Variation in road surface temperature due to topography and wind

Summary The present study involves a discussion of nocturnal temperature variation due to topography and prevailing wind speed. It is part of the ongoing project Applied climatology for increased traffic safety and road maintenance, which aims at a development of a local climatological model applicable to winter road conditions. The temperature recordings which are used are from sensors in the Swedish Road Weather Information System in the county of Skaraborg.During clear and calm nights, local air temperature differences have been related to different topographical environments. The main factors resulting in large temperature differences are the effect of wind shelter, stagnation or production of cold air, and of cold air advection.Variation in air temperatures during clear and windy nights has also been studied. At wind speeds higher than 4–5 m/s, the temperature variation is low. With decreasing wind speed the variation in temperature increases, but only for sensor sites which have some wind shelter by topography or vegetation.The air temperature variation which develops during clear nights affects the road surface temperature. In this paper, the connection between road surface temperature differences and air temperature variation is discussed. A linear relationship between the two variables exists.With 5 Figures     

冬季高速公路路桥温度变化规律及能量平衡分析

利用2009年10月-2010年3月湖北省武英高速凤凰关水库自动气象站逐时路、桥面温度和常规气象资料,分析了冬季典型天空状况（晴空、阴天）和天气过程（雾、降雨、降雪）中气温、路面温度和桥面温度的变化规律。结果表明,夜间桥面温度与气温接近,比路面温度低2℃,桥面0℃以下的低温维持时间为路面维持时间的2倍左右。利用下垫面能量平衡模型,分别计算冬季夜间晴空和阴天时路、桥面辐射能量收支变化情况,分析了夜间路面和桥面温度变化差异的原因,并对桥面比路面更易结冰的现象给出了理论解释。     

The prediction of road surface state and simulation of the shading effect

In winter road maintenance, accurate predictions of road surface temperature and state (dry, wet, frost or ice) are valuable for road authorities and organisations to decide where and when to salt or grit roads. Obstructions caused by hills, buildings and trees near road-condition forecast sites both in the daytime and at night (the shading effect) reduce the accuracy of such predictions. This paper describes recent developments in the prediction of road surface state and the simulation of the shading effect, using the Icebreak model, which gives encouraging results.     

Dynamic normals of surface air temperature

Cited are the latest data on the contemporary climate changes in surface air temperature (to the year 2011 inclusive). Substantiated is the necessity of extending the concept on the normals and anomalies of surface air temperature under conditions of the changing climate. Formulated is a concept of “dynamic normals” and “dynamic anomalies” of surface air temperature taking account of current trends of climate change and interseasonal variations. It is proposed to adopt this concept both for the problems of forthcoming climate change assessments and for the long-range forecasting out of the “limit of predictability.” An adaptive regression method is proposed to compute such dynamic normals as a function of the indicator of global climate changes. Presented are the skill scores of dynamic normals as of “intermediate” forecasts (an analogue of the climate forecast under a changing climate).     

Historical effects of temperature and precipitation on California crop yields

For the 1980–2003 period, we analyzed the relationship between crop yield and three climatic variables (minimum temperature, maximum temperature, and precipitation) for 12 major Californian crops: wine grapes, lettuce, almonds, strawberries, table grapes, hay, oranges, cotton, tomatoes, walnuts, avocados, and pistachios. The months and climatic variables of greatest importance to each crop were used to develop regressions relating yield to climatic conditions. For most crops, fairly simple equations using only 2–3 variables explained more than two-thirds of observed yield variance. The types of variables and months identified suggest that relatively poorly understood processes such as crop infection, pollination, and dormancy may be important mechanisms by which climate influences crop yield. Recent climatic trends have had mixed effects on crop yields, with orange and walnut yields aided, avocado yields hurt, and most crops little affected by recent climatic trends. Yield-climate relationships can provide a foundation for forecasting crop production within a year and for projecting the impact of future climate changes.     

