Increasing trend of northeast monsoon rainfall over the equatorial Indian Ocean and peninsular India

Peninsular India and Sri Lanka receive major part of their annual rainfall during the northeast monsoon season (October–December). The long-term trend in the northeast monsoon rainfall over the Indian Ocean and peninsular India is examined in the vicinity of global warming scenario using the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) dataset available for the period 1979–2010. The result shows a significant increasing trend in rainfall rate of about 0.5 mm day^?1 decade^?1 over a large region bounded by 10 °S–10 °N and 55 °E–100 °E. The interannual variability of seasonal rainfall rate over peninsular India using conventional rain gauge data is also investigated in conjunction to the Indian Ocean dipole. The homogeneous rain gauge data developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology over peninsular India also exhibit the considerable upward rainfall trend of about 0.4 mm day^?1 decade^?1 during this period. The associated outgoing longwave radiation shows coherent decrease in the order of 2 W?m^?2 decade^?1 over the rainfall increase region.     

Study on Radar Detection of One Stratiform Cloud Precipitation Process in the Central Part of the Tianshan Mountains in China

In order to investigate the physical structure characteristics of the clouds and precipitation over the Tianshan Mountains in summer, the Urumqi Institute of Desert Meteorology of China Meteorological Administration (CMA) carried out an atmospheric detection experiment in Bayanbulak from 1st to 31st August 2012 by means of a wind-profiling radar and a Doppler weather radar. Using the radar observation data, this paper analyzes the dynamic, thermodynamic, radar echo intensity and macro-micro structure characteristics of the 2–3 August precipitation process. The results show that: (1) The radar echo intensity of this rainfall process changes within 5–38 dBZ, and the precipitation cloud system is under the height of 6500 m, with notable 0 °C level echo bright band between 1200 m and 2000 m height. NCEP analysis data shows that the cloud top temperature ranges from ?25 °C to ?32 °C. These indicate the features of typical stratiform cold cloud precipitation. (2) Atmospheric motion during the precipitation process presents the multi-layer structure with wind velocity varying within the range of 3.0–8.0 m/s. The temperature advection is presented with the vertical structure distribution of “cold-warm-cold”, which indicates relative stability of the atmospheric stratification. (3) By retrieving and analyzing the raindrop size distributions below 0 °C level bright band within 600–1200 m height, when the precipitation evolve from early stage to its peak stage, the concentration of the tiny particle zone (D?≤?2.5 mm) changes a little while the concentration of the medium particle zone (2.5?<?D?≤?4 mm) and the concentration of the large particle(D?>?4 mm) increase considerably; but after peak stage the concentration in the medium particle zone and the concentration in the large particle zone decline first, then the concentration in the tiny particle zone reduces. (4) Raindrop size distribution data is used to calculate the precipitation intensity and the liquid water content, whose spatial-temporal variation characteristics are the same. During peak stage of the precipitation, the instantaneous precipitation intensity reaches 5.0 mm/h, and the liquid water content reaches 0.35 g/m³. This study would help deepen the understanding on the physical structure of the clouds and precipitation over the Tianshan Mountains in summer, and also provide some scientific basis for cloud seeding operation over this area.     

Intense rainfall events over the west coast of India

Summary The west coast of the Indian peninsula receives very heavy rainfall during the summer Monsoon (June–September) season with average rainfall over some parts exceeding 250 cm. Heavy rainfall events with rainfall more than 15 cm day⁻¹ at one or more stations along the west coast of India occur frequently and cause considerable damage. A special observational programme, Arabian Sea Monsoon Experiment, was carried out during the monsoon season of 2002 to study these events. The spatial and temporal distributions of intense rainfall events, presented here, were used for the planning of this observational campaign. The present study using daily rainfall data for summer monsoon season of 37 years (1951–1987) shows that the probability of getting intense rainfall is the maximum between 14° N–16° N and near 19° N. The probability of occurrence of these intense rainfall events is high from mid June to mid August, with a dip in early July. It has been believed for a long time that offshore troughs and vortices are responsible for these intense rainfall events. However, analysis of the characteristics of cloud systems associated with the intense rainfall events during 1985–1988 using very high resolution brightness temperature data from INSAT-IB satellite shows that the cloud systems during these events are characterized by large spatial scales and high cloud tops. Further study using daily satellite derived outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) data over a longer period (1975–1998) shows that, most of these events (about 62%) are associated with systems organized on synoptic and larger scales. We find that most of the offshore convective systems responsible for intense rainfall along the west coast of India are linked to the atmospheric conditions over equatorial Indian Ocean.     

