Abstract
In his comments, Wang cites a number of works to dispute the conclusion in our previous work, which attributes the observed decreases/increases in light/heavy precipitation in eastern China primarily to global warming rather than the regional aerosol effect. However, most of the cited works (admittedly, including our previous work), employ correlation analysis, which has little bearing on the cause–effect relationship. Theoretical analyses and/or modeling studies are needed to ascertain the cause–effect relationship. We argue that theoretical analyses and modeling results show that global warming is the primary cause of the widely observed phenomena of suppression of light precipitation and enhancement of heavy precipitation across the globe, including in eastern China.
Highlights
Most of the supporting works cited by WANG employed some sort of correlation analysis
We argue that the theoretical analyses and modeling results from reanalysis data (ERA-Interim) presented in LIU show that the interannual trends in precipitation intensities over the equatorial tropics (10◦S–10◦N), subtropics (10◦– 20◦N), and midlatitudes (20◦–45◦N), derived from Global Precipitation Climatology Project data, as well as over Taiwan and eastern China, derived from gauge data, can be attributed semi-quantitatively to global warming
Given the geographical closeness of Taiwan region and eastern China and the higher emissions of aerosols in the latter, one would expect a greater trend over eastern China than Taiwan if the aerosol effect is the primary cause of the increasing trend in precipitation intensity
Summary
Most of the supporting works cited by WANG employed some sort of correlation analysis. We believe that the dispute can be more efficiently addressed by first summing up the key areas in which WANG and LIU agree.
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