Effects of Spatial Movement of Arabia Subtropical High Pressure and Subtropical Jet on Synoptic and Thermodynamic Patterns of Intense Wet Years in the South and South West Iran

  Although precipitation is of great importance in all climates, it plays a vital role in the arid and semi-arid regions. The spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation in all climates is affected by special synoptic structures in which one or two systems play the controlling role. The southern Iran is located adjacent to two important climate systems whose spatial arrangements determine the timing and amount of precipitation in the mentioned region. Therefore, it is important to study the possibility of predicting the drought and wet years in this geographical region of Iran according to its strategic role in the ecology, agriculture, industry, transportation, and politics. The study was conducted on Hormozgan, Boushehr, Kohkilouyeh-va-Boyerahmad, Chahar-mahal-va-Bakhtiari, and Khuzestan Provinces in Iran. The daily precipitations in the selected stations were extracted, harmonized and arranged in a 30 year statistical period. Then, the situation of each station was determined from the viewpoint of drought and humidity using the SIPA criterion and DIP software. We have selected the years in which intense wet years were half of the selected stations, based on the mentioned criteria. These years have been selected as the samples of intense wet years. The atmospheric data of the mentioned years were extracted from the website http://www.esrl.noaa.gov, and the daily maps of these years were created at levels of 1000 and 500 hPa in the longitude of-40 degree west to 100 degree east and the latitude of zero (the equator) to 80 degree north using Grads software. The Arabian subtropical high pressure nuclei were determined for all days and their maps were created as the output maps using ArcGIS10.3 software. The data were reproduced in a matrix with the dimensions of 67×2145 based on the daily precipitation of more than 5 millimeters. The study area, located between the latitudes 0 to 80 degree north and -40 to 100 degrees east, has a number of days according to the spatial data resolution which was 2.5×2.5 geographical degree. Afterwards, justification of the data distribution according to the special values, variance percentage and accumulation variance was determined for analysis of the factors. Just 12 factors had the values larger than 1 in the primary analysis. The principle component analysis and Varimax rotation showed that concentrating on the correlation of 13 factors can explain 89.18 percent of the pattern’s behavior.
Finally, the dominant patterns in the selected intense wet year samples were extracted through studying the maps of 1000 and 500 hPa from the twelve extracted factors. Then, we have analyzed the maps of subtropical jet stream, divergent and convergent flux, special moisture, temperature blow, and etc. Moreover, the maps of different levels in all rainy days of the intense wet years were reviewed. Comparison of the repetitive patterns resulting from the review and the principle factor analysis provided similar results. Our study showed that in all the rainy days, the central nucleus of the Arabian anticyclone cell at all levels of 850 and 700 hPa was located in the east part of the longitude 45 degree E. When the anticyclone central nucleus is located in the east part of the longitude 55 degree E, the precipitations are more extensive, and cover all the regions from Khuzestan to Hormozgan. As it can be seen, in the rainy days, one or two divergent flux nuclei are located on Oman Sea or western Arab Sea and Gulf of Aden. In such condition, the streams in the lower levels of troposphere (from sea level to 850 hPa) are changed into eastern streams in northern Oman Sea and gradually on the Arab Sea. This condition is the most suitable mechanism for moisture advection towards the Sudan low pressure. In the same day, two strong nuclei of convergent moisture flux are dominated on Ethiopia and central Arabia which receive the moisture transmitted from the warm seas. The highest moisture advection towards the Sudan system is done under the layer of 850 hPa from Arab Sea, Oman Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Because of the topographic condition at levels higher than 850 hPa, this advection comes much lower, and the moisture transmitted from the transition branch may add to this moisture from the tropical convergence region. With the moisture advection in the lower levels, proper thermodynamic condition is provided for the development of convection clouds on the region. These clouds initially appear as mass clouds on Sudan and Red Sea, and then on Arabia, and then gradually move to Iran through the southern streams before trough at levels of 850 hPa and higher. Then, the clouds grow and extend through involving in the upward streams dominated on the front trough and under the subtropical jet stream, which are located on Red Sea and northwest Arabia. The proper temperature blow and diabatic warming resulting from condensation process provide a severe condition in the northern part of the jet. In order to have an intense wet year in the south and south west of Iran, the eastern movement of Arabian high pressure is considered as an important factor. With the eastern movement of this high pressure, a proper synoptic condition for advection of moisture toward the precipitation system is provided. A proper condition is also provided for the extension of the Mediterranean trough towards the southern latitudes on the south east part of African desert and cold advection on the region at the middle and upper layers of troposphere. The Arabian high pressure has very high ability for wet condition, especially at the lower layers, because of its dynamic structure. Therefore, the moisture moved through the divergent flux toward the southern systems is considerable and provides significant potential energy for the convection systems. The cold advection from the northern latitudes and the warm advection from the subtropical latitudes provide proper heat gradient for intensification of the subtropical streams in the northwest domain of the Arabian high pressure. These jet streams are formed in the limits of northeast Arabia and provide proper dynamic condition for intensification of intense convection streams in the Northern Arabia and Southern Iran. The convection clouds cause intense precipitations on the region because of the access it has to the moisture of the southern warm seas and also the moisture moved from the northern branch of the tropical convergence region