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Article: Winter-to-Spring Transition in East Asia: A Planetary-Scale Perspective of the South China Spring Rain Onset
- Article from:
- Journal of Climate
- Article date:
- July 1, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright American Meteorological Society Jul 1, 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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ABSTRACT
Analysis of observations from 1979 to 2002 shows that the seasonal transition from winter to spring in East Asia is marked with a distinctive event-the onset of the south China spring rain (SCSR). In late February, the reduced thermal contrast between ocean and land leads to weakening of the Asian winter monsoon as well as the Siberian high and the Aleutian low. Meanwhile, convection over Australia and the western Pacific Maritime Continent is suppressed on the passage of the dry phase of a Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). In conjunction with the seasonal march of monsoon circulation in the Indonesian-Australian sector, this MJO passage weakens the local thermally direct cell in ...