MESOSCALE INSTABILITY OF A BAROCLINIC BASIC FLOW—PART II:TRANSVERSAL INSTABILITY

This is the second part of “Mesoscale Instability of a Baroclinic Basic Flow” which discusses theinstability of a basic flow against mesoscale perturbations of transversal type.A bi-mode instability spectrum is obtained by generalizing the Eady model to ageostrophic regime inan f-plane:Eady modes present at the synoptic and subsynoptic scales,while the ageostrophic baroclinicmesoscale modes present at the inertial scales of a few tens to hundreds kilometers.The mesoscale modeis featured by an asymmetric "eat eyes" pattern in the vertical cross section and by an alternative distri-bution of divergence and vorticity in the horizontal direction.The growth rates of the mesoscale modesare about four times larger than those of Eady modes in magnitudes for the same wind profile.The majorenergy source for development both Eady mode and mesoscale mode is the baroclinic available energy storedin the rotational basic flow.     

Roles of Mesoscale Terrain and Latent Heat Release in Typhoon Precipitation： A Numerical Case Study

The mesoscale orographic effects on typhoon Aere＇s precipitation are simulated using an Advanced Regional Eta-coordinate Model （AREM） version 3.0. In particular, the effects of the latent heat release are studied by two comparable experiments： with and without condensational heating. The results show that the typhoon rainfall is tripled by the southeastern China mesoscale terrain, and the condensational heating is responsible for at least half of the increase. One role of the latent heat release is to warm the atmosphere, leading to a depression of the surface pressure, which then causes a larger pressure difference in the zonal direction. This pressure gradient guides the water vapour to flow into the foothills, which in turn amplifies the water vapour flux divergence amplified, causing the typhoon rainfall to increase eventually. The other role of the latent heat release is to make the convection more organized, resulting in a relatively smaller rain area and stronger precipitation.     

Mesoscale Vegetation-Breeze Circulations and Their Impact on Boundary Layer Structures at Night

The impact of well watered mesoscale wheat over mid-latitude arid areas on mesoscale boundary layer structures (MBLS) and climate has been investigated in the study .using a mesoscale biophysical, meteorological model (BM) developed in the current study. The BM is composed of six modules:mesoscale atmospheric module, soil module, vegetation module, snow-atmosphere interaction module, underlying surface meteorology module and subgrid scale flux parameterization module. The six modules constitute an interacting system by supplying boundary conditions to each other.The investigation indicates that a horizontal pressure gradient associated with mesoscale perturbations in temperature and humidity is created during the day, which results from more water transpired from the vegetation canopy (VC) and evaporated from underlying wet soil. Non-classical mesoscale circulations (called as vegetation-breeze) are forced by the pressure perturbations with wind speeds about 5 m / s, flowing from the VC to the adjacent     

LINEAR AND NONLINEAR BAROTROPIC INSTABILITY

Based on a non-frictional and non-divergent nonlinear barotropic vorticity equation and its solutions oftravelling waves,the criteria for linear and nonlinear barotropic instability are gained respectively at an equilibriumpoint of the equation on a phase plane.The linear and nonlinear analytical solutions to instability waves arealso found.The computational results show that if their amplitudes are equal at the initial time,the amplitudeincrements of nonlinear instable barotropic wave are always less than those of linear instable barotropic wave.The nonlinear effects can slow down the exponential growth of linear instability.The time needed for makingthe amplitude double that of initial time by instabilities,is about 6h for linear instability and about 18h fornonlinear instability,the latter is in agreement with the observations in the real atmosphere.     

ON THE SYMMETRIC DEVELOPMENT OF MESOSCALE DISTURBANCES

The effects of baroclinic basic flow on a paralleled mesoscale disturbance development are investigated.By using the WKB method,two-dimensional perturbation equations with the anelastic approximation areanalyzed.The result indicates that the symmetric development of a mesoscale disturbance is due to the in-homogeneous thermal wind deviations and unstationality of the basic field.     

Adjoint-based Sensitivity Analysis of a Mesoscale Low on the Mei-yu Front and Its Implications for Adaptive Observation

An adjoint sensitivity analysis of one mesoscale low on the mei-yu Front is presented in this paper. The sensitivity gradient of simulation error dry energy with respect to initial analysis is calculated. And after verifying the ability of a tangent linear and adjoint model to describe small perturbations in the nonlinear model, the sensitivity gradient analysis is implemented in detail. The sensitivity gradient with respect to different physical fields are not uniform in intensity, simulation error is most sensitive to the vapor mixed ratio. The localization and consistency are obvious characters of horizontal distribution of the sensitivity gradient, which is useful for the practical implementation of adaptive observation. The sensitivity region tilts to the northwest with height increasing; the singular vector calculation proves that this tilting characterizes a quick-growing structure, which denotes that using the leading singular vectors to decide the adaptive observation region is proper. When connected with simulation of a mesoscale low on the mei-yu Front, the sensitivity gradient has the following physical characters： the obvious sensitive region is mesoscale, concentrated in the middle-upper troposphere, and locates around the key system; and the sensitivity gradient of different physical fields correlates dynamically.     