交通运输对道路两侧土壤及植物的影响研究展望

针对我国汽车工业的快速发展和机动车保有量迅速增加的状况,结合国内外相关研究成果,介绍了交通运输污染物的分类与来源,概述了交通运输对道路周围土壤及植物的影响。根据我国道路交通的实际,探讨了相关领域未来的研究方向,提出应以开发清洁替代能源和深入研究污染物在各环境介质中的迁移转化规律,进而减少污染物对人类的健康损害及筛选对交通运输特征污染物高富集的树种以阻断污染物的迁移为主。     

对地面温度异常情况的处理

从众多的地面温度观测记录来看,发现了很多地面最高温度表的记录和地面最低温度表的记录,分别比下午和上午地面0cm的值偏低和偏高许多,或者下午(上午)地面0cm温度表与地面最高温度表(地面最低温度表)读数相差较大的异常情况.以下就对这些情况出现的原因及处理方法提出一些看法和见解:     

Influences of the interannual variability of vegetation LAI on surface temperature

通过两组模式的集合模拟,本论文研究了植被叶面积指数的年际变化对地表温度的影响。结果表明叶面积指数的年际变化的影响信号整体弱于大气变率的噪声。但是,就空间分布而言,热带地区的影响信号强于中高纬度地区。这主要是由于热带地区的叶面积指数通过影响地表蒸散发导致其与地表温度具有显著的线性关系。     

Crop residue effects on surface radiation and energy balance — review

Summary Crop residues alter the surface properties of soils. Both shortwave albedo and longwave emissivity are affected. These are linked to an effect of residue on surface evaporation and water content. Water content influences soil physical properties and surface energy partitioning. In summary, crop residue acts to soil as clothing acts to skin. Compared to bare soil, crop residues can reduce extremes of heat and mass fluxes at the soil surface. Managing crop residues can result in more favorable agronomic soil conditions. This paper reviews research results of the quantity, quality, architecture, and surface distribution of crop residues on soil surface radiation and energy balances, soil water content, and soil temperature.With 6 Figures     

Radiative surface temperature and energy balance of a wheat canopy

The sensible heat loss from a stand of winter wheat was calculated from radiometric measurements of crop surface temperature, measurements of air temperature, and an atmospheric resistance to momentum transfer; corresponding latent heat flux was obtained through the energy balance equation. These estimates of sensible and latent heat were compared with fluxes from the Bowen Ratio method. When radiative temperature was derived using a measured canopy emissivity of 0.98, calculations of sensible heat flux were systematically 50–100 W m^-2 less than Bowen Ratio values. The two techniques agreed more closely when an apparent emissivity of 0.96 was used with an apparent reflectivity of 0.03. The mean difference between the estimates of latent heat flux was then -16 ± 32 W m^-2.The surface temperature method showed less systematic error in comparison with the Bowen Ratio values than did estimates using the aerodynamic method.On leave from: University of Nottingham, School of Agriculture, Loughborough LE12 5RD.     

The impacts of a plume-rise scheme on earth system modeling: climatological effects of biomass aerosols on the surface temperature and energy budget of South America

Theoretical and Applied Climatology - Seasonal forest fires in the Amazon are the largest source of pollutants in South America. The impacts of aerosols due to biomass burning on the temperature...     

Sahel rainfall and decadal to multi-decadal sea surface temperature variability

Decadal Sahelian rainfall variability was mainly driven by sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during the twentieth century. At the same time SSTs showed a marked long-term global warming (GW) trend. Superimposed on this long-term trend decadal and multi-decadal variability patterns are observed like the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) and the inter-decadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO). Using an atmospheric general circulation model we investigate the relative contribution of each component to the Sahelian precipitation variability. To take into account the uncertainty related to the use of different SST data sets, we perform the experiments using HadISST1 and ERSSTv3 reconstructed sets. The simulations show that all three SST signals have a significant impact over West Africa: the positive phases of the GW and the IPO lead to drought over the Sahel, while a positive AMO enhances Sahel rainfall. The tropical SST warming is the main cause for the GW impact on Sahel rainfall. Regarding the AMO, the pattern of anomalous precipitation is established by the SSTs in the Atlantic and Mediterranean basins. In turn, the tropical SST anomalies control the impact of the IPO component on West Africa. Our results suggest that the low-frequency evolution of Sahel rainfall can be interpreted as the competition of three factors: the effect of the GW, the AMO and the IPO. Following this interpretation, our results show that 50% of the SST-driven Sahel drought in the 1980s is explained by the change to a negative phase of the AMO, and that the GW contribution was 10%. In addition, the partial recovery of Sahel rainfall in recent years was mainly driven by the AMO.     

