Diurnal circulations and their multi-scale interaction leading to rainfall over the South China Sea upstream of the Philippines during intraseasonal monsoon westerly wind bursts

The morning diurnal precipitation maximum over the coastal sea upstream of the Philippines during intraseasonal westerly wind bursts is examined from observations and numerical model simulations. A well-defined case of precipitation and large-scale circulation over the coastal sea west of the Philippines during 17-27 June 2004 is selected as a representative case. The hypothesis is that the mesoscale diurnal circulation over the Philippines and a large-scale diurnal circulation that is induced by large-scale differential heating over Asian continent and the surrounding ocean interact to produce the offshore precipitation maximum during the morning. Three-hourly combined satellite microwave and infrared rainfall retrievals define the morning rainfall peak during this period, and then later the stratiform rain area extends toward the open sea. A control numerical simulation in which a grid-nudging four-dimensional data assimilation (FDDA) is applied to force the large-scale diurnal circulation represents reasonably well the morning rainfall maximum. An enhanced low-level convergence similar to observations is simulated due to the interaction of the local- and large-scale diurnal circulations. The essential role of the local-scale diurnal circulation is illustrated in a sensitivity test in which the solar zenith angle is fixed at 7 am to suppress this diurnal circulation. The implication for climate diagnosis or modeling of such upstream coastal sea precipitation maxima is that the diurnal variations of both the local- and the large-scale circulations must be taken into considerationclose6

Spatial and diurnal variations of storm heights in the East Asia summer monsoon: storm height regimes and large-scale diurnal modulation

This study investigates the spatial and diurnal variation of storm height in the East Asia summer monsoon region using 13-year Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar data. Precipitating storms are classified as shallow (<5 km), middle (5-10 km), and deep (>10 km) depending the height. Four different regimes are identified to characterize the region: the continental (CT) shallow regime over inland China with elevated terrain, the CT deep over the Chinese Plain, the coastal (CS) middle over the East China Sea and South Sea of Korea, and the CS shallow over the south coastal area of Japan. This regime separation reflects well the distinctive regional difference in the rainfall contribution by each storm type. The occurrence frequencies of shallow, middle, and deep storms exhibit pronounced diurnal variation as well, but with significant differences in the amplitude and phase across the regimes. These lead to a diversity in the diurnal variation of surface rainfall such as bimodal morning and late evening peaks in the two CT regimes and the single morning peak in the two CS regimes. Processes involved in the diurnal variation of storms are different across the regimes, indicating difference in the contributing role of surface heating, large-scale diurnal circulation, and diurnal propagations of convective systems. The storm height also affects the rain intensity. This study highlights that the East Asia summer monsoon has distinctive sub-regional variation of the storm height distribution, thereby providing unique differences in the rainfall amount, intensity, and the diurnal variation. © 2015 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelbergclos