Individual and combined impacts of ENSO and East Asian winter monsoon on the South China Sea cold tongue intensity

A region of low sea surface temperature (SST) extends southward in the central part of southern South China Sea during boreal winter, which is called the South China Sea cold tongue (SCS CT). The present study investigates the factors of interannual variation of SST in the SCS CT region and explores the individual and combined impacts of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) on the SCS CT intensity. During years with ENSO alone or with co-existing ENSO and anomalous EAWM, shortwave radiation and ocean horizontal advection play major roles in the interannual variation of the SCS CT intensity. Ocean advection contributes largely to the SST change in the region southeast of Vietnam. In strong CT years with anomalous EAWM alone, surface wind-related latent heat flux has a major role and shortwave radiation is secondary to the EAWM-induced change of the SCS CT intensity, whereas the role of ocean horizontal advection is relatively small. The above differences in the roles of ocean advection and latent heat flux are associated with the distribution of low level wind anomalies. In anomalous CT years with ENSO, low level anomalous cyclone/anticyclone-related wind speed change leads to latent heat flux anomalies with effects opposite to shortwave radiation. In strong CT years with anomalous EAWM alone, surface wind-related latent heat flux anomalies are large as anomalous winds are aligned with climatological winds.

     

Interannual and interdecadal variations of the South Asian and western Pacific subtropical highs and their relationships with Asian-Pacific summer climate

In this study, interdecadal and interannual variations of the South Asian high (SAH) and the western Pacific subtropical high (WPSH), as well as their relationships with the summer climate over Asian and Pacific regions, are addressed. The variations of SAH and WPSH are objectively measured by the first singular value decomposition (SVD) mode of geopotential heights at the 100- and 500-hPa levels. The first SVD mode of summertime 100- and 500-hPa geopotential heights represents well the relationship between the variations of SAH and WPSH. Both SAH and WPSH exhibit large interannual variability and experienced an apparent long-term change in 1987. The WPSH intensifies and extends westward when SAH intensifies and extends eastward, and vice versa. The India?CBurma trough weakens when WPSH intensifies. The changes in SAH and WPSH at various levels are linked to broad-scale increases in tropical tropospheric temperature and geopotential height. When SAH and WPSH strengthen, monsoon flow becomes weaker over eastern Asia. In the meantime, precipitation decreases over eastern South China Sea, Philippines, the Philippine Sea and northeastern Asia, but increases over China, Korea, Japan and the ocean domain east of Japan. Similar features are mostly found on both interdecadal and interannual timescales, but are more evident on interannual timescale.     

Mineral Prospectivity Mapping via Gated Recurrent Unit Model

Natural Resources Research - The application of deep learning algorithms in mineral prospectivity mapping (MPM) is a hot topic in mineral exploration. However, few studies have focused on recurrent...     

Interannual and decadal variations of snow cover over Qinghai-Xizang Plateau and their relationships to summer monsoon rainfall in China

Interannual and decadal variations of winter snow cover over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau (QXP) are analyzed by using monthly mean snow depth data set of 60 stations over QXP for the period of 1958 through 1992. It is found that the winter snow cover over QXP bears a pronounced quasi-biennial oscillation, and it underwent an obvious decadal transition from a poor snow cover period to a rich snow cover period in the late 1970’s during the last 40 years.It is shown that the summer rainfall in the eastern China is closely associated with the winter snow cover over QXP not only in the interannual variation but also in the decadal variation. A clear relationship exists in the quasi-biennial oscillation between the summer rainfall in the northern part of North China and the southern China and the winter snow cover over QXP. Furthermore, the summer rainfall in the four climate divisions of Qinling-Daba Mountains, the Yangtze-Huaihe River Plain, the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River showed a remarkable transition from drought period to rainy period in the end of 1970’s, in good correspondence with the decadal transition of the winter snow cover over QXP.     

ArcFractal: An ArcGIS Add-In for Processing Geoscience Data Using Fractal/Multifractal Models

Natural Resources Research - Fractal and multifractal models, including the concentration-area (C–A) fractal model, spectrum-area (S–A) multifractal model, and local singularity...     

