Study on the Trace Species in the Stratosphere and Their Impact on Climate

The trace gases （O3, HCl, CH4, H2O, NO, NO2） in the stratosphere play an important role, not only in the photochemical processes in which the ozone layer destroyed, but also in the radiative processes. In this paper, we review the works on the distribution and variation of the trace gases in the stratosphere and their impact on climate, which have been carried out at the University of Science and Technology of China in the recent 20 years. The Halogen Occultation Experiment （HALOE） data were used to analyse the distribution and variation of the mixing ratio of these trace gases and the temperature trends in the stratosphere in the most recent decade. And the reanalyzed National Centers of Environmental Prediction （NCEP）/NCAR data were also used to give the temperature trends and compared with the results from HALOE data. Numerical simulations were also carried out to study the impact of ozone depletion on the global climate. In this review, the distributions of the trace gases, especially those over the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, are discussed, and the variations and trends for the trace gases in various levels in the stratosphere have been given for the most recent decade. The temperature variation and the cooling trend obtained from HALOE data in the middle and lower stratosphere for the last 13 years are significant, which agree well with the results from NCEP/NCAR data. While the temperature trend in the upper stratosphere in this period do not seem to have much cooling. The numerical simulations show that either the Antarctic ozone hole or the ozone valley over Qinghai-Xizang Plateau affect not only the temperature and circulation in the stratosphere, but also the temperature, pressure and wind fields in the troposphere, then lead to the global climate change.     

A Modeling Study of Climate Change and Its Implication for Agriculture in China Part II: The Implication of Climate Change for Agriculture in China

The potential CO2-induced impacts on the geographical shifts of wheat growth zones in China were studied from seven GCMs outputs. The wheat growth regions may move northward and westward under the condition of a doubling CO2 climate. The wheat cultivation features and variety types may also assume significant changes. Climatic warming would have a positive influence in Northeast China, but high temperature stress may be produced in some regions of central and southern China. Higher mean air temperatures during wheat growth, particularly during the reproductive stages, may increase the need for earlier-maturing and more heat-tolerant cultivars.     

Numerical Simulation for the Impact of Deforestation on Climate in China and Its Neighboring Regions

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Evaluation of the Climatic Change Impacts on the Inland Lake – A Case Study of Lake Qinghai, China

A catchment model coupled with a lake thermal model has been used to simulate the lake water balance of Lake Qinghai, a large inland lake on the northeast Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in China. The sensitivity analyses show that changes in precipitation will produce larger changes in runoff than temperature and cloudiness, whereas changes in lake level are equally sensitive to changes in temperature and precipitation. With a doubling of CO₂ in the atmosphere, four GCMs experiments predict warmer and wetter conditions in the Qinghai region than at present. The total runoff in the lake basin and evaporation will, in most cases, increase as conditions become warmer and wetter. The lake level changes would remain uncertain because the effects of an increase in precipitation are countered by the rise of temperature.     

Recent Progress in the Impact of the Tibetan Plateau on Climate in China

Studies of the impacts of the Tibetan Plateau （TP） on climate in China in the last four years are reviewed. It is reported that temperature and precipitation over the TP have increased during recent decades. From satellite data analysis, it is demonstrated that most of the precipitation over the TP is from deep convection clouds. Moreover, the huge TP mechanical forcing and extraordinary elevated thermal forcing impose remarkable impacts upon local circulation and global climate. In winter and spring, stream flow is deflected by a large obstacle and appears as an asymmetric dipole, making East Asia much colder than mid Asia in winter and forming persistent rainfall in late winter and early spring over South China. In late spring, TP heating contributes to the establishment and intensification of the South Asian high and the abrupt seasonal transition of the surrounding circulations. In summer, TP heating in conjunction with the TP air pump cause the deviating stream field to resemble a cyclonic spiral, converging towards and rising over the TP. Therefore, the prominent Asian monsoon climate over East Asia and the dry climate over mid Asia in summer are forced by both TP local forcing and Eurasian continental forcing.
Due to the longer memory of snow and soil moisture, the TP thermal status both in summer and in late winter and spring can influence the variation of Eastern Asian summer rainfall. A combined index using both snow cover over the TP and the ENSO index in winter shows a better seasonal forecast.
On the other hand, strong sensible heating over the Tibetan Plateau in spring contributes significantly to anchor the earliest Asian monsoon being over the eastern Bay of Bengal （BOB） and the western Indochina peninsula. Qualitative prediction of the BOB monsoon onset was attempted by using the sign of meridional temperature gradient in March in the upper troposphere, or at 400 hPa over the TP. It is also demonstrated by a numerical experiment and theoretical study that the heating over the TP lea     

