Spatial Seasonal Distribution of Climatological Precipitation over the Middle of the Indochina Peninsula

Abstract

Rainfall intensity and frequency are important parameters in agricultural development and water resource management. The middle of the Indochina peninsula climate is characterized by rainfall variability associated with complex terrains. The present study focuses on spatial seasonal extreme precipitation trends over the middle of the Indochina Peninsula for the 30 year period from 1978-2007. Daily gridded precipitation data obtained at 0.5° horizontal grid resolution from APHRODITE (Asian Precipitation-Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources) was used to detect the spatial trends with the use of the Man-Kendall and Theil-Sen approach. Extreme precipitation indices were selected from the WMO–CCL/CLIVAR list of extreme precipitation indices focusing on intensity and frequency. The study shows a consistently increasing upward trend at 10.04 d from the WDAY index. In seasonal analysis, the pre-monsoon trend shows a significant upward trend in the PRCTOT index, while the WDAY index for pre-monsoon season has the highest correlation coefficient in downward trend. Spatial analysis of extreme precipitation indices shows that the PRCTOT index of the pre-monsoon season has the largest percentage change in significant upward trend over the northern Basins that are consistent with MAX and Mean but not for WDAY. In addition, the inter-annual relationship between the Oceanic Nino Index and PRCTOT is shown in relation with the La Niña phase for both April and May.