On the relationship between Arabian Sea warm pool and formation of onset vortex over east-central Arabian Sea

The interannual variability in the formation of mini warm pool (MWP, SST ≥ 30.5°C) and its impact on the formation of onset vortex (OV) over the east-central Arabian Sea (ECAS) are addressed by analyzing the NCEP OIV 2-weekly SST data and NCEP–NCAR reanalysis 850 hPa wind fields from May to June (prior to the onset of monsoon) over the north Indian Ocean for a period of 12 years from 1992 to 2003. Strong interannual variability in the formation and intensification of MWP was observed. Further, the 850 hPa wind fields showed that OV developed into an intense system only during 1994, 1998 and 2001. It formed in the region north of the MWP and on the northern flank of the low-level jet axis, which approached the southern tip of India just prior to the onset of monsoon, similar to the vortex of MONEX-79. The area-averaged zonal kinetic energy (ZKE) over the ECAS (8–15°N, 65–75°E) as well as over the western Arabian Sea (WAS, 5°S–20°N, 50–70°E) showed a minimum value of 5–15 m² s^?2 prior to monsoon onset over Kerala (MOK), whereas a maximum value of 280 m² s^?2 (40–70 m² s^?2) was observed over the ECAS (WAS) during and after MOK. The study further examined the plausible reasons for the occurrence of MWP and OV.     

Mechanism of high rainfall over the Indian west coast region during the monsoon season

The mechanism responsible for high rainfall over the Indian west coast region has been investigated by studying dynamical, thermodynamical and microphysical processes over the region for the monsoon season of 2009. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts wind and NCEP flux data have been used to study the large scale dynamical parameters. The moist adiabatic and multi-level inversion stratifications are found to exist during the high and low rainfall spells, respectively. In the moist adiabatic stratification regime, shallow and deep convective clouds are found coexisting. The Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement EXperiment aircraft data showed cloud updraft spectrum ranging from 1 to 10 m s^?1 having modal speed 1–2.5 m s^?1. The low updrafts rates provide sufficient time required for warm rain processes to produce rainfall from shallow clouds. The low cloud liquid water is observed above the freezing level indicating efficient warm rain process. The updrafts at the high spectrum end go above freezing level to generate ice particles produced due to mixed-phase rainfall process from deep convective clouds. With aging, deep convection gets transformed into stratiform type, which has been inferred through the vertical distribution of the large scale omega and heating fields. The stratiform heating, high latent heat flux, strong wind shear in the lower and middle tropospheric levels and low level convergence support the sustenance of convection for longer time to produce high rainfall spell. The advection of warm dry air in the middle tropospheric regions inhibits the convection and produce low rainfall spell. The mechanisms producing these spells have been summarized with the block diagram.     

Characteristics of UV radiation at Tazhong of the Tarim Basin,west China

Tazhong station, located at the hinterland of the Taklimakan Desert in northwest China, experiences frequent dusty weather events during spring and summer seasons (its dusty season) caused by unstable stratified atmosphere, abundant sand source and strong low-level wind. On average, it has 246.2 dusty days each year, of which 16.2 days are classified as sand and dust storm days. To better understand the characteristic of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation and factors influencing its variations under such an extreme environment, UV radiation data were collected continuously from 2007 to 2011 at Tazhong station using UVS-AB-T radiometer by Kipp and Zonen. This study documents observational characteristics of the UV radiation variations observed during the five-year period. Monthly UV radiation in this region varied in the range of 14.1–37.8 MJ m^?2 and the average annual amount was 320.7 MJ m^?2. The highest value of UV radiation occurred in June (62.5 W m^?2) while the lowest one in December (29.3 W m^?2). It showed a notable diurnal cycle, with peak value at 12:00–13:00 LST. Furthermore, its seasonal variation exhibited some unique features, with averaged UV magnitude showing an order of summer > spring > autumn > winter. The seasonal values were 37.0, 29.1, 24.9 and 15.9 MJ m^?2, respectively. In autumn and winter, its daily variations were relatively weak. However, significant daily variations were observed during spring and summer associated with frequent dust weather events occurring in the region. Further analysis showed that there was a significant correlation between the UV radiation and solar zenith angle under different weather conditions. Under the same solar zenith angle, UV radiation was higher during clear days while it was lower in sand and dust storm days. Our observations showed that there was a negative correlation between UV radiation and ozone, but such a relationship became absent in dusty days. The UV radiation was reduced by 6 % when cloud amount was 1–4 oktas, by 12 % when the cloud amount was 5–7 oktas, and by 24 % when the cloud amount was greater than 8 oktas. The relative reduction of UV radiation reached 26, 38, and 45 % in dust day, blowing sand day and sand and dust storm day, respectively. The results revealed that decrease in UV radiation can be attributed to cloud coverage and dust aerosols. Moreover, the reduction of UV radiation caused by dust aerosols was about 2–4 times greater than that caused by cloud coverage. These observational results are of value for improving our understanding of processes controlling UV radiation over sand desert and developing methods for its estimation and prediction.     

