Potential vorticity structure and inversion of the cyclogenesis over the Yangtze River and Huaihe River valleys

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In this paper, the potential vorticity structure and inversion of the cyclogenesis over the Yangtze River and Huaihe River valleys during 21–23 June 2003 are investigated with a potential vorticity (PV) framework. The cyclogenesis is manifested by a lower-tropospheric PV anomaly over the Yangtze River and Huaihe River valleys at early stages mainly due to latent heat release, which greatly affects the evolution of the associated lower-tropospheric geopotential height and wind fields as demonstrated by piecewise PV inversion. At later stages, an upper-tropospheric PV anomaly develops, resulting in the growth of ridges over the cyclone in both the upstream and downstream, which provide a favorable background field for the low-level cyclone development. But the effect of a surface thermal anomaly always impedes the development of the cyclone to different extents during this cyclogenesis. It is further demonstrated that the position and the strength of the PV anomaly are closely related to the low-level cyclone development, and the lower-tropospheric PV anomaly seems to constitute the most significant feature, for instance, contributing about 60% to the low-level jet (LLJ).