Interpreting observed northern hemisphere snow trends with large ensembles of climate simulations

Simulated variability and trends in Northern Hemisphere seasonal snow cover are analyzed in large ensembles of climate integrations of the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Community Earth System Model. Two 40-member ensembles driven by historical radiative forcings are generated, one coupled to a dynamical ocean and the other driven by observed sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the period 1981–2010. The simulations reproduce many aspects of the observed climatology and variability of snow cover extent as characterized by the NOAA snow chart climate data record. Major features of the simulated snow water equivalent (SWE) also agree with observations (GlobSnow Northern Hemisphere SWE data record), although with a lesser degree of fidelity. Ensemble spread in the climate response quantifies the impact of natural climate variability in the presence and absence of coupling to the ocean. Both coupled and uncoupled ensembles indicate an overall decrease in springtime snow cover that is consistent with observations, although springtime trends in most climate realizations are weaker than observed. In the coupled ensemble, a tendency towards excessive warming in wintertime leads to a strong wintertime snow cover loss that is not found in observations. The wintertime warming bias and snow cover reduction trends are reduced in the uncoupled ensemble with observed SSTs. Natural climate variability generates widely different regional patterns of snow trends across realizations; these patterns are related in an intuitive way to temperature, precipitation and circulation trends in individual realizations. In particular, regional snow loss over North America in individual realizations is strongly influenced by North Pacific SST trends (manifested as Pacific Decadal Oscillation variability) and by sea level pressure trends in the North Pacific/North Atlantic sectors.     

中国季风区植被净初级生产力对东亚夏季风的响应机理研究

东亚夏季风可显著影响中国季风区气候变化,但是季风区植被净初级生产力(NPP)对夏季风气候变化的响应机理尚不明确。利用大气—植被相互作用模型(AVIM2)模拟了中国季风区植被NPP,分析了其与夏季风指数的相关关系,探讨了其对夏季风变化的响应机理。研究发现,我国南、北方植被对夏季风强度变化的响应方式和机理并不相同。强夏季风年北方植被NPP增加,而南方植被NPP减少。东亚夏季风对中国华北平原植被生长季NPP的作用主要是通过影响该地降水量实现的;京、津、冀地区植被NPP受东亚夏季风带来的气温和降水量变化的叠加影响,因而成为北方对夏季风变化最敏感的区域。东亚夏季风对我国南方江苏、安徽、湖南、湖北、江西植被NPP的作用是通过影响太阳辐射实现的,强夏季风导致太阳辐射减弱,从而使各省植被NPP减少。南方沿海的浙江和福建,强季风年带来的弱太阳辐射和低温是该地植被NPP减少的原因。广东、台湾植被NPP则主要受强夏季风带来的低温影响。     

半干旱区植被覆盖度对边界层气候热力影响的数值模拟

在陆－气相互作用的中小尺度系统研究中，水平非均匀下垫面的强迫作用是主要的物理过程。本文利用能量闭合二维陆面过程与大气边界层耦合模式，研究了我国西北半干旱地区（３８°Ｎ，１０５°Ｅ）夏季下垫面物理特征的变化对区域边界层气候的影响。结果表明：土壤湿度、植被覆盖度对局地环流和区域边界层气候的形成起着决定性的作用。模拟结果揭示了在半干旱地区大面积植树造林、提高植被覆盖度，可涵养土壤水分，改善局地生态环境，是人工持续改造干旱、半干旱荒漠地区局地气候的重要途径。     

Effects of crop growth and development on regional climate: a case study over East Asian monsoon area

In this study, the CERES phenological growth and development functions were implemented into the regional climate model, RegCM3 to give a model denoted as RegCM3_CERES. This model was used to represent interactions between regional climate and crop growth processes. The effects of crop growth and development processes on regional climate were then studied based on two 20-year simulations over the East Asian monsoon area conducted using the original regional climate model RegCM3, and the coupled RegCM3_CERES model. The numerical experiments revealed that incorporating the crop growth and development processes into the regional climate model reduced the root mean squared error of the simulated precipitation by 2.2–10.7% over north China, and the simulated temperature by 5.5–30.9% over the monsoon region in eastern China. Comparison of the simulated results obtained using RegCM3_CERES and RegCM3 showed that the most significant changes associated with crop modeling were the changes in leaf area index which in turn modify the aspects of surface energy and water partitions and lead to moderate changes in surface temperature and, to some extent, rainfall. Further analysis revealed that a robust representation of seasonal changes in plant growth and developmental processes in the regional climate model changed the surface heat and moisture fluxes by modifying the vegetation characteristics, and that these differences in simulated surface fluxes resulted in different structures of the boundary layer and ultimately affected the convection. The variations in leaf area index and fractional vegetation cover changed the distribution of evapotranspiration and heat fluxes, which could potentially lead to anomalies in geopotential height, and consequently influenced the overlying atmospheric circulation. These changes would result in redistribution of the water and energy through advection. Nevertheless, there are significant uncertainties in modeling how monsoon dynamics responds to crop modeling and more research is needed.     

