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| The Structure of a Typical Mei-yu Front Identified by the Equivalent Temperature |
| FU Jiao-Lan,QIAN Wei-Hong |
| 1. National Meteorological Center of Chinese Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China,2. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China |
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Abstract In mainland China, the summer monsoon rainy band is referred to as the mei-yu precipitation front, which extends northward from South China to the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, and Yellow River, depending on the season. This paper describes the structure of the mei-yu front associated with a persistent heavy rainfall event that occurred in the summer of 2007. The mei-yu front occurs when the subtropical oceanic warm, moist air mass and the extra tropical continental dry, cold air mass converge on the lee side of the Tibetan Plateau. The authors defined the equivalent temperature using two terms of dry-air temperature and the specific humidity and calculated its horizontal gradient to indicate the mei-yu front. The vertical structure of the mei-yu front and the moist thermal winds surrounding it were examined based on the equivalent temperature.
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Received: 21 December 2010
Revised: 22 February 2011
Accepted: 01 March 2011
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