The role of natural climatic variation in perturbing the observed global mean temperature trend

Controversy continues to prevail concerning the reality of anthropogenically-induced climatic warming. One of the principal issues is the cause of the hiatus in the current global warming trend. There appears to be a widely held view that climatic change warming should exhibit an inexorable upwards trend, a view that implies there is no longer any input by climatic variability in the existing climatic system. The relative roles of climatic change and climatic variability are examined here using the same coupled global climatic model. For the former, the model is run using a specified CO₂ growth scenario, while the latter consisted of a multi-millennial simulation where any climatic variability was attributable solely to internal processes within the climatic system. It is shown that internal climatic variability can produce global mean surface temperature anomalies of ±0.25?K and sustained positive and negative anomalies sufficient to account for the anomalous warming of the 1940s as well as the present hiatus in the observed global warming. The characteristics of the internally-induced negative temperature anomalies are such that if this internal natural variability is the cause of the observed hiatus, then a resumption of the observed global warming trend is to be expected within the next few years.     

Potential vorticity and eddy potential enstrophy in the North Atlantic Ocean simulated by a global eddy-resolving model

Eight-year daily mean output of a quasi-global eddy-resolving model is examined with a focus on the large-scale dynamical characteristics of the North Atlantic Ocean in a framework of potential vorticity (PV) and its derivatives. The model has reproduced some of the observed features of the mean potential vorticity field well. The three-dimensional structure of the mean potential vorticity supports baroclinic instability in most of the basin. Eddies are found to play important roles in the formation and maintenance of the mean potential vorticity fields. The contribution of relative vorticity to the mean potential vorticity field is found to be negligible for the most part. However, relative vorticity contribution to the source/sink of potential vorticity and eddy potential enstrophy is not negligible. We also find that eddies are not necessarily diffusive even on a basin-scale.     

Increasing impacts of climate change upon ecosystems with increasing global mean temperature rise

In a meta-analysis we integrate peer-reviewed studies that provide quantified estimates of future projected ecosystem changes related to quantified projected local or global climate changes. In an advance on previous analyses, we reference all studies to a common pre-industrial base-line for temperature, employing up-scaling techniques where necessary, detailing how impacts have been projected on every continent, in the oceans, and for the globe, for a wide range of ecosystem types and taxa. Dramatic and substantive projected increases of climate change impacts upon ecosystems are revealed with increasing annual global mean temperature rise above the pre-industrial mean (ΔT_g). Substantial negative impacts are commonly projected as ΔT_g reaches and exceeds 2°C, especially in biodiversity hotspots. Compliance with the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Article 2) requires that greenhouse gas concentrations be stabilized within a time frame “sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change”. Unless ΔT_g is constrained to below 2°C at most, results here imply that it will be difficult to achieve compliance. This underscores the need to limit greenhouse gas emissions by accelerating mitigation efforts and by protecting existing ecosystems from greenhouse-gas producing land use change processes such as deforestation.     

Climatic noise and potential predictability of monthly mean temperature over China

Summary In this paper, based on the data at 162 stations selected over China from 1960 to 1991 the climatic noise and potential predictability of monthly mean temperature have been studied. The method of estimating climatic noise is based on the idea of Yamamoto et al. (1985) and the potential predictability is expressed by the ratio of the estimated inter-annual variation to the estimated natural variation (or climatic noise). Generally the climatic noise of monthly mean temperature increases with latitude and altitude and varies with season. The continental air from Siberia and Mongolia plays a significant role and the ocean acts as an adjustor and a reductor in the climatic noise except for the tropical Pacific ocean in transitional season. The potential predictability is diversified from month to month and one station to another, but generally the monthly mean temperature over China is potentially predictable at statistical significance level 0.10. The results suggest that we could not ask a climate model to predict the climate with satisfactory results worldwide in all seasons and that the regional model could be a hopeful way to predict the climate.With 3 Figures     