The Influence of Land Surface Changes on Regional Climate in Northwest China

Land surface changes effect the regional climate due to the complex coupling of land-atmosphere interactions. From 1995 to 2000, a decrease in the vegetation density and an increase in ground-level thermodynamic activity has been documented by multiple data sources in Northwest China, including meteorological, reanalysis from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts （ECMWF）, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration＇s （NOAA） Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer （AVHRR） and TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder （TOVS） satellite remote sensing data. As the ground-level thermodynamic activity increases, humid air from the surrounding regions converge toward desert （and semi-desert） regions, causing areas with high vegetation cover to become gradually more arid. Furthermore, land surface changes in Northwest China are responsible for a decrease in total cloud cover, a decline in the fraction of low and middle clouds, an increase in high cloud cover （due to thermodynamic activity） and other regional climatic adaptations. It is proposed that, beginning in 1995, these cloud cover changes contributed to a ＂green- house＂ effect, leading to the rapid air temperature increases and other regional climate impacts that have been observed over Northwest China.     

COSMO-CLM2: a new version of the COSMO-CLM model coupled to the Community Land Model

This study presents an evaluation of a new biosphere-atmosphere Regional Climate Model. COSMO-CLM² results from the coupling between the non-hydrostatic atmospheric model COSMO-CLM version 4.0 and the Community Land Model version 3.5 (CLM3.5). In this coupling, CLM3.5 replaces a simpler land surface parameterization (TERRA_ML) used in the standard COSMO-CLM. Compared to TERRA_ML, CLM3.5 comprises a more complete representation of land surface processes including hydrology, biogeophysics, biogeochemistry and vegetation dynamics. Historical climate simulations over Europe with COSMO-CLM and with the new COSMO-CLM² are evaluated against various data products. The simulated climate is found to be substantially affected by the coupling with CLM3.5, particularly in summer. Radiation fluxes as well as turbulent fluxes at the surface are found to be more realistically represented in COSMO-CLM². This subsequently leads to improvements of several aspects of the simulated climate (cloud cover, surface temperature and precipitation). We show that a better partitioning of turbulent fluxes is the central factor allowing for the better performances of COSMO-CLM² over COSMO-CLM. Despite these improvements, some model deficiencies still remain, most notably a substantial underestimation of surface net shortwave radiation. Overall, these results highlight the importance of land surface processes in shaping the European climate and the benefit of using an advanced land surface model for regional climate simulations.     

Fluctuation of farming-pastoral ecotone in association with changing East Asia monsoon climate

As a monsoon climate dominated region, East Asia has a high rate of climate variation. Previous studies demonstrated that the East Asian monsoon had weakened since the end of 1970’s; however, contrary to the climatic trend, a common scenario of advancing farming-pastoral ecotone (FPE) has been proposed. The objective of this study is to analyze land surface changes in association with monsoon climate variability over past 25 years in East Asia. A combination of intensive ground survey of vegetation and land use, meteorological data, and remote sensing are used to quantify the relationship between vegetation and climate and to analyze the FPE fluctuations associated with changing climate. Field precipitation data from 1981 to 2005, are used to represent climate variations and to delineate the FPE boundary. NDVI data are used to evaluate greenness-precipitation linkages by vegetation type and to create land cover maps depicting spatial pattern fluctuations of the FPE. This study demonstrates that: (1) There was no persistent northwest shifting trend of either the FPE boundary or vegetation cover during last 25 years. (2) Time integrated NDVI (TI-NDVI) varies with precipitation, and the maximum or minimum NDVI may be only sensitive to precipitation for areas with mean annual precipitation lower than approximately 200 mm. (3) A significant relationship exists between NDVI and precipitation variations for areas with mean annual precipitation greater than approximately 300 mm, especially the ecotone with a ΔNDVI of 0.122?±?0.032. (4) The “advances” of FPE closely mimic fluctuations of precipitation in East Asia.     

