A new study authored by ICCP researchers (PhD student Hyo-eun Oh, Prof. Kyung-Ja Ha and Director Axel Timmermann) and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research identifies key drivers for extreme monsoonal rainfall events and periods.
The team of researchers decomposes changes in rainfall into dynamic and thermodynamic components using the moisture budget equation. The new study demonstrates that the interplay of these components plays a key role in altering the statistics of extreme rainfall events.
The findings will be helpful in determining the potential predictability of extreme hydrological events. The study provides an important contribution towards understanding the mechanisms responsible for extreme events, such as heavy rainfall and drought. In the summer of 2018 southwestern Japan experienced torrential rainfall during the Baiu season. “Our study suggests that this may have been related to the confluence of thermodynamical and dynamical hydrological factors” says Prof. Kyung-Ja Ha, co-author of this study. The details are represented in “Disentangling Impacts of Dynamic and Thermodynamic Components on Late Summer Rainfall Anomalies in East Asia” of JGR-Atmospheres.