Validating a rapid-update satellite precipitation analysis across telescoping space and time scales

In order to properly utilize remotely sensed precipitation estimates in hydrometeorological applications, knowledge of the accuracy of the estimates are needed. However, relatively few ground validation networks operate with the necessary spatial density and time-resolution required for validation of high-resolution precipitation products (HRPP) generated at fine space and time scales (e.g., hourly accumulations produced on a 0.25° spatial scale). In this article, we examine over-land validation statistics for an operationally designed, meteorological satellite-based global rainfall analysis that blends intermittent passive microwave-derived rainfall estimates aboard a variety of low Earth-orbiting satellite platforms with sub-hourly time sampling capabilities of visible and infrared imagers aboard operational geostationary platforms. The validation dataset is comprised of raingauge data collected from the dense, nearly homogeneous, 1-min reporting Automated Weather Station (network of the Korean Meteorological Administration during the June to August 2000 summer monsoon season. The space-time RMS error, mean bias, and correlation matrices were computed using various time windows for the gauge averaging, centered about the satellite observation time. For ±10 min time window, a correlation of 0.6 was achieved at 0.1° spatial scale by averaging more than 3 days; coarsening the spatial scale to 1.8° produced the same correlation by averaging over 1 h. Finer than approximately 24-h and 1° time and space scales, respectively, a rapid decay of the error statistics was obtained by trading-off either spatial or time resolution. Beyond a daily time scale, the blended estimates were nearly unbiased and with an RMS error of no worse than 1 mm day^?1.     

Quantifying the effects of climate trends in the past 43 years (1961–2003) on crop growth and water demand in the North China Plain

This paper explores changes in climatic variables, including solar radiation, rainfall, fraction of diffuse radiation (FDR) and temperature, during wheat season (October to May) and maize season (June to September) from 1961 to 2003 at four sites in the North China Plain (NCP), and then evaluates the effects of these changes on crop growth processes, productivity and water demand by using the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator. A significant decline in radiation and rainfall was detected during the 43 years, while both temperature and FDR exhibit an increasing trend in both wheat and maize seasons. The average trend of each climatic variable for each crop season from the four sites is that radiation decreased by 13.2 and 6.2 MJ m^?2 a^?1, precipitation decreased by 0.1 and 1.8 mm a^?1, minimum temperature increased by 0.05 and 0.02°C a^?1, maximum temperature increased by 0.03 and 0.01°C a^?1, FDR increased by 0.21 and 0.38% a^?1 during wheat and maize season, respectively. Simulated crop water demand and potential yield was significantly decreased because of the declining trend in solar radiation. On average, crop water demand was decreased by 2.3 mm a^?1 for wheat and 1.8 mm a^?1 for maize if changes in crop variety were not considered. Simulated potential crop yields under fully irrigated condition declined about 45.3 kg ha^?1 a^?1 for wheat and 51.4 kg ha^?1 a^?1 for maize at the northern sites, Beijing and Tianjin. They had no significant changes in the southern sites, Jinan and Zhengzhou. Irrigation, fertilization development and crop variety improvement are main factors to contribute to the increase in actual crop yield for the wheat–maize double cropping system, contrasted to the decline in the potential crop yield. Further research on how the improvement in crop varieties and management practices can counteract the impact of climatic change may provide insight into the future sustainability of wheat–maize double crop rotations in the NCP.     