Influences of Climate Change and Its Interannual Variability on Surface Energy Fluxes from 1948 to 2000

Understanding changes in land surface processes over the past several decades requires knowledge of trends and interannual variability in surface energy fluxes in response to climate change. In our study, the Community Land Model version 3.5 (CLM3.5), driven by the latest updated hybrid reanalysis-observational surface climate data from Princeton University, is used to obtain global distributions of surface energy fluxes during 1948 to 2000. Based on the climate data and simulation results, long-term trends and interannual variability (IAV) of both climatic variables and surface energy fluxes for this span of 50+ years are derived and analyzed. Regions with strong long-term trends and large IAV for both climatic variables and surface energy fluxes are identified. These analyses reveal seasonal variations in the spatial patterns of climate and surface fluxes; however, spatial patterns in trends and IAV for surface energy fluxes over the past ～50 years do not fully correspond to those for climatic variables, indicating complex responses of land surfaces to changes in the climatic forcings.     

Using idealized snow forcing to test teleconnections with the Indian summer monsoon in the Hadley Centre GCM

Anomalous heavy snow during winter or spring has long been regarded as a possible precursor of deficient Indian monsoon rainfall during the subsequent summer. However previous work in this field is inconclusive, in terms of the mechanism that communicates snow anomalies to the monsoon summer, and even the region from which snow has the most impact. In this study we explore these issues in coupled and atmosphere-only versions of the Hadley Centre model. A 1050-year control integration of the HadCM3 coupled model, which well represents the seasonal cycle of snow cover over the Eurasian continent, is analysed and shows evidence for weakened monsoons being preceded by strong snow forcing (in the absence of ENSO) over either the Himalaya/Tibetan Plateau or north/west Eurasia regions. However, empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis of springtime interannual variability in snow depth shows the leading mode to have opposite signs between these two regions, suggesting that competing mechanisms may be possible. To determine the dominant region, ensemble integrations are carried out using HadAM3, the atmospheric component of HadCM3, and a variety of anomalous snow forcing initial conditions obtained from the control integration of the coupled model. Forcings are applied during spring in separate experiments over the Himalaya/Tibetan Plateau and north/west Eurasia regions, in conjunction with climatological SSTs in order to avoid the direct effects of ENSO. With the aid of idealized forcing conditions in sensitivity tests, we demonstrate that forcing from the Himalaya region is dominant in this model via a Blanford-type mechanism involving reduced surface sensible heat and longwave fluxes, reduced heating of the troposphere over the Tibetan Plateau and consequently a reduced meridional tropospheric temperature gradient which weakens the monsoon during early summer. Snow albedo is shown to be key to the mechanism, explaining around 50% of the perturbation in sensible heating over the Tibetan Plateau, and accounting for the majority of cooling through the troposphere.     

Rapid vegetation responses and feedbacks amplify climate model response to snow cover changes

We investigate the response of a climate system model to two different methods for estimating snow cover fraction. In the control case, snow cover fraction changes gradually with snow depth; in the alternative scenarios (one with prescribed vegetation and one with dynamic vegetation), snow cover fraction initially increases with snow depth almost twice as fast as the control method. In cases where the vegetation was fixed (prescribed), the choice of snow cover parameterization resulted in a limited model response. Increased albedo associated with the high snow caused some moderate localized cooling (3–5°C), mostly at very high latitudes (>70°N) and during the spring season. During the other seasons, however, the cooling was not very extensive. With dynamic vegetation the change is much more dramatic. The initial increases in snow cover fraction with the new parameterization lead to a large-scale southward retreat of boreal vegetation, widespread cooling, and persistent snow cover over much of the boreal region during the boreal summer. Large cold anomalies of up to 15°C cover much of northern Eurasia and North America and the cooling is geographically extensive in the northern hemisphere extratropics, especially during the spring and summer seasons. This study demonstrates the potential for dynamic vegetation within climate models to be quite sensitive to modest forcing. This highlights the importance of dynamic vegetation, both as an amplifier of feedbacks in the climate system and as an essential consideration when implementing adjustments to existing model parameters and algorithms.     

