Spatial Scales of Heavy Meiyu Precipitation Events in Eastern China and Associated Atmospheric Processes
Yipeng Du, Zhiqing Xie, Qi Miao
Abstract
Abstract Analysis of ground‐based and remotely retrieved precipitation data reveals that heavy Meiyu precipitation events (HMPEs) produce a relatively independent rain belt over eastern China. A rotating calipers algorithm is applied to quantify the spatial scales of HMPEs. We find that HMPEs have regular spatial scales with an average length, width, and extent of about 1,400 km, 500 km, and 40.00 × 10 4 km 2 , respectively, through a comprehensive assessment of different types of HMPE, illustrating that HMPEs have a size similar to that of the subsynoptic‐scale Meiyu front (1,500–2,000 km). Convective activities along the Meiyu front zone and the upper westerly jet stream strongly affect the position and orientation of rain belts of HMPEs. The Meiyu front zone, strong vertical motions, and large transport of warm moisture have a comparable spatial scale to the HMPE rain belts over eastern China.