3.1 Spatio-temporal distribution
During the first rainy season (April–June) in South China from 2017 to 2019, a total of 7,965 MVs are identified using the four radars in Guangdong Province (Table 1). Figure 2 shows the uneven spatial distribution of MVs in Guangdong Province. The MVs are most concentrated in the Pearl River Delta region (Figure 2a), accounting for about 41% of the total, followed by the western Guangdong (Figure 2b) where the MVs account for about 27%. There are much fewer MVs generated in eastern (Figure 2d) and northern Guangdong (Figure 2c), which together account for less than half of the total. In particular, the MVs are sparsely distributed near the Nanling mountains in northern Guangdong. The uneven spatial distribution of the MVs can be, at least, attributed to the following two reasons. The first is due to the different topographies features over Guangdong. Laing and Fritsch (1997) have pointed out that MVs are prone to form over flat regions, such as the America Great Plains. The formation of MVs is therefore affected by the topography of the Nanling mountains in northern Guangdong and the Lianhua, Luofu and Jiulian Mountains in eastern Guangdong. In contrast, the relatively flat terrain in western Guangdong and Pearl River Delta region is conducive to the formation of the MVs. Secondly, the uneven spatial distribution of MVs is intimately related to the differences of environmental conditions in different regions of Guangdong, which will be discussed in section 3.3. In terms of lifetime, most of the MVs (about 67%) last less than 30 minutes, about 30% last more than half an hour, while the ones lasting more than one hour only account for about 5% (Table 1). The statistical characteristics of MVs’ lifetime in Guangdong are similar to those in the YHRB.
Table 1. Statistics for the number and lifetime of the MVs identified by four radars in Guangdong from April to June during 2017–2019. Percentages of the MVs with different lifetime to the total are shown in parentheses.
|
Guangzhou
|
Shaoguan
|
Yangjiang
|
Shantou
|
Total
|
Number of MVs
|
3267
|
794
|
2182
|
1722
|
7965
|
18–30 min
|
2153 (66%)
|
551 (69%)
|
1466 (67%)
|
1172 (68%)
|
5342 (67%)
|
30–60 min
|
992 (30%)
|
223 (28%)
|
626 (29%)
|
479 (28%)
|
2320 (29%)
|
>60 min
|
122 (4%)
|
20 (3%)
|
90 (4%)
|
71 (4%)
|
303 (4%)
|
Figure 3 shows the monthly and daily variations of the MVs in South China. The number of MVs generated in June is significantly larger than in April and May, accounting for about half of the total (Figure 3a). Besides, the MVs display notable diurnal variations (Figure 3b). It occurs most frequently from the late morning to the afternoon (0900 BJT to 1800 BJT, i.e., Beijing time) but drops to the minimum overnight (2100 BJT to 0300 BJT). This diurnal variation is just opposite to that in the warm season in the YHRB (Tang et al., 2020). Specifically, the MVs in the YHRB present slight diurnal variations (figures omitted), with two weak peaks at night (1800 BJT to 2100 BJT) and in the morning (0600 BJT to 0900 BJT), respectively. Besides, there is a minimum at night (0300 BJT to 0600 BJT).
Figure 4 shows the distributions of the diameters and intensities (in terms of azimuthal shear) of the MVs. It can be seen that the MV diameters are mostly between 4 km and 12 km (about 80%), while only a few ones are larger than 12 km or smaller than 4 km (Figure 4a). Most of the MVs (about 94%) are weak, with the intensities between 0.001 s−1 and 0.004 s−1, while only about 6% are stronger than 0.004 s−1 (Figure 4b). It is indicated that the diameter of the MV is proportional to its lifetime (Table 2). The MVs presenting a short lifetime of 18–30 minutes have a mean diameter of 6.96 km, the MVs lasting for 30–60 minutes have a mean diameter of 8.35 km, and the MVs lasting for more than one hour have a mean diameter of 10.3 km. Similarly, the azimuthal shear of the MVs is also proportional to their lifetime. The MVs with a short lifetime of 18–30 minutes have an average intensity of 0.002 s−1, while the MVs with a long lifetime of exceeding 60 minutes have an average intensity of 0.003 s−1. Thus, a longer lifetime is accompanied with greater diameter and stronger intensity, which is similar to the characteristics of the MVs in the YHRB.