Differences in Meteorological Conditions between Days with Persistent and Non-Persistent Pollution in Beijing,China

We compared the regional synoptic patterns and local meteorological conditions during persistent and non-persistent pollution events in Beijing using US NCEP–Department of Energy reanalysis outputs and observations from meteorological stations. The analysis focused on the impacts of high-frequency (period < 90 days) variations in meteorological conditions on persistent pollution events (those lasting for at least 3 days). Persistent pollution events tended to occur in association with slow-moving weather systems producing stagnant weather conditions, whereas rapidly moving weather systems caused a dramatic change in the local weather conditions so that the pollution event was short-lived. Although Beijing was under the influence of anomalous southerly winds in all four seasons during pollution events, notable differences were identified in the regional patterns of sea-level pressure and local anomalies in relative humidity among persistent pollution events in different seasons. A region of lower pressure was present to the north of Beijing in spring, fall, and winter, whereas regions of lower and higher pressures were observed northwest and southeast of Beijing, respectively, in summer. The relative humidity near Beijing was higher in fall and winter, but lower in spring and summer. These differences may explain the seasonal dependence of the relationship between air pollution and the local meteorological variables. Our analysis showed that the temperature inversion in the lower troposphere played an important part in the occurrence of air pollution under stagnant weather conditions. Some results from this study are based on a limited number of events and thus require validation using more data.     

南海—热带西北太平洋地区季节内尺度海气变化关系

本文系统地回顾了作者近年来关于南海-热带西北太平洋地区大气和海洋季节内尺度变化关系方面的主要研究成果。文中对10~20天和30~60天两种季节内振荡海气变化关系的不同以及冬、夏季间的差异进行了系统地比较。相比较而言,大气中10~20天振荡所占比例大于30~60天振荡,海表温度30~60天的振荡在南海和西北太平洋副热带地区比10~20天振荡的贡献大,而在低纬度西太平洋地区10~20天振荡与30~60天振荡贡献相近或稍大。在北半球夏季,10~20天低频振荡的分布呈西南—东北走向,由赤道西太平洋地区向西北偏西方向传播,而30~60天低频振荡则以东西向分布为主,表现为由南向北的传播特征。在北半球冬季,10~20天和30~60天两种低频振荡的水平结构类似,均表现为西南—东北走向;同时,南海地区季节内变化信号表现出明显的向南传播的独特特征,并与东亚冬季风的季节内变化密切相关。北半球夏季,南海—菲律宾海地区10~20天低频振荡强度在厄尔尼诺发展年得到加强,而30~60天低频振荡强度则在拉尼娜衰减年得以加强。分析还指出,热带西北太平洋地区夏季热带辐合带附近的季节内变化,尤其是10~20天尺度变化,对季节平均海表温度异常有显著的反馈作用。     

Machine Learning of Mineralization-Related Geochemical Anomalies: A Review of Potential Methods

Research on processing geochemical data and identifying geochemical anomalies has made important progress in recent decades. Fractal/multi-fractal models, compositional data analysis, and machine learning (ML) are three widely used techniques in the field of geochemical data processing. In recent years, ML has been applied to model the complex and unknown multivariate geochemical distribution and extract meaningful elemental associations related to mineralization or environmental pollution. It is expected that ML will have a more significant role in geochemical mapping with the development of big data science and artificial intelligence in the near future. In this study, state-of-the-art applications of ML in identifying geochemical anomalies were reviewed, and the advantages and disadvantages of ML for geochemical prospecting were investigated. More applications are needed to demonstrate the advantage of ML in solving complex problems in the geosciences.     

北方涛动同北半球温带大气环流的遥相关(一)——基本结构

本文利用1951—1980年逐季的平均值资料(共120个季)讨论了北方涛动和与其相联系的北太平洋海温与北半球海平面气压场、500hPa位势高度场遥相关的基本结构,并与南方涛动和赤道东太平洋海温的结果进行了对比分析.发现北太平洋Namias海区和加利福尼亚海流区海温的变化与北方涛动具有很密切的联系;北方涛动和这两个海区的海温同北半球中高纬度大气环流特别是PNA型和NAO型环流异常存在明显的遥相关关系;南方涛动和赤道太平洋海温同WP型或NPO型环流异常关系比较密切,而与PNA型和NAO型的关系不如北方涛动和Namias海区及加利福尼亚海流区海温的显著.