Evaluation of the WAMME model surface fluxes using results from the AMMA land-surface model intercomparison project

The West African monsoon (WAM) circulation and intensity have been shown to be influenced by the land surface in numerous numerical studies using regional scale and global scale atmospheric climate models (RCMs and GCMs, respectively) over the last several decades. The atmosphere–land surface interactions are modulated by the magnitude of the north–south gradient of the low level moist static energy, which is highly correlated with the steep latitudinal gradients of the vegetation characteristics and coverage, land use, and soil properties over this zone. The African Multidisciplinary Monsoon Analysis (AMMA) has organised comprehensive activities in data collection and modelling to further investigate the significance land–atmosphere feedbacks. Surface energy fluxes simulated by an ensemble of land surface models from AMMA Land-surface Model Intercomparison Project (ALMIP) have been used as a proxy for the best estimate of the “real world” values in order to evaluate GCM and RCM simulations under the auspices of the West African Monsoon Modelling Experiment (WAMME) project, since such large-scale observations do not exist. The ALMIP models have been forced in off-line mode using forcing based on a mixture of satellite, observational, and numerical weather prediction data. The ALMIP models were found to agree well over the region where land–atmosphere coupling is deemed to be most important (notably the Sahel), with a high signal to noise ratio (generally from 0.7 to 0.9) in the ensemble and a inter-model coefficient of variation between 5 and 15%. Most of the WAMME models simulated spatially averaged net radiation values over West Africa which were consistent with the ALMIP estimates, however, the partitioning of this energy between sensible and latent heat fluxes was significantly different: WAMME models tended to simulate larger (by nearly a factor of two) monthly latent heat fluxes than ALMIP. This results due to a positive precipitation bias in the WAMME models and a northward displacement of the monsoon in most of the GCMs and RCMs. Another key feature not found in the WAMME models is peak seasonal latent heat fluxes during the monsoon retreat (approximately a month after the peak precipitation rates) from soil water stores. This is likely related to the WAMME northward bias of the latent heat flux gradient during the WAM onset.     

东亚夏季风边缘摆动区陆面能量时空分布规律及其与气候环境的关系

东亚夏季风边缘摆动区既是气候敏感区,也是生态脆弱区和农牧交错带,其特殊陆面能量空间分布格局和演变特征对理解该区域天气和气候变化有重要意义。然而受限于陆面观测资料缺乏,对这部分陆面特征的认识仍非常有限。通过对34 a陆面模拟集成产品的分析,发现夏季风边缘摆动区内潜热和感热通量在空间上表现出明显的过渡特征,由摆动区外的相对均衡状态进入到摆动区内的“突变转换”;陆面能量平衡具有明显的区域特征,能量平衡各分量在纬向和经向都表现出了“阶梯型”的变化。就演变而言,区域平均感热和潜热没有表现出规律性的递减或递增趋势,波动幅度在±20%以内,但在20世纪末存在一个较为明显的摆动相位转换:1997年之前夏季风边缘摆动区夏季风相对活跃,潜热通量总体高于其气候值而感热通量则低于其气候值,之后出现了相反的现象。此外,区内感热和潜热通量对气候环境干湿性质非常敏感,两者存在明显的线性关系。      

春季欧亚大陆积雪对春夏季南北半球大气质量交换的可能影响

本文基于春季欧亚雪盖资料与大气再分析资料的奇异值分解(SVD)分析结果,结合数值试验,研究了春季欧亚大陆积雪变化与春、夏季南北半球大气质量交换的联系。研究表明,当春季欧亚积雪异常偏多时,同期欧亚大陆中高纬大范围地区的地面气温异常偏低,这种冷却效应可能持续至夏季,同时,冷空气的堆积造成了欧亚大陆地表气压(气柱大气质量)的增加,并且对应了夏季北半球大气总质量的异常上升,而南半球大气质量却明显下降。分析发现,春季欧亚积雪异常与夏季南北半球际大气质量涛动存在显著的滞后相关,而且前者还与同期及后期包括索马里急流和对流层上部80°E~120°E区域高空急流在内的多处越赤道气流变化联系密切。从数值模拟结果分析发现,以改变春季初始积雪状况作为驱动,欧亚大陆中高纬地区的低层大气环流出现了显著响应,即当积雪增加时,同期及其后夏季地面气温显著降低,并且冷异常区域对应着气柱质量的异常升高。     

