Regional characteristics and exploitation potential of atmospheric water resources in China

The atmospheric water resources (AWR) in China have evident regional characteristics. In order to scientifically and rationally exploit the AWR in different regions of China, we divided China into seven regions based on the ERA-5, the CloudSat data, and so on. Such characteristics as water vapour, cloud characteristics, cloud water resources (CWR), precipitation efficiency of hydrometeors (PEh), and the exploitation potential of CWR were studied in this article. Some results in summer are shown. (a) There were relatively more precipitation, richer water vapour, stronger water vapour transport and convergence, more cloud covers, and relatively larger zones of rich total column cloud water content in China. Therefore, it is of important significance to study AWR in summer in China. (b) In respect of single-layer clouds, low clouds were in the majority over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and the southwest China (SW), medium clouds were predominant over the northern regions, and high clouds existed more over the central region (CR) and the southeast China (SE). The liquid water content (LWC) at each height of cloud was less than 800 mg center dot m(-3) and decreased gradually with the increase in height in China. The convective development heights, the LWC at each altitude, and the frequencies of less LWCs over the northern regions were lower than those over the southern regions. The ice water content (IWC) at each height of cloud was less than 250 mg center dot m(-3), and more than 96% of them were less than 100 mg center dot m(-3). (c) CWR over the northeast China (NE), north China (NC), and CR were relatively rich, but with relatively low PEh, so there was relatively higher exploitation potential of CWR in these regions, followed by the northwest China (NW) and TP, and there was still some exploitation potential of CWR in SE and SW.