title: Regional precipitation variability in East Asia related to climate and environmental factors during 1979-2012.
abstract: This paper studies the inter-annual precipitation variations in different regions of East Asia from oceans to interior areas in China during 1979 - 2012. The results computed by Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOF) demonstrate that the annual precipitation changes are mainly related to the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, East Asian summer monsoon and aerosols. We also found that the increased Sea surface temperature (SST) could explain the precipitation changes over the Northwest Pacific in the dry season (Oct. - May) and the East China Sea and the South China Sea in the rainy season (Jun. - Sep.). The precipitation changes over the ocean unexplained by SST were likely due to the water vapor transport dominated by dynamic factors. With the increased SST, the moisture transported from oceans to interior land was likely redistributed and caused the complicated regional variability of precipitation. Moreover, the impacts of aerosols on cloud and precipitation varied with different pollution levels and different seasons.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China.
authors.forename: Yinyin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: 1] Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China [2] Department of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Heze University, Heze, 274000, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China.
authors.forename: Huiwang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China.
authors.forename: Xiaohong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: 1] Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China [2] Department of Marine, Earth and atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh NC 27695-8208, USA.
authors.forename: Lian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xie