Assessment of climate variability and trend on wheat productivity in West Bengal,India: crop growth simulation approach

Wheat is the second important cereal crop after rice in West Bengal. During last three decades, due to climate fluctuations and variability, the productivity of this crop remains almost constant, bringing the threat of food security of this State. The objectives of the present study were to assess the trend of climatic variables (rainfall, rainy days, and temperature) over six locations covering five major agro-climatic sub-zones of West Bengal and to estimate the variability of potential, simulated yield using crop simulation model (DSAATv4.5) and the yield gap with actual yield. There were no significant change of rainfall and rainy days in annual, seasonal and monthly scale at all the study sites. In general, the maximum temperature is decreasing throughout West Bengal. Except for Birbhum, the minimum temperature increased significantly in different study sites. District average yield of wheat varied from 1757 kg ha^?1 at Jalpaiguri to 2421 kg ha^?1at Birbhum. The actual yield trend ranged from ??4.7 kg ha^?1 year^?1 at Nadia to 32.8 kg ha^?1 year^?1 at Birbhum. Decreasing trend of potential yield was observed in Terai (Jalpaiguri), New Alluvial Zone (Nadia) and Coastal saline zone (South 24 Parganas), which is alarming for food security in West Bengal.     

Cut-off Lows in the South Africa region and their contribution to precipitation

The contribution of Cut-off Lows (CoLs) to precipitation and extreme rainfall frequency in South Africa has been quantified from 402 station records over the period 1979–2006. Firstly, 500 hPa CoL trajectories over Southern Africa and surrounding oceans were determined and their features thoroughly analyzed. In a second step, using daily precipitable water, outgoing long wave radiation data and station rainfall records, an area was defined where the occurrence of CoLs is associated with rainfall over South Africa. CoLs transiting in the 2.5°E–32.5°E/20°S–45°S are more likely to produce precipitation over the country. When 500 hPa CoLs are centered just off the west coast of the country (around 15°E/32.5°S) their impact is substantial in term of daily rainfall intensity and spatial coverage. CoL rainy days have been studied and it is shown that they significantly contribute to precipitation in South Africa, more strongly along the south and east coasts as well as inland, over the transition zone between the summer and winter rainfall domains where they contribute between 25 to more than 35 % of annual accumulation. At the country scale, CoL rainfall is more intense and widespread in spring than during other seasons. Over the analyzed period, a significant trend in annual CoLs’ frequency shows an increase of about 25 %. This increase is mainly realized in spring and in a lesser extent in summer. This trend is accompanied by a significant increase in the frequency of CoL rainy days specifically along the south coast and over the East of the country during the spring–summer period. In parallel, it is shown that from late spring until summer CoLs’ frequency varies significantly accordingly with large scale circulation modes of the Southern Hemisphere such as the Pacific South American pattern (PSA). This positive trend in CoLs’ frequency may be related with the positive trend in the PSA during the spring–summer period over the three last decades.     

How well are daily intense rainfall events captured by current climate models over Africa?

The ability of state-of-the-art climate models to capture the mean spatial and temporal characteristics of daily intense rainfall events over Africa is evaluated by analyzing regional climate model (RCM) simulations at 90- and 30-km along with output from four atmospheric general circulation models (AGCMs) and coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project 5. Daily intense rainfall events are extracted at grid point scale using a 95th percentile threshold approach applied to all rainy days (i.e., daily rainfall ≥1 mm day^?1) over the 1998–2008 period for which two satellite-derived precipitation products are available. Both RCM simulations provide similar results. They accurately capture the spatial and temporal characteristics of intense events, while they tend to overestimate their number and underestimate their intensity. The skill of AGCMs and AOGCMs is generally similar over the African continent and similar to previous global climate model generations. The majority of the AGCMs and AOGCMs greatly overestimate the frequency of intense events, particularly in the tropics, generally fail at simulating the observed intensity, and systematically overestimate their spatial coverage. The RCM performs at least as well as the most accurate global climate model, demonstrating a clear added value to general circulation model simulations and the usefulness of regional modeling for investigating the physics leading to intense events and their change under global warming.     

