Temporal-Spatial Variances of Holocene Precipitation at the Marginal Area of the East Asian Monsoon Influences from Pollen Evidence

The woodland-steppe ecotone in the. southern Nei Mongol Plateau is located at the northern edge of the east Asian monsoon influences. A marked southeastern - northwestern (SE - NW) precipitation gradient exists in this region. Quantitative reconstruction of palaeo-precipitation of this region is helpful to reveal the development of monsoon climate and to predict die future desertification. Based on modern vegetation and surface pollen studies, a pollen-precipitation transfer function in the study region was established. Pollen data from three sediment sequences within the ecotone were used to reconstruct palaeo-precipitation during the Holocene. The processes of precipitation changes in the three sequences were quite different. There was a tendency of precipitation declined from the onset of the Holocene to 1 100 a BP in Haoluku. But, in Liuzhouwan and Xiaoniuchang, both located south of Haoluku, the annual precipitation reached highest values during 7 800 - 6 200 a BP and 7 200 - 5 000 a BP, respectively. The influences of southwestern (SW) monsoon and the variances of topographical conditions have possibly caused these temporal-spatial variances.

Extreme Rainfall Events and Associated Natural Hazards in Alaknanda Valley, Indian Himalayan Region

Entire Himalayan region is vulnerable to rain-induced （torrential rainfall） hazards in the form of flash flood, cloudburst or glacial lake outburst flood Flash floods and cloudburst are generally caused by high intensity rainfall followed by debris flow or landslide often resulting into blockade of river channels. The examples of some major disasters caused by torrential rainfall events in last fifty years are the flash floods of 1968 in Teesta valley, in 1993 and 2000 in Sutlej valley, in 1978 in Bhagirathi and in 1970 in Alaknanda river valleys. The formation of landslide dams and subsequent breaching is also associated with such rainfall events. These dams may persist for years or may burst within a short span of its formation. Due to sudden surge of water level in the river valleys, havoc and panic are created in the down stream. In Maknanda valley, frequencies of such extreme rainfall events are found to be increasing in last two decades. However, the monthly trend of extreme rainfall events has partly indicated this increase. In most of the years extreme rainfall events and cloudburst disaster were reported in August during the later part of the monsoon season.

Wintertime Cyclone Activity and Its Relation to Precipitation over China

The authors examined the variability in wintertime cyclone activity and storm tracks and their relation to precipitation over China for the period 1951-2006 using the observational data.Two apparent modes of variability were assumed for the cyclone activity and storm tracks.The first mode describes the oscillation in the strength of the storm tracks in East Asia,which significantly increased since the mid-1980s,whereas the second mode describes a seesaw oscillation in the storm track strength between the Central-Southeast China and northem East Asia.The storm tracks over the Central-Southeast China have increased since the late 1960s.The possible causes for the variation of the cyclone activity and storm tracks are also explored.It is shown that wintertime precipitation,which has increased since the mid-1980s,concentrates in Central-Southeast China.The enhancement may be caused by the first mode of variability of storm tracks,whereas the interannual variability of precipitation may be linked to the second mode of the storm track variability.

The Relationship between Precipitation and Airflow over the Tibetan Plateau in Boreal Summer

Based on the observation data and the reanalysis datasets, the variability and the circulation features influencing precipitation in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are investigated. Taking into account the effects of topography, surface winds are deconstructed into flow-around and flow-over components relative to the TP. Climatologically, the flow-around component mainly represents cyclonic circulation in the TP during the summer. The transition zone of total precipitation in the summer parallels the convergence belt between the southerlies and the northerlies of the flow-over component. The leading mode of rainfall anomalies in the TP has a meridional dipole structure, and the first principal component (PC1) mainly depicts the variation of rainfall in the southern TP. The wet southern TP experiences strengthened flow-over, which in turn mechanistically favors intensified ascent forced by the flow-over component. In addition, variations in the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) have an important role in influencing the flow over the southern TP, and the ISM ultimately impacts the precipitation over southern TP.

Precipitation variability in central Himalayas and its relation to Northern Hemisphere temperature

A 149.8-m-long ice core was drilled at theaccumulation area of Dasuopu glacier (28?3′N, 85?3′E, 7100 m a.s.l.) in the central Himalayas in 1997. The ice core was analyzed continuously for stable isotopes (d 18O), cations (Na+, K+, Mg2+, Ca2+) and anions (Cl-, 24SO,-3NO-) throughout the core. Cycles indicated by d 18O, cations and anions were identified and counted as seasonal fluctuations as annual increment from maximum to maximum values.Reconstructed 300-year annual net accumulation from thecore reveals a major precipitation trend for the central Himalayas with an average precipitation 750 mm per year. The trend, separated from the time series, shows a strongcorrelation to global temperature. Generally, as northernglobal temperature increases 0.1℃, the accumulationdecreases about 80mm and vise versa. This may suggests that monsoon precipitation in Himalayas have decreasedcontinuously in past decade as a response to global warming.