Spatiotemporal variations of summer precipitation and their correlations with the East Asian Summer Monsoon in the Poyang Lake Basin, China

Abstract

Poyang Lake Basin (PYLB) is located in Southeastern China where the precipitation is closely related to the East Asian Monsoon. Based on the monthly precipitation data of 18 meteorological stations from 1959 to 2018 in the PYLB, Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF), Wavelet Analysis, and Pearson Correlation Analysis were used to investigate the spatiotemporal variations of summer precipitation and their correlations with the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM). The results demonstrate that there were two leading modes of summer precipitation at inter-annual time scales: the mode being consistent over the whole area and the mode of opposite relationship between the south/north PYLB. Both modes had obvious trend variations and periodic characteristics. The East Asian Summer Monsoon Index (EASMI) showed a decreasing trend of fluctuation, existing in periods of 2-3 years and 11 years. Cross Wavelet Transform revealed that the time coefficients of the second EOF mode and EASMI had an anti-phase resonance period of 2-3 years. Pearson Correlation Analysis also indicated that there was a significant negative correlation relationship between them. These results not only contribute to an understanding of characteristics of summer precipitation in the PYLB and the influences of the East Asian Summer Monsoon on them but also provide a reference for a regional response to climate change and precipitation prediction.