Mean seasonal and spatial variability in global surface air temperature

Summary Using terrestrial observations of shelter-height air temperature and shipboard measurements, a global climatology of mean monthly surface air temperature has been compiled. Data were obtained from ten sources, screened for coding errors, and redundant station records were removed. The combined data base consists of 17 986 independent terrestrial station records and 6 955 oceanic grid-point records. These data were then interpolated to a 0.5° of latitude by 0.5° of longitude lattice using a spherically-based interpolation algorithm. Spatial distributions of the annual mean and intra-annual variance are presented along with a harmonic decomposition of the intra-annual variance.With 7 Figures     

The effect of water surface temperature on lake breezes and thermal internal boundary layers

A two-dimensional prognostic numerical model has been used to study a lake breeze event reported by Keen and Lyons (1978). Model predictions showed fair to good agreement with the observations. For the mature lake breeze, the model predicted inflow at the coast within about 1.5 m s^–1 of the observed value, lake breeze depth within 50–90 m of the observed, and inland penetration within about 6 km of the observed. The top of the thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) was associated with a minimum in the predicted turbulent kinetic energy profile. This may be of consequence for attempts to evaluate pollutant dispersion using numerical models.Predicted lake breeze characteristics showed little sensitivity to temperature of the water surface, except when the water surface temperature was increased to a value exceeding the inland maximum temperature. The most sensitive lake breeze characteristic was the TIBL, which grew more slowly with inland distance and persisted for a greater distance inland as the lake surface became colder.     

The impact of climatic and non-climatic factors on land surface temperature in southwestern Romania

Land surface temperature is one of the most important parameters related to global warming. It depends mainly on soil type, discontinuous vegetation cover, or lack of precipitation. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between high LST, synoptic conditions and air masses trajectories, vegetation cover, and soil type in one of the driest region in Romania. In order to calculate the land surface temperature and normalized difference vegetation index, five satellite images of LANDSAT missions 5 and 7, covering a period of 26 years (1986–2011), were selected, all of them collected in the month of June. The areas with low vegetation density were derived from normalized difference vegetation index, while soil types have been extracted from Corine Land Cover database. HYSPLIT application was employed to identify the air masses origin based on their backward trajectories for each of the five study cases. Pearson, logarithmic, and quadratic correlations were used to detect the relationships between land surface temperature and observed ground temperatures, as well as between land surface temperature and normalized difference vegetation index. The most important findings are: strong correlation between land surface temperature derived from satellite images and maximum ground temperature recorded in a weather station located in the area, as well as between areas with land surface temperature equal to or higher than 40.0 °C and those with lack of vegetation; the sandy soils are the most prone to high land surface temperature and lack of vegetation, followed by the chernozems and brown soils; extremely severe drought events may occur in the region.     

Synoptic-scale anomalies of Lake Ladoga surface temperature fields

Results of studying characteristic features of variability of the water surface temperature fields of Lake Ladoga during the open water period are presented. Anomalies and extreme deviations of real spatial distributions from those typical of the scales of synoptic variability are estimated. Typical surface temperature distribution of Lake Ladoga during an open water period occupies not more than 20% of the lake area. The near-shore shallow water area is characterized as an area of most anomalous water temperature distribution. The abnormality extent changes from month to month. July is the most anomalous month of the open water period.     

Soil moisture effects on seasonal temperature and precipitation forecast scores in Europe

The Second Global Land Atmosphere Coupling Experiment (GLACE2) is designed to explore the improvement of forecast skill of summertime temperature and precipitation up to 8?weeks ahead by using realistic soil moisture initialization. For the European continent, we show in this study that for temperature the skill does indeed increase up to 6 weeks, but areas with (statistically significant) lower skill also exist at longer lead times. The skill improvement is smaller than shown earlier for the US, partly because of a lower potential predictability of the European climate at seasonal time scales. Selection of extreme soil moisture conditions or a subset of models with similar initial soil moisture conditions does improve the forecast skill, and sporadic positive effects are also demonstrated for precipitation. Using realistic initial soil moisture data increases the interannual variability of temperature compared to the control simulations in the South-Central European area at longer lead times. This leads to better temperature forecasts in a remote area in Western Europe. However, the covered range of forecast dates (1986–1995) is too short to isolate a clear physical mechanism for this remote correlation.