A study of marine aerosols over the Pacific Ocean

Aerosol samples were collected on a Pacific cruise from 47°N to 55°S. Particle morphology, concentrations, and size distributions were analyzed with an electron microscope; elemental compositions of individual particles were determined with an X-ray energy spectrometer; and chemical compositions of bulk samples were measured with an ion chromatograph. Temporal and spatial variations of aerosol physico-chemical characteristics were studied in relation to ocean currents and atmospheric parameters. The results show that number and mass concentrations of primary particles depend mainly on surface wind speeds. However the ratios between the major ions, e.g., Na⁺, Cl^-, and Mg⁺⁺, are similar to the ratios in seawater regardless of location or meteorological conditions. The concentrations of secondary aerosols, e.g., non-seasalt sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium particles, show maxima at upwelling regions, such as along the California coast, at the Equator, and near the Chatham Rise where ascending motion brings nutrient-riched deep water into the surface layer. The number concentrations of small sulfate particles and large nitrate-coated particles showed diurnal variations with maxima in the early afternoon and minima at night, indicating that the particles are the products of photo-chemical reactions. Their precursor gases, e.g., CH₃SCH₃, NO, and NH₃ are known to be released from seawater in upwelling regions where biological activities thrive.     

赤道海温异常与大气的垂直环流圈

本文用实测风资料计算了赤道海面大范围异常增暖和冷却时期太平洋地区的平均径圈环流和赤道附近的平均纬圈环流。结果表明,赤道东太平洋的海面温度变化对这两种垂直环流圈有着显著的影响,并且通过这两种环流圈的相互作用,影响北太平洋付热带高压的长期变化。     

Potential vorticity analysis of quasi-biweekly rainfall events over the Yangtze Basin in summer 2014

2014年夏季长江流域(YRV)发生的多次阶段性强降水事件显著地受10-20天准双周振荡所调控.代表性振荡过程与合成分析表明,准双周湿位相主要取决于对流层高层南侵的高位势涡度(PV)与低纬度向西南平流的高PV导致南亚高压形态改变而产生的YRV高空辐散.高空向南的正PV平流与低层南风输送的负PV平流在YRV上空形成正的PV平流垂直梯度,激发出等熵面位移的上升运动分量;高空的高PV同时向中低层伸展,导致等熵面坡度增大从而增强气块沿等熵面上滑的上升运动分量,由此产生更强的非绝热有关的上升运动分量.干位相情况则相反.     

北太平洋爆发性气旋的气候特征

利用1968—1987年的海平面天气图资料,分析了爆发性气旋的气候特点。主要内容有：爆发性气旋的发生频率,频率的时间分布,地理分布,大风强度及分布方位、气旋爆发前后的大风、中心气压、加深率等要素的变化。     

The Effect of Regional Ocean-Atmosphere Coupling on the Long-term Variability in the Pacific Ocean

A fully coupled ocean-atmosphere model is applied to highlight the mechanism of the long-term variability (including decadal and longer time scales) in the Pacific Ocean. We are interested in the effect of ocean-atmosphere coupling of different regions during these processes. The control run successfully simulates the Pacific long-term variability, whose leading modes are the Pacific (inter) Decadal Oscillation (PDO) and the North Pacific mode (NPM). Furthermore, three numerical experiments are conducted, s...     

Aircraft measurements of boundary-layer turbulence over the central Equatorial Pacific Ocean

We analyze gust probe measurements obtained in the convective boundary layer over the central equatorial Pacific as part of the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Climate Studies (EPOCS) program. From the lowest level flights, the bulk transfer coefficients are found to be 1.1 × 10^-3 and 1.4 × 10^-3 for latent and sensible heat fluxes, respectively. Vertical profiles of water vapor density, potential temperature and wind velocity are obtained as are the profiles of the fluxes of latent and sensible heat and momentum. From the extrapolated profiles, we obtain surface fluxes of 120 W m^-2 and 13 W m^-2 for latent and sensible heat, respectively, and 0.11 N m^-2 for momentum. The 10 m drag coefficient is 1.5 × 10^-3. Two convergence boxes, north and south of the ITCZ, are analyzed. Enhanced convergence is found in the northern trades relative to the southern trades. The advective acceleration is found to be comparable in magnitude to the other terms in the horizontal equations of motion.     