The Influence of ENSO on the Summer Climate Change in China and Its Mechanism

The influence of ENSO on the summer climate change in China and its mechanism from the observed data is discussed. It is discovered that in the developing stage of ENSO, the SST in the western tropical Pacific is colder in summer, the convective activities may be weak around the South China Sea and the Philippines. As a consequence, the subtropical high shifted southward. Therefore, a drought may be caused in the Indo-China peninsula and in the South China. Moreover, in midsummer the subtropical high is weak over the Yangtze River valley and Huaihe River valley, and the flood may be caused in the area from the Yangtze River valley to Huaihe River valley. On the contrary, in the decaying stage of ENSO. the convective activities may be strong around the Philippines, and the subtropical high shifted northward, a drought may be caused in the Yangtze River valley and Huaihe River valley.     

Numerical Simulation Study on the Scientific and Methodological Aspects of the Brazilian Proposal

1. IntroductionObservations of surface air temperature indicatethat a significant global average warming has occurredduring the 20th century. The Intergovernmental Panelon Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) concludes that thereis new and stronger evidence that man has influencedthe climate. International negotiations have led to afirst step in combating climate change with the UnitedNations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, but further stepsare needed in …     

A Diagnostic Study of the Impact of El Nion on the Precipitation in China

1.IntroductionEINifioisthemostoutstandinginterannualvariabilityintheocean.Itiswellknownthattheheatsourcedrivingtheatmosphericgeneralcirculationismainlywithinthetropics.EINinooccursinthetropicalPacificandthewarmingoftheoceanduringtheEINinocancoveralar...     

Using Statistical Downscaling to Quantify the GCM-Related Uncertainty in Regional Climate Change Scenarios： A Case Study of Swedish Precipitation

There are a number of sources of uncertainty in regional climate change scenarios. When statistical downscaling is used to obtain regional climate change scenarios, the uncertainty may originate from the uncertainties in the global climate models used, the skill of the statistical model, and the forcing scenarios applied to the global climate model. The uncertainty associated with global climate models can be evaluated by examining the differences in the predictors and in the downscaled climate change scenarios based on a set of different global climate models. When standardized global climate model simulations such as the second phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project （CMIP2） are used, the difference in the downscaled variables mainly reflects differences in the climate models and the natural variability in the simulated climates. It is proposed that the spread of the estimates can be taken as a measure of the uncertainty associated with global climate models. The proposed method is applied to the estimation of global-climate-model-related uncertainty in regional precipitation change scenarios in Sweden. Results from statistical downscaling based on 17 global climate models show that there is an overall increase in annual precipitation all over Sweden although a considerable spread of the changes in the precipitation exists. The general increase can be attributed to the increased large-scale precipitation and the enhanced westerly wind. The estimated uncertainty is nearly independent of region. However, there is a seasonal dependence. The estimates for winter show the highest level of confidence, while the estimates for summer show the least.     

Current Progresses in Study of Impacts of the Tibetan Plateau on Asian Summer Climate

The current progresses in the study of impacts of the Tibetan Plateau on Asian summer climate in the last decade are reviewed. By analyzing evolution of the transitional zone between westerly to the north and easterly to the south (WEB), it is shown that due to the strong heating over the Tibetan Plateau in spring, the overturning in the prevailing wind direction from easterly in winter to westerly in summer occurs firstly over the eastern Bay of Bengal (BOB), accompanied with vigorous convective precipitation to its east. The area between eastern BOB and western Indo-China Peninsula thus becomes the area with the earliest onset of Asian monsoon, which may be referred as BOB monsoon in short. It is shown that the summertime circulations triggered by the thermal forcing of the Iranian Plateau and the Tibetan Plateau are embedded in phase with the continental-scale circulation forced by the diabatic heating over the Eurasian Continent. As a result, the East Asian summer monsoon is intensified and the drought climate over the western and central Asian areas is enhanced. Together with perturbations triggered by the Tibetan Plateau, the above scenarios and the associated heating have important influences on the climate patterns over Asia. Furthermore, the characteristics of the Tibetan mode of the summertime South Asian high are compared with those of Iranian mode. Results demonstrate that corresponding to each of the bimodality of the South Asian high, the rainfall anomaly distributions over Asia exhibit different patterns.     

