Variability of daily precipitation in China (1980–1993): PCA and wavelet analysis of observation and ECMWF reanalysis data

• Published in: Chinese journal of oceanology and limnology 2000-06, Vol.18 (2), p.117-125
• Main Authors: Mao-chang, Cui, Hai, Zhu, Shu-min, Lian, Arpe, Klaus, Dümenil, Lydia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Annual variations; Belt conveyors; China, People's Rep; Daily; Fluctuations; Marine; Meteorology; Morlet wavelet; Precipitation; Principal components analysis; Rainfall; Summer; Variability; Wavelet analysis; Wavelet transforms
• ISSN: 0254-4059; 2096-5508; 1993-5005; 2523-3521
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02842570

In this study, principal component analysis (PCA) and complex Morlet wavelet transform were used with daily rainfall in China for the period 1980-1993 (1 May-31 Dec.) from observation and ECMWF reanalysis to study its variability and eaaluate the validation of reanalyzed precipitation. The results showed that northward movement of the summer rain belt was a wavelike propagation, which was always accompanied by rainfall breaks and could be treated as one event under time scale of about 1 month only. The first 4 EOFs accounted for 28% and 35% of total variance from observation and reanalysis, respectively, and were roughly consistent with each other. The first and third EOFs for observation mainly represented interweekly, interseasonal and interannual variations and contained some summer intraseasonal fluctuations also. The second and fourth ones mainly represented some rather strong summer intraseasonal fluctuations for a paticular year and contained interweekly, interseasonal and interannual variations also. Although there is still room for improvement, the ECMWF reanalysis is the best available dataset with global coverage and daily variability.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]