Classification of Intraseasonal Oscillation in Precipitation using Self-Organizing Map for the East Asian Summer Monsoon

The nonlinear characteristics of summer monsoon intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) in precipitation, which is manifested as fluctuations in convection and circulation, is one of the major difficulty on the prediction of East Asian summer monsoon (EASM). The present study aims to identify the spatial distribution and time evolution of nonlinear phases of monsoon ISO. In order to classify the different phases of monsoon ISO, Self-Organizing Map(SOM) known as a nonlinear pattern recognition technique is used. SOM has a great attractiveness detecting selfsimilarity among data elements by grouping and clustering such self-similar components. The four important patterns are demonstrated as Meiyu-Baiu, Changma, post-Changma, and dry-spell modes. It is found that SOM well captured the formation of East Asian monsoon trough during early summer and its northward migration together with enhanced convection over subtropical western Pacific and regionally intensive precipitation including Meiyu, Changma and Baiu. The classification of fundamental large scale spatial pattern and evolutionary history of nonlinear phases of monsoon ISO provides the source of predictability for extended-range forecast of summer precipitation.