The Development of an Intense East Asian Summer Monsoon Disturbance with Strong Vertical Coupling

Abstract

Abstract The East Asian summer monsoon (Mei-yu) disturbance of 17–25 June 1992 was the most intense 850-hPa low center of such systems during a 7-yr period. Due to the moisture fluxes associated with the southwesterlies from the warm tropical oceans, diabatic heating has generally been considered the main energy source of these heavy-precipitation disturbances as they propagate eastward from the eastern flank of the Tibetan Plateau across southeastern China and move into the East China Sea. In this study piecewise potential vorticity inversion is used to analyze the physical mechanisms of this intense case, particularly the possible roles of midlatitude baroclinic processes in its development and evolution. The development of the low-level vortex involved the coupling with two upper-level disturbances, one at 500 hPa that also originated from the eastern flank of the Tibetan Plateau, and another at 300 hPa. Both disturbances appeared later than and upstream of the low-level vortex. Faster eastward movemen...