Impacts of upper tropospheric cooling upon the late spring drought in East Asia simulated by a regional climate model

Abstract

Responses of late spring (21 April–20 May) rainfall to the upper tropospheric cooling over East Asia are investigated with a regional climate model based on Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique Zoom (LMDZ4-RCM). A control experiment is performed with two runs driven by the mean ERA-40 data during 1958–1977 and 1981–2000, respectively. The model reproduces the major decadal-scale circulation changes in late spring over East Asia, including a cooling in the upper troposphere and an anomalous meridional cell. Accordingly, the precipitation decrease is also captured in the southeast of the upper-level cooling region. To quantify the role of the upper-level cooling in the drought mechanism, a sensitivity experiment is further conducted with the cooling imposed in the upper troposphere. It is demonstrated that the upper-level cooling can generate the anomalous meridional cell and consequently the drought to the southeast of the cooling center. Therefore, upper tropospheric cooling should have played a dominant role in the observed late spring drought over Southeast China in recent decades.