Perspectives on present-day sea level change: a tribute to Christian le Provost

In this paper, we first discuss the controversial result of the work by Cabanes et al. (Science 294:840–842, 2001), who suggested that the rate of past century sea level rise may have been overestimated, considering the limited and heterogeneous location of historical tide gauges and the high regional variability of thermal expansion which was supposed to dominate the observed sea level. If correct, this conclusion would have solved the problem raised by the IPCC third assessment report [Church et al, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 881, 2001], namely, the factor two difference between the 20th century observed sea level rise and the computed climatic contributions. However, recent investigations based on new ocean temperature data sets indicate that thermal expansion only explains part (about 0.4 mm/year) of the 1.8 mm/year observed sea level rise of the past few decades. In fact, the Cabanes et al.’s conclusion was incorrect due to a contamination of abnormally high ocean temperature data in the Gulf Stream area that led to an overestimate of thermal expansion in this region. In this paper, we also estimate thermal expansion over the last decade (1993–2003), using a new ocean temperature and salinity database. We compare our result with three other estimates, two being based on global gridded data sets, and one based on an approach similar to that developed here. It is found that the mean rate of thermosteric sea level rise over the past decade is 1.5±0.3 mm/year, i.e. 50% of the observed 3 mm/year by satellite altimetry. For both time spans, past few decades and last decade, a contribution of 1.4 mm/year is not explained by thermal expansion, thus needs to be of water mass origin. Direct estimates of land ice melt for the recent years account for about 1 mm/year sea level rise. Thus, at least for the last decade, we have moved closer to explaining the observed rate of sea level rise than the IPCC third assessment report.     

西北地区3-9月降水量与ENSO的联系

利用1950-2005年全球陆地月平均降水资料,分析了中国西北地区3-9月平均降水量(Rm)与ENSO的统计关系.结果表明:在全球变暖背景下,厄尔尼诺当年(次年)西北地区Rm偏少(偏多)的关系依然稳定存在,并且随着全球增暖,该关系表现得更稳定.西北地区,尤其是西北地区东部是同纬度带主要干旱半干旱区中Rm与ENSO联系最紧密、最稳定的区域.北半球主要干旱半干旱区中,厄尔尼诺当年Rm偏少,次年Rm偏多的关系仅存在于中国北部地区.我国西北地区东部厄尔尼诺事件当年(次年)Rm偏少(偏多),我国西北地区西部38°N以南厄尔尼诺事件当年(次年)Rm偏多(偏少),存在着明显的东西部差异.     

Brief Review of Some CLIVAR-Related Studies in China

The Climate Variability and Predictability （CLIVAR） program is one of the sub-programs of the World Climate Research Program （WCRP）. In this paper, CLIVAR related research in China （2003-2006） is briefly reviewed, including four major components, namely, low-frequency intraseasonal oscillations, interannual variability, decadal variations in East Asia, and global warming simulations.     

全球变暖加剧对极端气候概率影响的初步探讨

依据实际资料,探讨了全球平均温度场演变序列的变率及其概率分布的变化规律,结果表明,仅仅随着平均温度的增加,其相应的时空概率分布变化已相当显著,何况在某些局部地区,其方差或其形状参数也有变动,因而形成极端气候事件频率增大的现象。     

气候变暖对云南烤烟生产影响的初步分析

通过对云南6个烤烟种植区35 a来烤烟大田生长期气温资料的初步分析发现:云南省6个烤烟生产区烤烟大田生长季平均气温呈明显升高趋势,热量条件有较明显的改善;各烟区烤烟成熟—采烤期气候变暖趋势一致性好、增温最突出、增幅最大,增温幅度达到了0.0155~0.0356℃/a,这在一定程度上缓和了云南省烤烟生产过程中烤烟生长中、后期高温不足这一制约云南烤烟品质提高的气候瓶颈问题,对提高云南省烟叶品质有十分重要的促进作用。     

塔里木河流域冰川洪水对气候变暖的响应

In past 50 years, the air temperature fluctuation was raising trend in Tarim River Basin. The annual mean temperature has increased by 0.3℃ in the whole Tarim River Basin, and by 0.6℃ in the mountain areas. With global warming, the frequency of unstable and extreme climatic events increased, glaciers retreating accelerated and snow meltwater increased have resulted in the more frequency of snow-ice disasters such as glacier debrisflow and glacier flash flood etc. Since 1980s, in the process of intense climate warming, glaciers melting intensified, ice temperature rose and glaciers flows accelerated, and lead to more glacial lakes and extending water storage capacity and stronger glacial lake outburst floods occurrence. It is proposed that the monitoring and evaluating of the impact of climate change on water resources and floods should be enhanced.     

太原气候变暖特征及主要极端天气气候事件变化研究

近45a来，太原平川和山区年平均气温为明显上升趋势，夜间增温是太原气候变暖的一个重要特征。1986年、1993年分别为山区和平川年平均气温转折年份，山区从1985年开始冬季平均气温发生突变。近45a来，太原年降水量呈减少趋势，主要是夏、秋季降水减少造成。在气候变暖的背景下，太原平川和山区年暴雨日数变化平稳，高温和春旱发生频次在增加，山区夏旱也呈缓慢增加趋势；太原山区霜期明显缩短，初霜在推迟，终霜在提前。     

青藏高原及其邻近地区近30年气候变暖与海拔高度的关系

利用青藏高原及其邻近地区１６５个站１９６１～１９９０年月平均地面气温资料,分析了气候变暖与海拔高度的关系。结果表明：近３０年青藏高原及其相邻地区的地面气候变暖与海拔高度有关,变暖的幅度一般随海拔高度升高而增大,海拔高度在５００ｍ以下,５００～１５００,１５００～２５００,２５００～３５００及３５００ｍ以上等不同高度范围内台站下平均的平均温度的增温率分别为０．０,０．１１,０．１２,０．１９和０．２     

Diurnal timing of warmer air under climate change affects magnitude,timing and duration of stream temperature change

Stream temperature will be subject to changes because of atmospheric warming in the future. We investigated the effects of the diurnal timing of air temperature changes – daytime warming versus nighttime warming – on stream temperature. Using the physically based model, Heat Source, we performed a sensitivity analysis of summer stream temperatures to three diurnal air temperature distributions of +4 °C mean air temperature: i) uniform increase over the whole day, ii) warmer daytime and iii) warmer nighttime. The stream temperature model was applied to a 37‐km section of the Middle Fork John Day River in northeastern Oregon, USA. The three diurnal air temperature distributions generated 7‐day average daily maximum stream temperatures increases of approximately +1.8 °C ± 0.1 °C at the downstream end of the study section. The three air temperature distributions, with the same daily mean, generated different ranges of stream temperatures, different 7‐day average daily maximum temperatures, different durations of stream temperature changes and different average daily temperatures in most parts of the reach. The stream temperature changes were out of phase with air temperature changes, and therefore in many places, the greatest daytime increase in stream temperature was caused by nighttime warming of air temperatures. Stream temperature changes tended to be more extreme and of longer duration when driven by air temperatures concentrated in either daytime or nighttime instead of uniformly distributed across the diurnal cycle. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.