Precipitation chemistry and ozone and sulfate concentrations in the ocean atmosphere observed by multi-year cruising in East Asia and West Oceania (35°N–35°S, 100–135°E) in August and September

A comprehensive study on the chemistry of deposition and the concentration of tropospheric ozone and particulate sulfate in the ocean atmosphere was carried out for the data sets in 1990’s. It is important to study the atmospheric situation over the past years as well as the latest, especially in the East Asian region where emission amount of anthropogenic air pollutants have increased year by year due to rapid economic growth. The survey was conducted for 5 years in East Asia and West Oceania (35°N–35°S, 100–135°E) in August and September in 1990’s. The purpose of the survey was to study and understand the chemistry of deposition and the concentration of tropospheric ozone and particulate sulfate in the ocean atmosphere comprehensively in one project. Rainfall over the ocean was insufficiently neutralized. Gas and aerosol over the ocean were mature, i.e., well-mixed, during the period of the transportation. The characteristic latitudinal dependence was observed in the tropospheric ozone concentration, namely, higher in the southern hemisphere and lower in the northern hemisphere (approximately 25 ppb in the 10–40°S region and 5–15 ppb in the 20–40°N region). On the other hand, high concentrations of tropospheric ozone of over 30 ppb were observed in the northern hemisphere, which was attributable to the long-range transportation. The TSP concentration was approximately under the level of 40 μg m^?3 irrespectively of the latitude; in contrast, the nss-SO₄ ^2- concentration showed a clear latitudinal dependence, i.e., higher in the northern hemisphere and lower in the southern hemisphere. The background levels of the nss-SO₄ ^2- concentration were approximately 0.5 μg m^?3 in the 10–40°S region and 2–3 μg m^?3 and 4–5 μg m^?3 in the 0–20°N and 20–40°N regions, respectively.     

Retrieving air humidity,global solar radiation,and reference evapotranspiration from daily temperatures: development and validation of new methods for Mexico. Part II: radiation

We propose a new model to estimate daily global radiation from daily temperature range measurements. This model combines that of Majumdar et al. (Sol Energy 13(4):383–394, 1972) to estimate clear sky radiation with a Gompertz function to estimate the relation between temperature range and cloud transmittance. Model parameters are estimated from historical weather data: maximum and minimum temperatures and, if available, relative humidity; no other calibration is required. The model was parametrized and validated using 788 weather stations in Mexico. When calibrated using historical humidity data, daily global radiation was estimated with a mean root mean square error of 3.06 MJ m^?2 day^?1. The model performed well in all situations, except for a few stations around the Gulf of Mexico and in mountain areas. When using estimated humidity, the root mean square error of prediction was only slightly degraded (3.07 MJ m^?2 day^?1). Possible theoretical basis and applicability of this model to other environments are discussed.     

A transitioning Arctic surface energy budget: the impacts of solar zenith angle, surface albedo and cloud radiative forcing

Snow surface and sea-ice energy budgets were measured near 87.5°N during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), from August to early September 2008. Surface temperature indicated four distinct temperature regimes, characterized by varying cloud, thermodynamic and solar properties. An initial warm, melt-season regime was interrupted by a 3-day cold regime where temperatures dropped from near zero to ?7°C. Subsequently mean energy budget residuals remained small and near zero for 1 week until once again temperatures dropped rapidly and the energy budget residuals became negative. Energy budget transitions were dominated by the net radiative fluxes, largely controlled by the cloudiness. Variable heat, moisture and cloud distributions were associated with changing air-masses. Surface cloud radiative forcing, the net radiative effect of clouds on the surface relative to clear skies, is estimated. Shortwave cloud forcing ranged between ?50 W m^?2 and zero and varied significantly with surface albedo, solar zenith angle and cloud liquid water. Longwave cloud forcing was larger and generally ranged between 65 and 85 W m^?2, except when the cloud fraction was tenuous or contained little liquid water; thus the net effect of the clouds was to warm the surface. Both cold periods occurred under tenuous, or altogether absent, low-level clouds containing little liquid water, effectively reducing the cloud greenhouse effect. Freeze-up progression was enhanced by a combination of increasing solar zenith angles and surface albedo, while inhibited by a large, positive surface cloud forcing until a new air-mass with considerably less cloudiness advected over the experiment area.     