Sensitivity Experiments of an Eastward-Moving Southwest Vortex to Initial Perturbations

Whether the initial conditions contain pronounced mesoscale signals is important to the simulation of the southwest vortex. An eastward-moving southwest vortex is simulated using the PSU/NCAR MM5. A modest degree of success is achieved, but the most serious failure is that the formation and displacement of the simulated vortex in its early phase are about fourteen hours later than the observed vortex. Considering the relatively sparse data on the mesoscale vortex and in an attempt to understand the cause of the forecast failure, an adjoint model is used to examine the sensitivity of the southwest vortex to perturbations of initial conditions. The adjoint sensitivity indicates how small perturbations of model variables at the initial time in the model domain can influence the vortex. A large sensitivity for zonal wind is located under 400 hPa, a large sensitivity for meridional wind is located under 500 hPa, a large sensitivity for temperature is located between 500 and 900 hPa, and almost all of the large sensitivity areas are located in the southwestern area. Based on the adjoint sensitivity results, perturbations are added to initial conditions to improve the simulation of the southwest vortex. The results show that the initial conditions with perturbations can successfully simulate the formation and displacement of the vortex; the wind perturbations added to the initial conditions appear to be a cyclone circulation under the middle level of the atmosphere in the southwestern area with an anticyclone circulation to its southwest; a water vapor perturbation added to initial conditions can strengthen the vortex and the speed of its displacement.     

Optimal Perturbations Triggering Weather Regime Transitions: Onset of Blocking and Strong Zonal Flow

In this paper, the approach proposed by Mu and Jiang (2008) to obtain the optimal perturbations for triggering blocking (BL) onset is generalized to seek the optimal perturbations triggering onset of the strong zonal flow (SZF) regime. The BL and SZF regimes are characterized by the same dipole-like anomaly pattern superposed on the climatological flow, but with opposite sign. The results show that this method is also superior at finding the initial optimal perturbations triggering onset of the SZF regime, especially in the medium range. Furthermore, by comparing the two kinds of conditional nonlinear optimal perturbations (CNOPs) trig-gering onset of BL and SZF regimes, we find that in the linear approximation, there is symmetry in the sensitivities for BL and SZF onset, and the perturbations that optimally trigger onset of BL and SZF regimes at times when linear approximation is valid are also characterized by the same spatial pattern but with opposite sign. Whereas when the optimization time is extended to 6 days, the two kinds of CNOPs lose their out-of-phase behavior. The nonlinearity results in an asymmetry between the sensitivity for BL and SZF onset. Additionally, we find that the optimal perturbations have one common property, which is that the second baroclinic mode contributes more to the initial perturbations while the barotropic mode dominates the final structures.     

Diagnostic Analysis of the Quasi-Balanced Flow of a Mesoscale Vortex During the 12 June 2008 Guangxi Rainstorm

By using the high-resolution observation data and MM5 model simulation data, the analysis on the 12 June 2008 Guangxi flash-flood rainstorm shows that the associated major mesoscale weather system of this event is a quasi-stationary mesoscale vortex, which resulted from the interaction between the midlatitude synoptic-scale waves in the westerly belt and the low-latitude warm-moist flow under the terrain effect. The genesis, development, and movement of the mesoscale vortex have significant impacts on the intensity and persistence of the severe precipitation from the Guangxi flash-flood rainstorm. This vortex is characterized by the coexistence of strong vorticity and divergence with the same order of magnitude. Well organized, deep, and moist convection was observed for a long period of time, and was produced by the interaction between the mesoscale vortex and the gravity waves. The latter was generated by the terrain effect and the ageostrophic effect of high winds in the low-level jet. According to the quasi-balanced dynamical theory, quasi-balanced flow must have existed in the mesoscale motions with both divergent and rotational winds. Thus, based on the diagnosis of the quasi-balanced flow, the PV-ωinversion method is employed to analyze the organized moist convection. The results show that 50%-70% of the vertical circulation in the rainstorm areas was quasi-balanced, so the quasi-balanced flow could well reflect features of the strong vertical motions associated with the coexistence of vorticity and divergence during this event.     