Effects of Land Use on the Climate of the United States

Land use practices have replaced much of the natural needleleaf evergreen, broadleaf deciduous, and mixed forests of the Eastern United States with crops. To a lesser extent, the natural grasslands in the Central United States have also been replaced with crops. Simulations with a land surface process model coupled to an atmospheric general circulation model show that the climate of the United States with modern vegetation is significantly different from that with natural vegetation. Three important climate signals caused by modern vegetation are: (1) 1 °C cooling over the Eastern United States and 1 °C warming over the Western United States in spring; (2) summer cooling of up to 2 °C over a wide region of the Central United States; and (3) moistening of the near-surface atmosphere by 0.5 to 1.5 g kg^-1over much of the United States in spring and summer. Although individual months show large, statistically significant differences in precipitation due to land-use practices, these differences average out over the course of the 3-month seasons. These changes in surface temperature and moisture extend well into the atmosphere, up to 500 mb, and affect the boundary layer and atmospheric circulation. The altered climate is due to reduced surface roughness, reduced leaf and stem area index, reduced stomatal resistance, and increased surface albedo with modern vegetation compared to natural vegetation. The climate change caused by land use practices is comparable to other well known anthropogenic climate forcings. For example, it would take 100 to 175 years at the current, observed rate of summer warming over the United States to offset the cooling from deforestation. The summer sulfate aerosol forcing completely offsets the greenhouse forcing over the Eastern United States. Similarly, the climatic effect of North American deforestation, with extensive summer cooling, further offsets the greenhouse forcing.     

青藏高原冬春季积雪异常对中国春夏季降水的影响

利用1956年12月～1998年12月共42a，青藏高原及其附近地区78个积雪观测站的雪深和我国160站月降水的距平资料，分析了其气候特征，并用SVD方法分析了冬春季积雪异常与春夏季我国降水异常的关系。用区域气候模式RegCM2模拟了青藏高原积雪异常的气候效应并检验了诊断分析的结果。分析表明，雪深异常，尤其是冬季雪深异常是影响中国降水的一个因子。研究证明，高原冬季雪深异常对后期中国区域降水的影响比春季雪深异常的影响更为重要。数值模拟的结果表明，高原雪深和雪盖的正异常推迟了东亚夏季风的爆发日期，减弱了季风强度，造成华南和华北降水减少，而长江和淮河流域降水增加。冬季雪深异常比冬季雪盖异常和春季雪深异常对降水的影响更为显著。机理分析指出，高原及其邻近地区的积雪异常首先通过融雪改变土壤湿度和地表温度，从而改变了地面到大气的热量、水汽和辐射通量。由此所引起的大气环流变化又反过来影响下垫面的特征和通量输送。在湿土壤和大气之间，这样一种长时间的相互作用是造成后期气候变化的关键过程。与干土壤和大气的相互作用过程有本质差别。     

Arctic radiation deficit and climate variability

One of the generally accepted climatic effects of stratospheric aerosol injection is the reduction of the global radiation in high latitudes by an order of 5% during El Chichon type eruptions. To test the effect of a high-latitude radiation deficit on global climate, a GCM experiment was performed with the ECMWF T21 atmosphere general circulation model (AGCM). The results provide physically-consistent evidence that this radiation deficit is a possible external forcing factor for severe climatic anomalies not only in the area directly affected by the reduced radiation, but also in the tropics. The most important factor is the creation of enhanced snow cover in regions of Asia that are distant from the location of the introduced radiation anomaly. The simulated results show certain features that are well known from observations in weak monsoon years, i.e. the weakened easterly jet in the upper troposphere over northern India, prolonged winter monsoon conditions, and prevailing anticyclonic vorticity anomalies over the entire Indian summer monsoon region. Over the western Pacific at the end of boreal winter (May), increased convective activity leads to a negative Walker circulation anomaly with westerly wind anomalies near the surface and easterly anomalies in the upper troposphere. This is known as one of the most important anomalies at the beginning of an El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) event.This paper was presented at the International Conference on Modelling of Global Climate Change and Variability, held in Hamburg 11–15 September 1989 under the auspices of the Meteorological Institute of the University of Hamburg and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology. Guest Editor for these papers is Dr. L. Dümenil     

Simulated impacts of afforestation in East China monsoon region as modulated by ocean variability

Using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate System Model Version 3.5, this paper examines the climatic effects of afforestation in the East China monsoon region with a focus on land–atmosphere interactions and the modulating influence of ocean variability. In response to afforestation, the local surface air temperature significantly decreases in summer and increases in winter. The summer cooling is attributed to enhanced evapotranspiration from increased tree cover. During winter, afforestation induces greater roughness and weaker winds over the adjacent coastal ocean, leading to diminished latent heat flux and increased sea-surface temperature (SST). The enhanced SST supports greater atmospheric water vapor, which is accompanied by anomalous wind, and transported into the East China monsoon region. The increase in atmospheric water vapor favors more cloud cover and precipitation, especially in the eastern afforestation region. Furthermore, the increase in atmospheric water vapor and cloud cover produce a greenhouse effect, raising the wintertime surface air temperature. By comparing simulations in which ocean temperature are either fixed or variable, we demonstrate that a significant hydrologic response in East China to afforestation only occurs if ocean temperatures are allowed to vary and the oceanic source of moisture to the continent is enhanced.     