Asymmetric distribution of convection in tropical cyclones over the western North Pacific Ocean

Forecasts of the intensity and quantitative precipitation of tropical cyclones(TCs) are generally inaccurate, because the strength and structure of a TC show a complicated spatiotemporal pattern and are affected by various factors. Among these, asymmetric convection plays an important role. This study investigates the asymmetric distribution of convection in TCs over the western North Pacific during the period 2005–2012, based on data obtained from the Feng Yun 2(FY2)geostationary satellite. The asymmetric distributions of the incidence, intensity and morphology of convections are analyzed.Results show that the PDFs of the convection occurrence curve to the azimuth are sinusoidal. The rear-left quadrant relative to TC motion shows the highest occurrence rate of convection, while the front-right quadrant has the lowest. In terms of intensity, weak convections are favored in the front-left of a TC at large distances, whereas strong convections are more likely to appear to the rear-right of a TC within a 300 km range. More than 70% of all MCSs examined here are elongated systems, and meso-β enlongated convective systems(MβECSs) are the most dominant type observed in the outer region of a TC. Smaller MCSs tend to be more concentrated near the center of a TC. While semi-circular MCSs [MβCCSs, MCCs(mesoscale convective complexes)] show a high incidence rate to the rear of a TC, elongated MCSs [MβECSs, PECSs(persistent elongated convective systems)] are more likely to appear in the rear-right quadrant of a TC within a range of 400 km.     

Modes of SST variability and the fluctuation of global mean temperature

Annually averaged global mean land air temperature and sea surface temperature (SST) combined, and global mean SST alone share similar fluctuations. We examine contributions by modes of SST variability in the global mean SST based on a new version (version 3) of global sea-ice and SST (GISST3). Besides a trend mode, the dominant modes are El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), interhemispheric oscillation, and North Pacific oscillation. Statistics over the period of 1880–1997 show that excluding a warming trend the fluctuation on interannual (IA) and decadal-interdecadal (DID) time scales is dominated by IA ENSO and DID ENSO-like variability. However, the contribution by IA ENSO cycles experiences significant fluctuations, and there appears to be strong modulations by ENSO-like variability on DID or longer time scales: during several decade-long periods, when DID ENSO-like variability raises the temperature in the equatorial eastern Pacific, the contribution by IA ENSO cycles weakens to an insignificant level. The latest example of such modulation is the period since about 1980; despite the exceptional strength of El Niño events, the contribution by IA ENSO cycles weakens, suggesting that the exceptional strength is a consequence of superposition of IA El Niño events, a warming phase of DID ENSO-like variability, and possibly an ENSO-like warming trend.     

Three－dimensional Global Scale Permanent－wave Solutions of the Nonlinear Quasigeostrophic Potential Vorticity Equation and Energy Dispersion

The three-dimensional nonlinear quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity equation is reduced to a linear form in the stream function in spherical coordinates for the permanent wave solutions consisting of zonal wavenumbers from 0 to n and rn vertical components with a given degree n. This equation is solved by treating the coefficient of the Coriolis parameter square in the equation as the eigenvalue both for sinusoidal and hyperbolic variations in vertical direction. It is found that these solutions can represent the observed long term flow patterns at the surface and aloft over the globe closely. In addition, the sinusoidal vertical solutions with large eigenvalue G are trapped in low latitude, and the scales of these trapped modes are longer than 10 deg. lat. even for the top layer of the ocean and hence they are much larger than that given by the equatorial β-plane solutions. Therefore such baroclinic disturb-ances in the ocean can easily interact with those in the atmosphere.Solutions of the shallow water potential vorticity equation are treated in a similar manner but with the effective depth H = RT / g taken as limited within a small range for the atmosphere.The propagation of the flow energy of the wave packet consisting of more than one degree is found to be along the great circle around the globe both for barotropic and for baroclinic flows in the atmosphere.     

Long-term trend analysis for temperature in the Jinsha River Basin in China

On the basis of the mean annual and seasonal temperatures from 30 meteorological stations in the Jinsha River Basin (JRB) from 1961 to 2008, the temperature trends are analyzed by using Mann–Kendall test and linear trend analysis. There is an increasing trend in mean annual and seasonal temperatures during this period, and the increasing trends in winter seem more significant than those in the other three seasons. The mean annual temperature has increased by 0.0158°C/year during the last 48 years. There are more than 70% of stations exhibiting increasing trends for annual and seasonal temperatures. The increasing trends in the headwater and upper reaches are more dominant than those in the middle and lower reaches. The largest increase magnitude occurred in the low temperature area, while the largest decrease magnitude occurred in the high temperature area. The decreasing trends are mainly characterized for the maximum temperature time series, and summer is the only season showing a slight and insignificant increasing trend. All the time series showed a statistically significant increasing trend at the level of α?=?0.05 for the minimum temperature time series. As a whole, the increasing magnitude of the minimum temperature is significantly greater than the decreasing magnitude of the maximum temperature.     