A Diagnostic and Numerical Study on a Rainstorm in South China Induced by a Northward-Propagating Tropical System

A strong cyclonic wind perturbation generated in the northern South China Sea （SCS） moved northward quickly and developed into a mesoscale vortex in southwest Guangdong Province, and then merged with a southward-moving shear line from mid latitudes in the period of 21-22 May 2006, during which three strong mesoscale convective systems （MCSs） formed and brought about torrential rain or even cloudburst in South China. With the 1° ×1° NCEP （National Centers for Environment Prediction） reanalysis data and the Weather and Research Forecast （WRF） mesoscale model, a numerical simulation, a potential vorticity inversion analysis, and some sensitivity experiments are carried out to reveal the formation mechanism of this rainfall event. In the meantime, conventional observations, satellite images, and the WRF model outputs are also utilized to perform a preliminary dynamic and thermodynamic diagnostic analysis of the rainstorm systems. It is found that the torrential rain occurred in favorable synoptic conditions such as warm and moist environment, low lifting condensation level, and high convective instability. The moisture transport by strong southerly winds associated with the rapid northward advance of the cyclonic wind perturbation over the northern SCS provided the warm and moist condition for the formation of the excessive rain. Under the dynamic steering of a southwesterly flow ahead of a north trough and that on the southwest side of the West Pacific subtropical high, the mesoscale vortex （or the cyclonic wind perturbation）, after its genesis, moved northward and brought about enormous rain in most parts of Guangdong Province through providing certain lifting forcing for the triggering of mesoscale convection. During the development of the mesoscale vortex, heavy rainfall was to a certain extent enhanced by the mesoscale topography of the Yunwu Mountain in Guangdong. The effect of the Yunwu Mountain is found to vary under different prevailing wind directions and intensities. The location o     

ON THE BAROTROPIC INSTABILITY OF LARGE SCALE VORTICES

By using the linearized barotropic vorticity equation in polar coordinates the stability of pertur-bations on a large scale circular basic flow is transformed into a generalized eigenvalue problem,yielding the relationship between the growth rate of the amplitude of perturbations and the az-imuthal wave number. Then, numerical experiments whose integration time is 60 model hours areperformed in terms of a quasi-geostrophic barotropic model in Cartesian coordinates using the per-turbation stream function field of unstable mode superimposed on a strong and weak circular basicflows as the initial fields. The experimental results reveal that the amplitudes of the initial pertur-bations in the model atmosphere grow with time. The amplitude of the perturbations superimposedon the strong circular basic flow grows quicker and forms a spiral-band-like structure.     

Numerical Simulation of Changes in Tropical Cyclone Intensity Using a Coupled Air-Sea Model

A coupled air-sea model for tropical cyclones （TCs） is constructed by coupling the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research mesoscale model （MM5） with the Princeton Ocean Model.Four numerical simulations of tropical cyclone development have been conducted using different configurations of the coupled model on the f-plane.When coupled processes are excluded,a weak initial vortex spins up into a mature symmetric TC that strongly resembles those observed and simulated in prior research.The coupled model reproduces the reduction in sea temperature induced by the TC reasonably well,as well as changes in the minimum central pressure of the TC that result from negative atmosphere-ocean feedbacks.Asymmetric structures are successfully simulated under conditions of uniform environmental flow.The coupled ocean-atmosphere model is suitable for simulating air-sea interactions under TC conditions.The effects of the ocean on the track of the TC and changes in its intensity under uniform environmental flow are also investigated.TC intensity responds nonlinearly to sea surface temperature （SST）.The TC intensification rate becomes smaller once the SST exceeds a certain threshold.Oceanic stratification also influences TC intensity,with stronger stratification responsible for a larger decrease in intensity.The value of oceanic enthalpy is small when the ocean is weakly stratified and large when the ocean is strongly stratified,demonstrating that the oceanic influence on TC intensity results not only from SST distributions but also from stratification.Air-sea interaction has only a slight influence on TC movement in this model.     