Large-scale and spatio-temporal extreme rain events over India: a hydrometeorological study

Frequency, intensity, areal extent (AE) and duration of rain spells during summer monsoon exhibit large intra-seasonal and inter-annual variations. Important features of the monsoon period large-scale wet spells over India have been documented. A main monsoon wet spell (MMWS) occurs over the country from 18 June to 16 September, during which, 26.5 % of the area receives rainfall 26.3 mm/day. Detailed characteristics of the MMWS period large-scale extreme rain events (EREs) and spatio-temporal EREs (ST-EREs), each concerning rainfall intensity (RI), AE and rainwater (RW), for 1 to 25 days have been studied using 1° gridded daily rainfall (1951–2007). In EREs, ‘same area’ (grids) is continuously wet, whereas in ST-EREs, ‘any area’ on the mean under wet condition for specified durations is considered. For the different extremes, second-degree polynomial gave excellent fit to increase in values from distribution of annual maximum RI and RW series with increase in duration. Fluctuations of RI, AE, RW and date of occurrence (or start) of the EREs and the ST-EREs did not show any significant trend. However, fluctuations of 1° latitude–longitude grid annual and spatial maximum rainfall showed highly significant increasing trend for 1 to 5 days, and unprecedented rains on 26–27 July 2005 over Mumbai could be a realization of this trend. The Asia–India monsoon intensity significantly influences the MMWS RW.     

Future climate of the Caribbean from a super-high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model

Present-day (1979–2003) and future (2075–2099) simulations of mean and extreme rainfall and temperature are examined using data from the Meteorological Research Institute super-high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model. Analyses are performed over the 20-km model grid for (1) a main Caribbean basin, (2) sub-regional zones, and (3) specific Caribbean islands. Though the model’s topography underestimates heights over the eastern Caribbean, it captures well the present-day spatial and temporal variations of seasonal and annual climates. Temperature underestimations range from 0.1 °C to 2 °C with respect to the Japanese Reanalysis and the Climatic Research Unit datasets. The model also captures fairly well sub-regional scale variations in the rainfall climatology. End-of-century projections under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change SRES A1B scenario indicate declines in rainfall amounts by 10–20 % for most of the Caribbean during the early (May–July) and late (August–October) rainy seasons relative to the 1979–2003 baselines. The early dry season (November–January) is also projected to get wetter in the far north and south Caribbean by approximately 10 %. The model also projects a warming of 2–3 °C over the Caribbean region. Analysis of future climate extremes indicate a 5–10 % decrease in the simple daily precipitation intensity but no significant change in the number of consecutive dry days for Cuba, Jamaica, southern Bahamas, and Haiti. There is also indication that the number of hot days and nights will significantly increase over the main Caribbean basin.     

Seasonal variation of lightning activity over the Indian subcontinent

The seasonal variation of lightning flash activity over the Indian subcontinent (0°N–35°N and 60°E–100°E) is studied using the quality checked monthly lightning flash data obtained from lightning imaging sensor on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite. This paper presents results of spatio-temporal variability of lightning activity over the Indian subcontinent. The study of seasonal total lightning flashes indicates that the lightning flash density values are in qualitative agreement with the convective activity observed over this region. Maximum seasonal total flash counts are observed during the monsoon season. The propagation of the inter-tropical convergence zone over this region is also confirmed. Synoptic conditions responsible for variation of lightning activity are also investigated with the help of an observed dataset. The mean monthly flash counts show a peak in the month of May, which is the month of maximum temperatures over this region. Maximum flash density (40.2 km^?2 season^?1) is observed during the pre-monsoon season at 25.2°N/91.6°E and the annual maximum flash density of 28.2 km^?2 year^?1 is observed at 33.2°N/74.6°E. The study of the inter-annual variability of flash counts exhibits bimodal nature with the first maximum in April/May and second maximum in August/September.     

Influence of the atmospheric conditions on PM<Subscript>10</Subscript> concentrations in Poznań, Poland