Warming over the North Pacific can intensify snow events in Northeast China

冬季降雪是影响东北地区农业、生态、经济发展的一重大自然灾害。以往研究表明东北冬季降雪在近几十年有着显著的年代际增加,而其降雪强度如何变化,研究相对较少。因此,本文主要分析了近几十年东北地区冬季降雪强度的变化特征及其与前秋北太平洋海温的关系。结果表明,北太平洋海温增暖能够导致东亚和北太平洋上空出现反气旋异常,东北地区盛行南风异常,北风减弱,有利于水汽从南往北输送,从而加强了近几十年来东北地区冬季降雪强度。因此,前秋北太平洋海温可作为东北冬季降雪预测的一个潜在因子。     

On the climate response of the low-latitude Pacific Ocean to changes in the global freshwater cycle

Under global warming, the predicted intensification of the global freshwater cycle will modify the net freshwater flux at the ocean surface. Since the freshwater flux maintains ocean salinity structures, changes to the density-driven ocean circulation are likely. A modified ocean circulation could further alter the climate, potentially allowing rapid changes, as seen in the past. The relevant feedback mechanisms and timescales are poorly understood in detail, however, especially at low latitudes where the effects of salinity are relatively subtle. In an attempt to resolve some of these outstanding issues, we present an investigation of the climate response of the low-latitude Pacific region to changes in freshwater forcing. Initiated from the present-day thermohaline structure, a control run of a coupled ocean–atmosphere general circulation model is compared with a perturbation run in which the net freshwater flux is prescribed to be zero over the ocean. Such an extreme experiment helps to elucidate the general adjustment mechanisms and their timescales. The atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are held constant, and we restrict our attention to the adjustment of the upper 1,000 m of the Pacific Ocean between 40°N and 40°S, over 100 years. In the perturbation run, changes to the surface buoyancy, near-surface vertical mixing and mixed-layer depth are established within 1 year. Subsequently, relative to the control run, the surface of the low-latitude Pacific Ocean in the perturbation run warms by an average of 0.6°C, and the interior cools by up to 1.1°C, after a few decades. This vertical re-arrangement of the ocean heat content is shown to be achieved by a gradual shutdown of the heat flux due to isopycnal (i.e. along surfaces of constant density) mixing, the vertical component of which is downwards at low latitudes. This heat transfer depends crucially upon the existence of density-compensating temperature and salinity gradients on isopycnal surfaces. The timescale of the thermal changes in the perturbation run is therefore set by the timescale for the decay of isopycnal salinity gradients in response to the eliminated freshwater forcing, which we demonstrate to be around 10–20 years. Such isopycnal heat flux changes may play a role in the response of the low-latitude climate to a future accelerated freshwater cycle. Specifically, the mechanism appears to represent a weak negative sea surface temperature feedback, which we speculate might partially shield from view the anthropogenically-forced global warming signal at low latitudes. Furthermore, since the surface freshwater flux is shown to play a role in determining the ocean’s thermal structure, it follows that evaporation and/or precipitation biases in general circulation models are likely to cause sea surface temperature biases.     

The biogeochemical sulfur cycle in the marine boundary layer over the Northeast Pacific Ocean

The major components of the marine boundary layer biogeochemical sulfur cycle were measured simultaneously onshore and off the coast of Washington State, U.S.A. during May 1987. Seawater dimethylsulfide (DMS) concentrations on the continental shelf were strongly influenced by coastal upwelling. Concentration further offshore were typical of summer values (2.2 nmol/L) at this latitude. Although seawater DMS concentrations were high on the biologically productive continental shelf (2–12 nmol/L), this region had no measurable effect on atmospheric DMS concentrations. Atmospheric DMS concentrations (0.1–12 nmol/m³), however, were extremely dependent upon wind speed and boundary layer height. Although there appeared to be an appreciable input of non-sea-salt sulfate to the marine boundary layer from the free troposphere, the local flux of DMS from the ocean to the atmosphere was sufficient to balance the remainder of the sulfur budget.