Summary
This paper analyzes the circulation during the extreme rainfall period in June 2003 over East China, and the effects of a tropical storm on the occurrence of the asymmetrical instability along the subtropics. It was found that ten days before the flooding in the Huaihe River reaches (115–120° E, 32–34° N) in East China, Typhoon (TC) Soudelor appeared over the western Pacific. Due to the strong latent heating released from the TC, the South Asia High (SAH) extended eastwards anomalously and formed an upper troposphere anticyclonic gyre (UTAG) over the western Pacific and a high potential vorticity (PV) downslided equatorwards to the east of the UTAG. When the deep high PV moved downwards to the easterlies, it was located in the south of the subtropical anticyclone over the western Pacific (SAWP) at a lower level. It moved westwards together with the SAWP, leading to the severe rainfall over East China.
An atmosphere circulation model is then used to investigate the physical link between the convection associated with the TC and the anomalies of the SAH, the high PV evolution as well as the variation of the SAWP. It is shown that the introducing of a typhoon-like heating over the tropics in the model results in the occurrence of pronounced asymmetrically instability (AI). In the upper troposphere, the anticyclonic flow as well as the development of the equatorward downsliding high PV are predominantly forced by the heating. The response is sensitive to the intensity, domain and location of the heating prescribed within the zonal wind. The larger size and the stronger intensity the heating is, the more prominent the anticyclone and the downsliding high PV are.
It is also demonstrated that there exists a critical heating rate of the subtropical forcing for the occurrence of AI. Under the June zonal symmetric flow the critical heating rate is about 3 K day−1. Moreover, a heating in tropics or subtropics tends to generate stronger instabilities than in mid-latitude westerlies. In mid-latitude a forcing can generate downstream propagating Rossby wave along the westerlies easier. Finally, the results from an experiment with the inclusion of “realistic” synthetic heating over the western Pacific are in consistence with the observational behavior.
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Correspondence: Yimin Liu, LASG, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, P.R. China
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Guo, L., Liu, Y. The effects of diabatic heating on asymmetric instability and the Asian extreme climate events. Meteorol Atmos Phys 100, 195–206 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-008-0303-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-008-0303-x