Wet Refractivity Tomography with an Improved Kalman-Filter Method

An improved retrieval method, which uses the solution with a Gaussian constraint as the initial state variables for the Kalman Filtering （KF） method, was developed to retrieve the wet refractivity profiles from slant wet delays （SWD） extracted by the double-differenced （DD） GPS method. The accuracy of the GPS-derived SWDs is also tested in this study against the measurements of a water vapor radiometer （WVR） and a weather model. It is concluded that the GPS-derived SWDs have similar accuracy to those measured with WVR and are much higher in quality than those derived from the weather model used. The developed method is used to retrieve the 3D wet refractivity distribution in the Hong Kong region. The retrieved profiles agree well with the radiosonde observations, with a difference of about 4 mm km^- 1 in the low levels. The accurate profiles obtained with this method are applicable in a number of meteorological applications.     

HadISDH.extremes Part Ⅱ:Exploring Humid Heat Extremes Using Wet Bulb Temperature Indices

Heat events may be humid or dry.While several indices incorporate humidity,such combined indices obscure identification and exploration of heat events by their different humidity characteristics.The new HadISDH.extremes global gridded monitoring product uniquely provides a range of wet and dry bulb temperature extremes indices.Analysis of this new data product demonstrates its value as a tool for quantifying exposure to humid verses dry heat events.It also enables exploration into "stealth heat ...     

HadISDH.extremes Part Ⅰ:A Gridded Wet Bulb Temperature Extremes Index Product for Climate Monitoring

HadISDH.extremes is an annually updated global gridded monthly monitoring product of wet and dry bulb temperature–based extremes indices, from January 1973 to December 2022. Data quality, including spatial and temporal stability, is a key focus. The hourly data are quality controlled. Homogeneity is assessed on monthly means and used to score each gridbox according to its homogeneity rather than to apply adjustments. This enables user-specific screening for temporal stability and avoids errors f...     

Geographical Patterns and Temporal Variations of Regional Dry and Wet Heatwave Events in China during 1960–2008

Daily maximum/minimum temperatures and relative humidity records from 510 stations in China for the period 1960–2008 were used to investigate geographical patterns and temporal variations of heatwave (HW) events. Dry and wet HW events were compared by different definitions. Regionally, both dry and wet HW events are commonly located in southeastern China in the monsoon area, with neither type occurring in the northeast part of Northeast China and Southwest China, while the north-northwest region of the country experiences dry HW events and a few wet HW events. In the southeast of the country, site dry HW events occurred from April to September and mostly in June, while site wet HW events occurred from April to October and mostly in September. In total, 163 regional wet HW events were identified. The ten longest regional wet HW events lasted for more than 20 days, while the mean duration for 163 events was about 11 days. For the top ten events, six occurred after the 1990s, compared with four before this time. Global surface warming was clear since 1979, but the frequency and severity of regional wet HW events were relatively low in the 1980s, increasing remarkably since the 1990s. Possible reasons for this might be the strong interdecadal and interannual variations in regional atmospheric circulations, as well as water transport related directly to temperature contrasts in different regions, rather than global-mean temperature changes.     

Wet and Dry Monthly Anomalies Across the Mediterranean Basin and their Relationship with Circulation, 1860–1990

Summary  Anomalously wet and dry months in the Mediterranean basin were identified during the period 1860–1990 from observations at five stations located along the west-east axis of the Mediterranean basin (Barcelona, Florence, Malta, Athens and Jerusalem), supplemented by data from Madrid and Lisbon. Wet and dry months were characterized by hydric indices (HI) based on values of the standardized precipitation anomalies. Different patterns of anomalously wet and dry months were qualitatively identified on the basis of the spatial distributions of the hydric indices. The standardized sea level pressure values at 56 grid points in the domain 35° N–65° N, 30° W–40° E, for each of the anomalously wet and dry months, were subjected to T-mode Principal Component Analysis. The mean hydric indices associated with each principal component in each season are arranged in four distinct different spatial distributions for wet months and in three for dry months as following: (a) Mediterranean wide distribution of positive/negative anomalies; (b1) Strong positive anomalies to the west, but weaker to eastern Mediterranean; (b2) Strong negative anomalies to the west, but weaker or normal to the east; (c1) Strong positive anomalies to the west and to the east and weaker ones to the central Mediterranean; (c2) Negative anomalies to the west and east, but weaker, or normal, or positive to the central Mediterranean; (d) Relatively strong positive anomalies to the east and weaker ones to the western Mediterranean. Finally, monthly mean charts of standardized anomaly and mean sea level pressure are presented for each principalcomponent in each season. These charts are used to interpret the spatial distribution of the positive and negative precipitation anomalies in terms of mean circulation over the domain. Received December 10, 1998 Revised June 14, 1999     

