气气候异常。文中还指出，海陆温差指数能更好的反映夏季风异常的原因是它的定义方法更科学，更全面的反映东亚海陆热力差异，既包含了东亚纬向海陆热力差异的影响，又考虑了东亚经向海陆热力差异的因素，并用地表气温和海表温度差来表示海陆热力差，好于以往用海平面气压差来反映海陆热力差。