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The years 2014 and 2015 turned out to be quite catastrophic for the Asia-Pacific region which took a major toll on the socioeconomic stature of all the entities of the region. The agricultural sector which is one of the most contributing factors to the economy of the region has been highly sensitive to the global climatic changes. Hence this endeavor shall greatly help in an efficient prediction of monsoon cycles, thus enabling the hapless farmers to be better informed and avoid major losses of any kind. The paper focuses on the climatology of air temperature and MSLP with the variation pattern in precipitation over the Asia-Pacific region. The NCEP-NCAR reanalysis data is used for air temperature and MSLP along with high-resolution precipitation dataset for Asia-Pacific monsoon region obtained from GPCP. The temperature datasets are analyzed up to the level 500 hPa. Monte Carlo method of correlation and Bootstrapping method of confidence interval are used to analyze the relation of GPCP with MSLP and temperature at all defined levels. So, in this paper authors attempt to assess the nature and relationship of temperature and MSLP to precipitation over the Asia-Pacific region with the recent 10-year changes which are quantified in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate remote-sensed precipitation data are crucial to the effective monitoring and analysis of floods and climate change. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite product offers new options for the global study of precipitation. This paper evaluates the applicability of GPM IMERG products at different time resolutions in comparison to ground-measured data. Based on precipitation data from 107 meteorological stations in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, GPM products were analysed at three timescales: half-hourly (GPM-HH), daily (GPM-D), and monthly (GPM-M). We use a cumulative distribution function (CDF) model to correct GPM-D and GPM-M products to analyse temporal and spatial distributions of precipitation. We came to the following conclusions: (1) The GPM-M product is strongly correlated with ground station data. Based on five evaluation indexes, NRMSE (Normalized Root Mean Square Error), NSE (Nash-Sutcliffe), FAR (False Alarm Ratio), UR (Underreporting Rate), and CSI (Critical Success Index), the monthly GPM products showed the best performance, better than GPM-HH products and GPM-D products. (2) The performance of GPM products in summer and autumn was better than in winter and spring. However, the GPM satellite's precision in undulating terrain was poor, which could easily lead to serious errors. (3) CDF models were successfully used to modify GPM-D and GPM-M products and improve their accuracy. (4) The range of 0–100 mm precipitation could be corrected best, but the GPM-M products were underestimated. Corrected GPM-M data in the range >100 mm were overestimated. According to this analysis, the GPM IMERG Final Run products at daily and monthly timescales have good detection ability and can provide data support for long-time series analyses in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is now common knowledge that many water resources stresses relate to access to water within a basin. Yi River Basin, a typical river basin characterized by intensive agricultural processes, significant population growth, and water management, has been undergoing grave water problems. In this paper, the long-term trend of precipitation and streamflow in Yi River Basin, from 1964 to 2010, was investigated via Mann-Kendall test. The change point occurred in the year 1965 dividing the long-term series into two periods. Climate elasticity method and linear regression method were implemented to quantify the impact of precipitation and human activities on runoff and presented basically consistent results of the percentage change in an annual runoff for the postchange period. The results reveal that the decline of annual runoff in postchange period is mainly attributed to precipitation variability of 53.66–58.25% and human activities of 46.34–41.74%, as estimated by climate elasticity method and linear regression method, respectively. This study detected the changes in the precipitation-streamflow relationship and investigated the possible causes in the Yi River, which will be helpful for providing a reference for the management of regional water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precipitation data from 30 stations in the Huaihe River basin (HRB), a climatic transitional zone in east China, were used to investigate the spatiotemporal variability and trends of extreme precipitation on multitimescales for the period 1961–2010. Results indicated that (1) the spatial pattern of the annual precipitation, rainy days, extreme precipitation, and maximum daily precipitations shows a clear transitional change from the south (high) to the north (low) in the HR; it confirmed the conclusion that the HRB is located in the transitional zone of the 800 mm precipitation contour in China, where the 800 mm precipitation contour is considered as the geographical boundary of the south and the north. (2) Higher value of the extreme precipitation intensity mainly occurs in the middle of the east and the central part of the basin; it reveals a relatively distinct west-east spatial disparity, and this is not in line with the spatial pattern of the extreme precipitation total, the sum of the precipitation in 95th precipitation days. (3) Annual precipitation of 22 stations exhibits increasing trend, and these 22 stations are located from the central to the northern part. There is no significant trend detected for the seasonal precipitation. The summer precipitation exhibits a larger change range; this might cause the variation of the flood and drought in the HBR. However, the increasing trend in winter precipitation may be beneficial to the relief of winter agricultural drought. Rainy days in 12 stations, mostly located in and around the central northeastern part, experienced significant decreasing trend. Extreme precipitation days and precipitation intensity have increasing trends, but no station with significant change trend is detected for the maximum precipitation of the basin. (4) The spatiotemporal variability in the HRB is mainly caused by the geographic differences and is largely influenced by the interdecadal variations of East Asian Summer Monsoon in eastern China. The output of this paper could provide references for the practical decision making and integrated basin management of Huaihe River basin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on extreme precipitation changes in Xinjiang Province of Northwest China, which has experienced an increase in climate disasters in recent years. This paper investigates extreme precipitation events in Xinjiang, using 54 stations with daily precipitation records from the period 1961–2008. Different statistical tests and approaches were used to check the significance of trends of single and Xinjiang regionally aggregated precipitation series for intensity and in frequency. There were predominantly positive trends in annual maximum precipitation and a remarkable increment in the frequency of extreme precipitation over certain thresholds (from 10 to 40 mm). Although the series of frequencies exceeding thresholds had positive trends, only a minority were statistically significant. This lack of significance is because of the high variability of extreme precipitation in space and time. Thus, significant trends were evident when we assessed the extreme precipitation indicators of intensity and frequency at the regional level, both in intensity and frequency over thresholds, with a clearer signal in Xinjiang. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]