On the atmospheric dynamical responses to land-use change in East Asian monsoon region

This study aims at (1) exploring dominant atmospheric dynamical processes which are responsible for climate model-simulated land-use impacts on Asian monsoon; and (2) assessing uncertainty in such model simulations due to their skills in simulating detailed monsoon circulations in the region. Firstly, results from a series of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre (BMRC) global model simulations of land-use vegetation changes (LUC) in China are analysed. The model showed consistent signals of changes in atmospheric low-level vertical profile and regional circulations responding to LUC. In northern winter, the model-simulated rainfall reduction and surface cooling are associated with an enhanced southward penetration of dry and cold air mass, which impedes warm and humid air reaching the region for generating cold-front rainfall. In its summer, an enhanced cyclonic circulation responding to LUC further blocks the northeast penetration of southwestly summer monsoon flow into the region and results in rainfall decreases and a surface warming. Secondly, we have explored uncertainties in the proposed mechanism operating in the global model. By comparing its results with a set of high-resolution regional model simulations using the same vegetation datasets, it reveals similar changes in winter rainfall but opposite features in summer rainfall responses. In the global model, there is a cyclonic low-level circulation pattern over the South China Sea and adjacent region, an unsatisfactory feature commonly seen in other global climate models. With the reduction in surface roughness following LUC, such a deficiency becomes more prominent which further results in a weakened south/southwestly summer monsoon flow and rainfall reduction. In contrast, in the regional model, its southwestly summer monsoon flow is further enhanced due to the same process as reduced surface roughness. The enhanced monsoon flow further pushes the East Asian monsoon rainfall belt more northward and increases summer rainfall in the Yangtze River region. This study highlights the need for better monsoon simulations in climate models to produce reliable climate change projections in the region.     

中国区域陆面覆盖变化的气候效应模拟研究

基于MODIS和CLCV陆面覆盖资料,利用区域气候模式RegCM4分别进行两组24年（1978-2001年）的数值模拟试验,研究中国区域陆面覆盖变化对区域气候的影响。结果表明,以荒漠化和植被退化为主要特征的陆面覆盖变化通过改变陆面能量、水分平衡与大尺度环流进而对气候要素产生重要影响。夏季,中国南方地区普遍降温,季风边缘区及藏北高原气温升高,降水减少;季风边缘区与西北地区气温年际波动加剧;内蒙古中东部地区西南风增强,进而水汽输送增强,一定程度上增加了该地区降水。冬季,中国东部地区偏北气流增强,更多干燥冷空气南下,使得黄河以南地区降水减少、气温降低。     

MM5 Simulations of the China Regional Climate During the Mid-Holocene

Using a regional climate model MM5 nested with an atmospheric global climate model CCM3, a series of simulations and sensitivity experiments have been performed to investigate responses of the mid-Holocene climate to different factors over China. Model simulations of the mid-Holocene climate change, especially the precipitation change, are in good agreement with the geologic records. Model results show that relative to the present day (PD) climate, the temperature over China increased in the mid-Holocene, and the increase in summer is more than that in winter. The summer monsoon strengthened over the eastern China north of 30°N, and the winter monsoon weakened over the whole eastern China; the precipitation increased over the west part of China, North China, and Northeast China, and decreased over the south part of China.The sensitive experiments indicate that changes in the global climate (large-scale circulation background),vegetation, earth orbital parameter, and CO2 concentration led to the mid-Holocene climate change relative to the PD climate, and changes in precipitation, temperature and wind fields were mainly affected by change of the large-scale circulation background, especially with its effect on precipitation exceeding 50%. Changes in vegetation resulted in increasing of temperature in both winter and summer over China, especially over eastern China; furthermore, its effect on precipitation in North China accounts for 25% of the total change.Change in the orbital parameter produced the larger seasonal variation of solar radiation in the mid-Holocene than the PD, which resulted in declining of temperature in winter and increasing in summer; and also had an important effect on precipitation with an effect equivalent to vegetation in Northeast China and North China. During the mid-Holocene, CO2 content was only 280×10-6, which reduced temperature in a very small magnitude. Therefore, factors affecting the mid-Holocene climate change over China from strong to weak are large-scale circulation pattern, vegetation, earth orbital parameter, and CO2 concentration.