By adopting characteristic index data for the Western Pacific Subtropical High(WPSH) from the National Climate Center of China, U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research(NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis data, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) sea surface temperature(SST) data, we studied the WPSH variability considering the background of climate warming by using a Gaussian filter, moving averages, correlation analysis, and synthetic analysis. Our results show that with climate warming over the past 60 years, significant changes in the WPSH include its enlarged area, strengthened intensity,westward extended ridge point and southward expanded southern boundary, as well as enhanced interannual fluctuations in all these indices. The western ridge point of the WPSH consistently varies with temperature changes in the Northern Hemisphere, but the location of the ridgeline varies independently. The intensity and area of the WPSH were both significantly increased in the late 1980 s. Specifically, the western ridge point started to significantly extend westward in the early 1990 s, and the associated interannual variability had a significant increase in the late 1990 s; in addition, the ridgeline was swaying along the north-south-north direction, and the corresponding variability was also greatly enhanced in the late 1990 s. With climate warming, the SST increase becomes more weakly correlated with the WPSH intensity enhancement but more strongly correlated with the westward extension of the ridge point in the equatorial central and eastern Pacific Ocean in winter, corresponding to an expanding WPSH in space. In the northern Pacific in winter, the SST decrease has a weaker correlation with the southerly location of the ridgeline but also a stronger correlation with the westward extension of the ridge point. In the tropical western Pacific in winter, the correlations of the SST decrease with the WPSH intensity enhancement, and the westward extension of the r
Based on the daily precipitation and temperature data of 97 stations in Southwest China(SW China) from1960 to 2009, a dry-wet index is calculated. The spatiotemporal variation characteristics of dry-wet conditions,precipitation and temperature are studied. Then the abnormal atmospheric circulation characteristics are discussed using reanalysis data. The results show that SW China has exhibited an overall trend of autumnal drought since the late1980 s, and this drought trend became more significant early in the 2000 s, especially in the eastern SW China. Autumnal dry-wet variation in southwestern China showed two major modes: consistent change across the entire region and opposing changes in the eastern and western regions. The spatial distribution of dry-wet anomalies was more significantly affected by precipitation, while temporal variation in dry-wet conditions was more strongly influenced by temperature. The former mode is affected by the anomalies of the precedent SST near the Western Pacific Warm Pool,the Western Pacific Subtropical High, the East Asian Trough and the South Trough. The latter mode is related to the wind anomalies in the eastern SW China and the vertical movement in the western and eastern SW China. These are the main influencing factors for the autumn dry-wet variation in SW China, which are of great significance to the prediction of drought.