This study investigates atmospheric conditions’ influence on the mean and extreme characteristics of PM₁₀ concentrations in Poznań during the period 2006–2013. A correlation analysis was carried out to identify the most important meteorological variables influencing the seasonal dynamics of PM₁₀ concentrations. The highest absolute correlation values were obtained for planetary boundary layer height (r = ?0.57), thermal (daily minimum air temperature: r = ?0.51), anemological (average daily wind speed: r = ?0.37), and pluvial (precipitation occurrence: r = ?0.36) conditions, however the highest correlations were observed for temporal autocorrelations (1 day lag: r = 0.70). As regulated by law, extreme events were identified on the basis of daily threshold value i.e. 50 μg m^?3. On average, annually there are approximately 71.3 days anywhere in the city when the threshold value is exceeded, 46.6 % of those occur in winter. Additionally, 83.7 % of these cases have been found to be continuous episodes of a few days, with the longest one persisting for 22 days. The analysis of the macro-scale circulation patterns led to the identification of an easy-to-perceive seasonal relations between atmospheric fields that favour the occurrence of high PM₁₀ concentration, as well as synoptic situations contributing to the rapid air quality improvement. The highest PM₁₀ concentrations are a clear reaction to a decrease in air temperature by over 3 °C, with simultaneous lowering of PBL height, mean wind speed (by around 1 m s^?1) and changing dominant wind directions from western to eastern sectors. In most cases, such a situation is related to the expansion of a high pressure system over eastern Europe and weakening of the Icelandic Low. Usually, air quality conditions improve along with an intensification of westerlies associated with the occurrence of low pressure systems over western and central Europe. Opposite relations are distinguishable in summer, when air quality deterioration is related to the inflow of tropical air masses originating over the Sahara desert.     

Synoptic and thermodynamic characteristics of 30 March–2 April 2009 heavy rainfall event in Iran

A heavy rainfall event during the period from 30th of March to 2nd of April 2009 has been studied using upper air and surface data as well as NOAA HYSPLIT model. This observational study attempts to determine factors responsible for the occurrence of heavy rainfall over Iran induced by Mediterranean cyclone, a western severe sub-tropical storm that made rainfall on most regions of the country. On the surface chart, cyclones, anticyclones and weather fronts were identified. The positions of the cold and warm fronts, which extended from a two-core low pressure center, were quite in good agreements with directions of winds i.e., westerly, southerly and easterly flows as well as the regions of precipitation. The heavy rain event occurred due to a Mediterranean cyclone’s activity over the study area, while other conditions were also responsible for this event such as an unstable atmosphere condition with abundant low-level moisture, which the warm and moist air parcels were brought by the southwesterly low-level jet into the country from Persian Gulf, Oman Sea, Indian Ocean and Caspian Sea at lower levels as well as Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Persian Gulf at upper levels over the examined period. A strong low-level convergence zone was observed along the wind-shift line between the southwesterly flow because of the low-level jet and the northeasterly flow due to the Russian high pressure. The amount of precipitable water varied between 20 and 24 kg m^?2, surface moisture convergence exceeded 2.5 g kg^?1 s^?1 and the highest CAPE value in the sounding profiles was observed in Birjand site with 921 J kg^?1 during the study period. The HYSPLIT model outputs confirmed the observed synoptic features for the examined system over the country.     

Effects of the large-scale atmospheric circulation on the onset and strength of urban heat islands: a case study

Air temperature was monitored at 13 sites across the urban perimeter of a Brazilian midsize city in winter 2011. In this study, we show that the urban heat island (UHI) develops only at night and under certain weather conditions, and its intensity depends not only on the site's land cover but also on the meteorological setting. The urban heat island intensity was largest (6.6 °C) under lingering high-pressure conditions, milder (3.0 °C) under cold anticyclones and almost vanished (1.0 °C) during the passage of cold fronts. The cooling rates were calculated to monitor the growth and decay of the UHI over each specific synoptic setting. Over four contiguous days under the effect of a lingering high-pressure event, we observed that the onset of cooling was always at about 2 h before sunset. The reference site attained mean cooling rate of ?2.6 °C h^?1 at sunset, whilst the maximum urban rate was ?1.2 °C h^?1. Under a 3-day cold anticyclone episode, cooling also started about 2 h before sunset, and the difference between maximum rural (?2.0 °C h^?1) and urban (?1.0 °C h^?1) cooling rates diminished. Under cold-front conditions, the cooling rate was homogeneous for all sites and swang about zero throughout the day. The air temperature has a memory effect under lingering high-pressure conditions which intensified the UHI, in addition to the larger heat storage in the urban area. Cold anticyclone conditions promoted the development of the UHI; however, the cold air pool and relatively light winds smoothed out its intensity. Under the influence of cold fronts, the urban fabric had little effect on the city's air temperature field, and the UHI was imperceptible.