Due to long-term time series and many elements, reanalysis data of National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) and European Center for MediumRange Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) are widely used in present climate studies. Even so, there are discrepancies between NCEP and ECMWF reanalysis. Some climate fields may be better reproduced by NCEP than by ECMWF. On the other hand, ECMWF may describe some climate characteristics more realistically than NCEP. Xu et al.pointed out that NCEP data are of uncertainty when used for studying long-term trends of climate change. By comparing temperatures and pressures from NCEP and observation, it can be seen that NCEP data show higher reliability in the east and lower-latitudes of China than in its west and higher latitudes, NCEP temperature is of more reality than pressure and NCEP data after 1979 are closer to the observations than before. Yang et al.also revealed some serious problems of NCEP data in the north of subtropical Asia. Regional differences of NCEP data in representation are also explored by other studiest. As for seasonal variability, NCEP simulates relatively real conditions of Chinese summer and annual mean but winter data are relatively bad, as in comparisons of NCEP data wity China surface station observations by Zhao et al.Moreover, Trenberth and Stepaniak showed that ECMWF data had better energy budgets than NCEP data for pure pressure coordinates are adopted by ECMWF. Renfrew et al. compared NCF, P data to ECMWF data in terms of surface fluxes and the results indicate that the time series of surface sensible and latent heating fluxes from ECMWF are 13% and 10% larger than the observations and those from NCEP would be 51% and 27% larger than the observations, respectively. So, Renfrew et al. suggested that it be more appropriate to drive ocean models by ECMWF data. Based on comparisons of multiple elements by some scientists, it seems that ECMWF data are better than NCEP data on global, hemispheric and regional scales. Whereas, reanalysis have bi
The interdecadal variations of tropical cyclones(TCs) and their precipitation over Guangdong Province are investigated using the observational data of TCs and precipitation from 26 observational stations in the province from 1951 to 2005.The results show that the TCs precipitation shows an oscillation with a peak value of about 25 years,with both the numbers of the Guangdong-influencing TCs and TCs formed in the western North Pacific oscillating with a peak value of about 23 years.The correlations are highly positive between the interdecadal variation of TC precipitation over the province and these numbers.The interdecadal variation of TC precipitation in the province shows significant negative correlations with the interdecadal variation of annual mean SST in some parts of the western North Pacific and the interdecadal variation of annual mean 500 hPa geopotential heights in some parts of the middle and high latitudes over the North Pacific.In general,there are high mean SSTs on the equator from central to eastern Pacific,low mean SSTs in the middle and high latitudes over the North Pacific and a main strong East Asian trough over the North Pacific in the period of less TC precipitation as compared with the period of more TC precipitation over the province.
A continuous heavy rain visited Guangdong province during June 18-25, 2005 (named Heavy Rain 200506, HR200506) and had resulted in enormous economic loss. The ageostropic Q vectors, 0se, meridional circulation, computed fi'om the NCEP reanalysis, and TBB are used to study the rainfall processes. The results indicated that a convective system moved northwards fi'om the South China Sea (SCS) and stayed in Guangdong for several days, which was a direct cause of HR200506. The process is a result of the activity of the South China Sea summer monsoon. There were two rainbands of HR200506 in Guangdong. One laid in the north of Guangdong that produced frontal rainfall; another situated on the south of Guangdong which produced monsoon rainfall.