A COMPARISON OF THE BLENDING AND CONSTRAINING METHODS TO INTRODUCE LARGE-SCALE INFORMATION INTO GRAPES MESOSCALE ANALYSIS

To solve the problem of mesoscale analysis error accumulation after a period of continuous cycle data assimilation (CCDA), a blending method and a constraining method are compared to introduce global analysis information into the Global/Regional Assimilation and Prediction Enhanced System mesoscale three-dimensional variational data assimilation system (GRAPES-Meso 3Dvar). Based on a spatial filter used to obtain a blended analysis, the blending method is weighted toward the T639 global analysis for scales larger than the cutoff wavelength of 1,200 km and toward the GRAPES mesoscale analysis for wavelengths below that. The constraining method considers the T639 global analysis data as an extra source of information to be added in the 3DVar cost function. The cloud-resolving GRAPES-Meso system (3 km resolution) with a 3 h analysis cycle update is chosen, and forecast experiments on an extreme precipitation event over the eastern part of China are presented. The comparison shows that the inclusion of large-scale information with both methods has a positive impact on the regional model, in which the 3 h background forecasts are slightly closer to the radiosonde observations. The results also show that both methods are effective in improving large-scale analysis while reserving the well-featured mesoscale information, leading to an enhancement in the balance and accuracy of the analysis. Subjective verification reveals that the introduction of large-scale information has a visible beneficial impact on the forecast of precipitation location and intensity. The methodologies and experiences presented in this paper could serve as a reference for ongoing efforts toward the development of multi-scale analysis in GRAPES-Meso.     

切变基流中赤道Rossby包络孤立波

A simple shallow-water model on an equatorialβ-plane is employed to investigate the nonlinear equatorial Rossby solitons in a mean zonal flow with meridional shear by the asymptotic method of multiple scales. The cubic nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS, for short) equation, satisfied for large amplitude equatorial envelope Rossby solitons in shear basic flow, is derived. The effects of basic flow shear on the nonlinear equatorial Rossby solitons are also analyzed.     

Aerosol Microphysical and Radiative Effects on Continental Cloud Ensembles

Aerosol–cloud–radiation interactions represent one of the largest uncertainties in the current climate assessment. Much of the complexity arises from the non-monotonic responses of clouds, precipitation and radiative fluxes to aerosol perturbations under various meteorological conditions. In this study, an aerosol-aware WRF model is used to investigate the microphysical and radiative effects of aerosols in three weather systems during the March 2000 Cloud Intensive Observational Period campaign at the US Southern Great Plains. Three simulated cloud ensembles include a low-pressure deep convective cloud system, a collection of less-precipitating stratus and shallow cumulus, and a cold frontal passage. The WRF simulations are evaluated by several ground-based measurements. The microphysical properties of cloud hydrometeors, such as their mass and number concentrations, generally show monotonic trends as a function of cloud condensation nuclei concentrations.Aerosol radiative effects do not influence the trends of cloud microphysics, except for the stratus and shallow cumulus cases where aerosol semi-direct effects are identified. The precipitation changes by aerosols vary with the cloud types and their evolving stages, with a prominent aerosol invigoration effect and associated enhanced precipitation from the convective sources. The simulated aerosol direct effect suppresses precipitation in all three cases but does not overturn the aerosol indirect effect. Cloud fraction exhibits much smaller sensitivity(typically less than 2%) to aerosol perturbations, and the responses vary with aerosol concentrations and cloud regimes. The surface shortwave radiation shows a monotonic decrease by increasing aerosols, while the magnitude of the decrease depends on the cloud type.     

Impacts of Oceanic Fronts and Eddies in the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension Region on the Atmospheric General Circulation and Storm Track

This paper reviews the progress in our understanding of the atmospheric response to midlatitude oceanic fronts and eddies,emphasizing the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension(KOE)region.Oceanic perturbations of interest consist of sharp oceanic fronts,temperature anomalies associated with mesoscale eddies,and to some extent even higher-frequency submesoscale variability.The focus is on the free atmosphere above the boundary layer.As the midlatitude atmosphere is dominated by vigorous transient eddy activity in the storm track,the response of both the time-mean flow and the storm track is assessed.The storm track response arguably overwhelms the mean-flow response and makes the latter hard to detect from observations.Oceanic frontal impacts on the mesoscale structures of individual synoptic storms are discussed,followed by the role of oceanic fronts in maintaining the storm track as a whole.KOE fronts exhibit significant decadal variability and can therefore presumably modulate the storm track.Relevant studies are summarized and intercompared.Current understanding has advanced greatly but is still subject to large uncertainties arising from inadequate data resolution and other factors.Recent modeling studies highlighted the importance of mesoscale eddies and probably even submesoscale processes in maintaining the storm track but confirmation and validation are still needed.Moreover,the atmospheric response can potentially provide a feedback mechanism for the North Pacific climate.By reviewing the above aspects,we envision that future research shall focus more upon the interaction between smaller-scale oceanic processes(fronts,eddies,submesoscale features)and atmospheric processes(fronts,extratropical cyclones etc.),in an integrated way,within the context of different climate background states.     

