Preliminary Results on Long-term Soil Moisture Variation in Yunnan

Long-term spatial-temporal distributions of soil moisture anomalies related drought-flood events and their evolution features in Yunnan, China of recent 66 years are explored using 1948-2013 NOAA CPC 0.5°×0.5° global monthly soil moisture data, along with 125-station based monthly observed precipitation for period of 1951-2013, and monthly soil moisture observation from 22 stations for the period of 1993-2013. Comparing with precipitation, soil moisture has some unique physical properties and statistical features, such as longer memory and closer to normal distribution, making it an important component for drought-flood analyzing and monitoring. The mutual validation reveals that the gridded NOAA CPC monthly soil moisture data can capture those major observed drought-flood events very well. The preliminary results show that spatial structures of soil moisture anomaly related drought-flood events in Yunnan, China have relatively simple and large-scale features. The first four leading EOF modes can explain more than 2/3 of total variance of soil moisture variations. The soil moisture related drought-flood events also have obvious long-term variations or trends, such as from 1950s it is drier in central Yunnan and wetter in most rest parts, and then the condition gradually evolved to the opposite, from 1990s the central part of Yunnan becomes wetter than most rest parts. The drought condition tends to become worse since then, especially for the years of 2010, 2012 and 2013, when extreme drought conditions extends to almost everywhere in Yunnan. Further study on possible causes for this spatial-temporal evolution reveals some good relationships between monthly soil moisture variations and global sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) one or two months ago, especially in cool season. The 1st EOF mode of soil moisture anomalies, which represents soil moisture anomalies through the whole Yunnan, has good correlation with previous month's SSTA nearby the Bay of Bengal, Arab Sea, the western tropical Pacific and the remote Atlantic, and the 2nd EOF mode which reflects soil moisture anomalies related drought-flood variations from northwest to southeast Yunnan also well correlates with previous month's SSTA in the Bay of Bengal, the South China Sea, western Pacific, and the remote eastern tropical Pacific ENSO region and the tropical Atlantic. The 3rd EOF mode and 4th EOF mode of soil moisture anomalies, which present south to north and east to west drought-flood variations in Yunnan, also relate to unique SSTA in previous months.