Table 2. Average diameter, azimuthal shear intensity and lifetime of the MVs in Guangdong from April to June during 2017–2019.
|
Diameter (km)
|
Azimuthal shear (0−3·s−1)
|
Lifetime (minutes)
|
All MVs
|
7.49
|
2.15
|
26
|
Short-lived MVs
|
6.96
|
2.03
|
20
|
Medium-lived MVs
|
8.35
|
2.33
|
36
|
Long-lived MVs
|
10.30
|
2.88
|
75
|
3.2 Comparison of MVs in different regions of South China
As mentioned above, most MVs during the first rainy season in Guangdong appear in the Pearl River Delta region and western Guangdong. In this subsection, the temporal variations of MVs in different regions of South China are compared. About half of the MVs in the Pearl River Delta region occur in June, which is significantly more than that in April and May (not shown). Similar monthly variations of MVs are found in eastern Guangdong. However, there are no significant monthly variations in northern and western Guangdong. The number of MVs generated in each month (April to June) is almost the same Figure 5(a).
The diurnal variations are quite similar for the MVs in the River Delta region, western and eastern Guangdong (Figure 5), which show an afternoon-to-night peak and night-to-early-morning minimum. However, the MVs in northern Guangdong present an opposite diurnal variation, along with a night-to-early-morning peak and afternoon-to-evening minimum. This may be explained by the moving direction of MCSs in Guangdong. During the first rainy season in South China, there is still weak cold air frequently affecting Guangdong from the north. Under the combined influence of dry and cold air from the north and warm and moist air from the sea, there is usually an MCS accompanied by a cold front, affecting Guangdong from the north to the south. The MCS tends to be triggered in northern Guangdong during the night-to-morning period, and then moves eastward and southward to southern Guangdong from the afternoon to evening (Wu et al., 2019). Therefore, the MVs generated in the MCS present consistent diurnal variations with that of the MCSs.
Moreover, the statistical characteristics of the MVs’ lifetime in the Pearl River Delta region is similar to that in other three regions, with the average lifetime of 25-30 minites. The azimuthal shear intensity and horizontal scale of the MVs are also similar in the Pearl River Delta region and northwest Guangdong, with the average diameter of about 7 km and the average intensity of about 0.002 s−1. The MVs in eastern Guangdong are slightly weaker and smaller than the other three regions. (Table 3).
Table 3. Average diameter, azimuthal shear intensity and lifetime of the MVs in different regions of Guangdong from April to June during 2017–2019.
|
Diameter (km)
|
Azimuthal shear (0−3·s−1)
|
Lifetime (minutes)
|
the Pearl River Delta
|
7.64
|
2.16
|
27
|
Western Guangdong
|
7.54
|
2.23
|
26
|
Northern Guangdong
|
7.34
|
2.28
|
25
|
Eastern Guangdong
|
7.22
|
1.98
|
26
|
3.3 Environmental conditions
As noted above, the spatial distribution of the MVs during the first rainy season in South China is affected by their environmental conditions. During this period, the South Asia high center is located in the upper troposphere (200 hPa) over the Indochina Peninsula and adjacent areas (Figure 6a). South China is on the southern side of the upper-level jet axis at its entrance region. In the middle troposphere (500 hPa), the subtropical high lies between 10°N and 20°N, and South China lies on the northern side of the subtropical high and in the westerlies at the bottom of the East Asia trough (Figure 6b). In the lower troposphere (850 hPa), with the onset of the southwest monsoon, the equatorial westerlies from the Indian Ocean and the cross-equatorial flow from near Kalimantan Island entering the South China Sea converge and blow over South China (Figs. 6c and 6d). Meanwhile, the low-level southwesterly jets transport abundant warm and moist air to South China, especially to the west of the Pearl River Estuary (the Pearl River Delta region and western Guangdong), resulting in the higher potential pseudo-equivalent temperature and water vapor flux in this region than in northern and eastern Guangdong.
Due to the warm and moist airflow transported by the southwest monsoon, the mean low-level instability during April–June is relatively higher across the whole Guangdong Province (Figure 7a). The potential pseudo-equivalent temperature in southwest Guangdong (30°C–32°C) is significantly higher than that in other regions (28°C–30°C). In addition, the existence of the low-level jet causes stronger low-level wind shear over southwest Guangdong than in other regions (Figure 7b). In short, the relatively higher instability and stronger low-level vertical wind shear are conducive to the formation of MVs, which is similar to the environmental conditions for the formation of MVs in the YHRB. Weisman and Trapp (2003) simulated the effects of vertical wind shear on the genesis of MVs. The results show that the stronger the vertical wind shear is, especially for the low-level wind shear, the stronger the MVs will be. Atkins and Laurent (2009) obtained a similar result by using the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting model to study the relationship between the MVs and the low-level wind shear.