A Relocation-based Initialization Scheme to Improve Track-forecasting of Tropical Cyclones简

A relocation procedure to initialize tropical cyclones was developed to improve the representation of the initial conditions and the track forecast for Panasonic Weather Solutions Tropical Operational Forecasts. This scheme separates the vortex perturbation and environment field from the first guess, then relocates the initial vortex perturbations to Lhe observed position by merging them with the environment field. The relationships of wind vector components with stream function and velocity potential are used for separating the vortex disturbance from first guess. For the separation of scalars, a low-pass Barnes filter is employed. The irregular-shaped relocation area corresponding to the specific initial conditions is determined by mapping the edge of the vortex radius in 36 directions.Then, the non-vortex perturbations in the relocation area are removed by a two-pass Barnes filter to retain the vortex perturbations, while the variable fields outside the perimeter of the modified vortex are kept ide.ntical to the original first guess. The potential impacts of this scheme on track forecasts were examined for three hurricane cases in the 2011-12 hurricane season. The experimental results demonstrate that the initialization scheme is able to effectively separate the vortex field from the environment field and maintain a relatively balanced and accurate relocated first guess. As the initial track error is reduced, the following track forecasts are considerably improved. The 72-h average track forecast error was redu,~ed by 32.6% for the cold-start cases, and by 38.4% when using the full-cycling data assimilation because of the accumulatedL improvements from the initialization scheme.     

Criteria for the Nonlinear Stability of Three-Dimensional Quasi-Geostrophic Motions

Some more proper criteria for the nonlinear stability of three-dimensional quasi-geostrophic motions are given by combining variational principle with a prior estimates method. The criteria are suitable for perturbations of initial condition as well as parameters in the model. The basic flow can be steady or unsteady. Particularly the difficulty due to the nonlinear boundary condition is completely overcome by the use of our method.     

Numerical Simulation of the Influence of Drop Size Distribution Shape on Cloud and Precipitation

At present,parameterization methods to describe cloud and precipitation processes are widely used in cloud and mesoscale models,but with different drop size distributions.When precipitation formation mechanism,weather modification technique,and mechanism of hail suppression with seeding are studied by using these models,a question that needs to be addressed is：what is the influence of different drop size distributions and related parameters on cloud and precipitation？In this paper,by using a three-dimensional hail cloud numerical model developed by the Institutes of Atmospheric Physics,Chinese Academy of Sciences, we performed numerical experiments with varied drop size distribution parameters for two hail storms,and analyzed the influence of shape parameters（ar,ai,and ag）of raindrops,ice crystal,and graupel size distributions on rainfall,hail amount,and microphysical processes in clouds.The results show that the variation of ar has no effect on precipitation formation on the whole,but affects directly the production rates for the physical processes related to raindrop.The ag variation has a less obvious effect on rainfall amount,but has a significant effect on hail amount,hailfall rate,and rainfall intensity.It impacts noticeably on the generation rate of the number and mass of ice crystal,graupel,and hail,and also to various degrees on all the microphysical processes in clouds.The ag variation also influences the growing process of the hydrometeors.The effects of the ai variation on part of the generation and growing processes of all the hydrometeors are significant,and even dramatic,such as the collection process of cloud water to rain through melting ice crystal（T CLcir）.However,for clouds located in different geographic regions,the variation of ai has different effects on precipitation,which reflects the complexity of the impact of drop size distribution on cloud and precipitation.At last,some issues about the application of cloud models are also discussed.     

ENTROPY FLOW CHARACTERISTICS ANALYSIS OF TYPHOON MATSA (0509)

The evolution of Typhoon Matsa (0509) is examined in terms of entropy flow through an entropy balance equation derived from the Gibbs relation, according to the second law of thermodynamics. The entropy flows in the various significant stages of (genesis, development and decaying) during its evolution are diagnosed based on the outputs of the PSU/NCAR mesoscale model (known as MM5). The results show that: (1) the vertical spatial distribution of entropy flow for Matsa is characterized by a predominantly negative entropy flow in a large portion of the troposphere and a positive flow in the upper levels; (2) the fields of entropy flows at the middle troposphere (500 hPa) show that the growth of the typhoon is greatly dependent on the negative entropy flows from its surroundings; and (3) the simulated centres of heavy rainfall associated with the typhoon match well with the zones of large negative entropy flows, suggesting that they may be a significant indicator for severe weather events.