Wednesday, March 01, 2023

The strong Meiyu in history, beginning with the flood of 1608

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

Spatial distribution of the anomaly of the Eastern China total summer rainfall relative to the average from 1470 to 1850 in IGGPRE (a) and RAP (b) reconstruction data (unit: mm). The black box represents the study area. 

IMAGE: SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE ANOMALY OF THE EASTERN CHINA TOTAL SUMMER RAINFALL RELATIVE TO THE AVERAGE FROM 1470 TO 1850 IN IGGPRE (A) AND RAP (B) RECONSTRUCTION DATA (UNIT: MM). THE BLACK BOX REPRESENTS THE STUDY AREA. view more 

CREDIT: ©SCIENCE CHINA PRESS

This study is led by Dr. Liang Ning (School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University) and graduate student Liulin Wang (School of Geography, Nanjing Normal University). They have found that interdecadal variability of solar radiation had impact on the strong Meiyu event.

The 1608 flood was very severe and had a certain degree of disintegration of the ruling status of the Ming Dynasty in historical records. Therefore, the team chose this flood as the entry point of this study. And they found that Meiyu played an important role in the formation of flood in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangtze River (MLRYR).

Then, the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1470–1850) were divided into three periods of strong solar radiation and three periods of weak solar radiation. It was found that during the periods of strong solar radiation, the frequency of strong Meiyu events was significantly higher than that during the periods of weak solar radiation in the reconstructed precipitation data and model simulations. This was related to the stronger Western Pacific Subtropical High and the stronger blocking high in middle-high latitude during the period of strong solar radiation.

See the article:

Wang L, Ning L, Chen K, Yan M, Liu J, Liu Z, Qin Y, Xue J, Li C. 2023. Influence and mechanism of solar radiation intensity on the interdecadal variability of strong Meiyu events during historical periods. Science China Earth Sciences, 66(2): 408–416, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11430-021-9952-0

https://www.sciengine.com/SCES/doi/10.1007/s11430-021-9952-0

No comments: