SPATIO-TEMPORAL VARIATION OF SENSIBLE HEAT FLUX OVER SOUTHERN CHINA

The spatio-temporal variation of surface sensible heat flux (SHF) in southern China (SC) is studied based on the data evaluated from conventional observational meteorological data. There exist prominent increasing trends in all seasonal surface sensible heat fluxes in the western SC and decreasing trends in the central-eastern part of southern China. The variations of surface sensible heat flux in all seasons are dominant on interannual time-scales. The land-air temperature difference and the near-surface wind speed are two key factors for the interannual variations of SHF, but the former is more important. The first two major anomalous patterns of SHF are presented as the region-wide in-phase anomalies and the east-west dipole anomalies, respectively, based on the EOF analysis results.