Regionalization of Precipitation Regimes in China

Abstract

Precipitation regimes of China were mapped by using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis with orthogonal rotation based on normalized monthly mean precipitation data at 400 stations from 1961 to 2006.The regional boundaries were defined with the maximum-loading approach.The results identified 13 consistent and contiguous precipitation regions with distinct regional variations in China that are expected to reflect dominant regional patterns focusing on seasonal and interannual precipitation variations.The precipitation regionalization is operationally useful for seasonal and interannual climate predictions.