Tropospheric Wet Refractivity Tomography Based on the BeiDou Satellite System简

This paper presents a novel approach for assessing the precision of the wet refractivity field using BDS （BeiDou navigation satellite system） simulations only,GPS,and BDS＋GPS for the Shenzhen and Hongkong GNSS network.The simulations are carried out by adding artificial noise to a real observation dataset.Instead of using the δ and σ parameters computed from slant wet delay,as in previous studies,we employ the Bias and RMS parameters,computed from the tomography results of total voxels,in order to obtain a more direct and comprehensive evaluation of the precision of the refractivity field determination.The results show that：（1） the precision of tropospheric wet refractivity estimated using BDS alone （only 9 satellites used） is basically comparable to that of GPS; （2） BDS＋GPS （as of current operation） may not be able to significantly improve the data＇s spatial density for the application of refractivity tomography; and （3） any slight increase in the precision of refractivity tomography,particularly in the lower atmosphere,bears great significance for any applications dependent on the Chinese operational meteorological service.     

Rainwater Chemistry and Wet Deposition over the Equatorial Forested Ecosystem of Zoétélé (Cameroon)

Within the framework of IDAF (IGAC DEBITS AFRICA: International GlobalAtmospheric Chemistry/DEposition of Biogeochemically Important TraceSpecies/Africa) network, data analysis is realised on precipitation chemical composition collected in Zoétélé, in Southern Cameroon. This station, located atabout 200 km from the Atlantic Ocean, is representative of a so-called `Evergreen Equatorial Forest' ecosystem. An automatic wet-only precipitation collector was operated at the station from 1996 to 2000. The rainfall regime, associated with eastward advection of moist and cool monsoon air masses, amounts to an average of 1700 mm/year. Inorganic and organic content of the precipitation were determined by IC in 234 rainfall events, representing a total 4,583 mm of rainfall from an overall of 7,100 mm.The mean annual precipitation chemistry and wet deposition fluxes characteristic of an African equatorial forest are quantified. Typical atmospheric gases and particles sources influence the precipitation chemical content and the associated deposition of chemical species. Indeed, hydrogen concentration is the highest (12.0 eq.L^–1) of the IDAF measurements, leading to acid rains with a low mean pH 4.92. The mineral species are dominated by nitrogenous compounds (NH₄ ⁺:10.5 and NO₃ ^–: 6.9 eq.L^–1), Ca²⁺ (8.9 eq.L^–1) and SO₄ ^{2 –} 5.1 eq.L^–1. Relationship between Ca^{2 +} and SO₄ ^{2 –} indicated aterrigeneous particulate source and an additional SO₄ ^{2 –} contributionprobably due to swamps and volcano emissions. Na⁺ and Cl^–concentrations, around 4.0 eq.L^–1, seem very low for this site,accounting for the marine source. Besides, strong correlations between NH₄ ⁺/K⁺/Cl^– indicate the biomass burning originof these species. Accordingly, precipitation chemistry in Zoétéléis influenced by three major sources: biogenic emissions from soil and forest ecosystems, biomass burning from savannah, and terrigenous signature from particles emissions of arid zones; and three minor sources: marine, volcano and anthropogenic. In spite of the relatively low concentration of all these elements, the wet deposition is quite significant due to the high precipitation levels, with for example a nitrogenous compounds deposition of 34 mmol.m^–2.yr^–1.     

Wet deposition of precipitation chemistry during 2005–2009 at a remote site (Nam Co Station) in central Tibetan Plateau

Chemical compositions of precipitation samples collected from a remote and high elevation site (Nam Co Station, 30°46.44??N, 90°59.31??E, 4730?m?a.s.l.) in central Tibetan Plateau (TP, hereafter) from August 2005 to August 2009 are investigated. During the study period, Ca²⁺ and HCO ₃ ^- have the highest concentrations among ions and are the dominant cation and anion in precipitation, taking 27.46?% and 30.84?% to the total ions respectively. Empirical Orthogonal Functions (EOFs) analyses reveal that crustal aerosol inputs significantly contributed to the loading of Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, SO ₄ ^2- and HCO ₃ ^- in precipitation, while lake salt plays a major source of K⁺ and Cl^-. Seasonal variations of ionic wet deposition fluxes show high values during monsoon seasons due to large precipitation amount. Among the cations, annual Ca²⁺ flux is the largest (86.26?eq hm^?2), Na⁺ and NH ₄ ⁺ fluxes are following. Among anions, HCO ₃ ^- has the highest flux (98.66?eq hm^?2) while that of NO ₃ ^- is the lowest. Annual wet deposition of nitrogen has varied considerably with the average value of 0.70?kg?ha^?1 a^?1 at Nam Co Station. About 80?% of total nitrogen flux occurs during the monsoon seasons when precipitation is concentrated, in which NH ₄ ⁺ and NO ₃ ^- contributed to 61?% and 39?% of the total nitrogen deposition. Thus, our ionic concentrations and wet deposition fluxes in precipitation can provide a useful dataset to assess atmospheric environment and its impacts on ecosystem in the inland TP.