Sensitivity of Interannual and Interdecadal Precipitation Variability over China to Spatial Scale

Abstract With the precipitation observation of 740 stations over China, the interannual and interdecadal precipitation variabilities over 6 climate subregions are calculated with respect to 5 resolutions separately. The analysis shows that the sensitivity of the interannual precipitation variability to spatial scales in all the subregions over China decreases gradually with the increasing spatial scales and there is a significant seasonal change, whereas the sensitivity of the interdecadal variability increases with the increasing spatial scales and there is no seasonal change. Because of the particularities of precipitation, there are some significant differences in the sensitivities of the interannual and interdecadal precipitation variability to spatial scales for different climate subregions over China. On the interannual and interdecadal scales, the highest sensitivity of the precipitation variability to spatial scales is in southwestern China. So it is the most difficult region to test the signals of the interannual and interdecadal precipitation variability there, whereas in southern China, there is a relatively high sensitivity on the interannual scale, and little sensitivity on the interdecadal scale. Nevertheless, the inhomogeneity of precipitation over southern China is most sensitive to spatial scales both on interannual and interdecadal timescales.