The Structure of a Typical Mei-Yu Front Identified by the Equivalent Temperature

In China's Mainland, the summer monsoon rainy band is referred to as the mei-yu precipitation front, which extends northward from South China to the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, and Yellow River, depending on the season. This paper describes the structure of the mei-yu front associated with a persistent heavy rainfall event that occurred in the summer of 2007. The mei-yu front occurs when the subtropical oceanic warm, moist air mass and the extra tropical continental dry, cold air mass converge on the lee side of the Tibetan Plateau. The authors defined the equivalent temperature using two terms of dry-air temperature and the specific humidity and calculated its horizontal gradient to indicate the mei-yu front. The vertical structure of the mei-yu front and the moist thermal winds surrounding it were examined based on the equivalent temperature.

A Diagnostic Analysis of the Simulated Structure of a Meiyu Front System in 1999

A numerical simulation of a torrential rain event occurring in the Jiang-Huai Valley of China from 22-24 June 1999 is performed and analyzed by using the PSU/NCAR MM5 mesoscale non-hydrostatic model. The high-resolution model output data are utilized to diagnose the double front structure, and the distributions of potential temperature, equivalent potential temperature, and specific humidity in the vicinity of the Meiyu Front System （MYFS） in the Jiang-Huai Valley. The results show that both the potential temperature gradient and the specific humidity gradient have important impacts on the two strong equivalent potential temperature gradient zones associated with the double front structure of the MYFS, but the latter （moisture gradient） is more important. In addition, the tendency equation of specific humidity gradient is theoretically derived. It shows that variations of the specific humidity gradient are related to the advection, convergence/divergence, horizontal and vertical vorticities （secondary circulation） effects and the gradient of water vapor source/sink. As an example, the budget of the meridional component of the tendency equation is selected and diagnosed by using the above model simulation data of the torrential rain event. It is shown that the variation of the specific humidity gradient averaged throughout the simulation is mainly controlled by the convergence/divergence effect, the secondary circulation effect associated with the horizontal vorticities, and the water vapor source/sink effect. Since the water vapor source/sink is often formed from the phase change processes of water vapor in the air and thus directly associated with cloud and precipitation microphysics processes, the variation of the specific humidity gradient is closely related with cloud and precipitation microphysics and the distribution, development and evolution of cloud and rainfall systems. The double front structure of the MYFS provides an advantageous environmental condition for the development and movement of the mesoscale torrential rain system nearby. In turn, the development of the torrential rain exerts a signifiant impact on the MYFS through changing the thermal and moisture distributions.