Arid Zone Research ›› 2021, Vol. 38 ›› Issue (1): 188-197.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2021.01.20

• Weather and Climate • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Spatio-temporal evolution of the extreme dry and wet events in Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China

CAO Lijun1(),SUN Huilan1,2(),LAN Xiaoli1,ZHANG Lele1,LU Baobao1,LIU Tianyi1   

  1. 1. College of Geography Science and Tourism, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830054, Xinjiang, China
    2. Study Center for Belt Urban Development along Silk Road Economic Belt, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830054, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2020-06-22 Revised:2020-07-21 Online:2021-01-15 Published:2021-03-05
  • Contact: Huilan SUN E-mail:1429681889@qq.com;hlsunxjnu@sina.com

Abstract:

The FAO Penman-Monteith model was used to calculate the monthly surface humid index at 26 meteorological stations in the Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang, China, based on their meteorological data from 1960 to 2017. The extreme dry and wet event frequencies were calculated after standardizing the data. Subsequently, the Mann-Kendall trend analysis and inverse distance weighting methods were used to explore their spatio-temporal evolutionary characteristics. Pearson and partial correlation analyses and cross wavelet transform were used to investigate the influence of meteorological factors and atmospheric circulation on the extreme dry and wet events. The results showed that (1) the interannual decrease and increase in extreme dry and wet events were -0.40 and 0.37 times per decade, respectively. The highest occurrence of extreme dry and wet events and the largest decrease in extreme dry events occurred in summer, while the largest increase in extreme wet events was in autumn; (2) the northern slope exhibited the highest incidence of extreme dry and wet events, with a frequency of 4.36 and 2.76 times a year, respectively. It also exhibited the fastest rate of decline in extreme dry and increase in extreme wet events, with an average annual incidence of -0.75 and 0.58 times per decade, respectively; and (3) the average relative humidity was the primary meteorological factor influencing the changes in extreme dry and wet events in the region, and the El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation was the main atmospheric circulation factor.

Key words: Tianshan Mountains, extreme drought/wet events, spatio-temporal evolution, humid index, meteorological factors, atmospheric circulation