Neibourhood Response of Rainfall to Tropical Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies. Part II: Data Analysis
降水对热带海表温度异常的邻域响应 II. 资料分析

Analysis of SST data for the last ten years showes the existence of significantly positive correlation in the SST anomalies (SSTA) between the eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) and central equatorial Indian (CEl) Ocean, and between the western equatorial Pacific (WEP) and North-west Pacific (WNP) Ocean. Analysis of the corresponding data of the lower tropospheric wind and precipitation shows that when there exists the response of these fields to the SSTA in EEP. there also concurrently exists the response to the SSTA in CEl. The former occurs mainly over the Pacific Ocean and has no direct impacts on the weather over China. The latter occurs over China and in the surrounding regions, leading to below-normal rainfall in South China and abovenormal rainfall along the reaches of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. Results also show that, with the jointly effects of SSTA in WNP and WEP, an abnormal anticyclonic circulation in the lower troposphere is observed over the South China Sea and North-west Pacific. Since the anticyclone in such circumstances is located to the south of the coastline of South China, the abnormal rain belt is located over South China, and above-normal rainfall in South China and below-normal rainfall in the reaches of the Yangtze River are observed. These results have been confirmed by the data of SST and precipitation for the last 38 years. Data analysis thus supports the conclusions obtained from numerical experiments discussed in Pal.t l. i.e., the response of precipitation to tropical sea surface temperature anomalies is a kind of neighbourhood response.