Correlation Wavelet Analysis for Linkage between Winter Precipitation and Three Oceanic Sources in Iran

This paper aims to find the possible relationships between winter precipitation (December, January, February; DJF) in Iran with three oceanic sources through the correlation wavelet analysis by applying the continuous wavelet transform (CWT), the cross-wavelet transform (XWT), and the wavelet transform coherence (WTC). The sources in the North Atlantic Ocean (30 degrees W-70 degrees W, 10 degrees N-30 degrees N), the South Pacific Ocean (80 degrees W-120 degrees W, 20 degrees S-40 degrees S) and the Indian Ocean (50 degrees E-100 degrees E, 10 degrees S-40 degrees S) were selected using Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC > 0.5) that can represent the possible relationships between Iran's winter precipitations with the oceanic sea surface temperature (SST) anomaly. The monthly gridded precipitation and SST data with a 2.5 degrees x 2.5 degrees resolution were evaluated from 1984 to 2019 to achieve this goal. The XWT results of precipitation and SST anomaly showed that the 8-16 months period is the most effective and predominant period between the South Pacific Ocean and 81% of all the precipitation zones. WTC results for the North Atlantic Ocean and 72% of all the precipitation zones showed periods of 4-8 (36%) and 16-32 (36%) months as the dominant duration. Despite the proximity of the Indian Ocean to the precipitation zones, there is no significant causal relationship between them, based on the XWT results. However, due to Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), the 4-8 months period (45%) was seen between the Indian Ocean and some precipitation zones, based on WTC results.

Automated summary

This study aims to explore the possible relationships between winter precipitation in Iran and three oceanic sources using correlation wavelet analysis, finding that the 8-16 month period from the South Pacific Ocean has a significant impact on most precipitation zones in Iran, while the North Atlantic Ocean shows dominant periods of 4-8 and 16-32 months for some precipitation zones, and the Indian Ocean does not exhibit a significant causal relationship.