Urban Bias in Temperature Time Series – a Case Study for the City of Vienna, Austria

Compared with other large cities Vienna shows different urban development characteristics. The city has had a zero population growth during 1951–1995, a period of rapid growth elsewhere. In spite of its stagnating population of about 1,6 million Vienna has had development in other areas: a doubling of living floor space, a two and a half-fold increase in total energy consumption, a 60% rise of traffic area. In contrast, forests have been reduced by 20% and grasslands within the city borders by 30%. Of the 34 temperature recording stations in the study area of 1450 km², nine series passed the quality tests after careful homogenization. Three of these were in the rural environment and were used as reference series for the urban temperature excess at the other six stations in the urbanized area. The urban excess temperatures vary from site to site: from 0.2 K in suburban areas up to 1.6 K in densely built-up areas. The Vienna case study illustrates two features of more than local interest which should be considered in urban climatology as well as in time series studies where the urban temperature excess is regarded as a bias. Firstly, in a city with constant population the urban heat excess shows significant to strongly significant trends of up to 0.6 K in 45 years due to changes in urban morphology and energy consumption. Secondly, the urban heat island and its trend cannot be regarded simply for the city as a whole. There are different absolute levels, different annual variations and different increases of the urban temperature excess in different parts of a city. The urban effect is more strongly influenced by the local surroundings of the site than by the city as a whole. So, if possible, urban heat islands should not be described by a two station approach only (the typical airport-downtown comparison), nor should it rely on regression between population number and heat island.     

Long-Term Trend and Abrupt Change for Major Climate Variables in the Upper Yellow River Basin

On the basis of the mean air temperature, precipitation, sunshine duration, and pan evaporation from 23 meteorological stations in the upper Yellow River Basin from 1960 to 2001, the feasibility of using hypothesis test techniques to detect the long-term trend for major climate variables has been investigated. Parametric tests are limited by the assumptions such as the normality and constant variance of the error terms. Nonparametric tests have not these additional assumptions and are better adapted to the trend test for hydro-meteorological time series. The possible trends of annual and monthly climatic time series are detected by using a non-parametric method and the abrupt changes have been examined in terms of 5-yr moving averaged seasonal and annual series by using moving T-test (MTT) method, Yamamoto method, and Mann-Kendall method. The results show that the annual mean temperature has increased by 0.8℃in the upper Yellow River Basin during the past 42 years. The warmest center was located in the northern part of the basin. The nonlinear tendency for annual precipitation was negative during the same period. The declining center for annual precipitation was located in the eastern part and the center of the basin. The variation of annual precipitation in the upper Yellow River Basin during the past 42 years exhibited an increasing tendency from 1972 to 1989 and a decreasing tendency from 1990 to 2001. The nonlinear tendencies for annual sunshine duration and pan evaporation were also negative. They have decreased by 125.6 h and 161.3 mm during the past 42 years, respectively. The test for abrupt changes by using MTT method shows that an abrupt wanning occurred in the late 1980s. An abrupt change of the annual mean precipitation occurred in the middle 1980s and an abrupt change of the mean sunshine duration took place in the early 1980s. For the annual mean pan evaporation, two abrupt changes took place in the 1980s and the early 1990s. The test results of the Yamamoto method show that the abrupt changes mostly occurred in the 1980s, and two acute abrupt changes were tested for the spring pan evaporation in 1981 and for the annual mean temperature in 1985. According to the Mann-Kendall method, the abrupt changes of the temperature mainly occurred in the 1990s, the pan evaporation abrupt changes mostly occurred in the 1960s, and the abrupt changes of the sunshine duration primarily took place in the 1980s. Although the results obtained by using three methods are different, it is undoubted that jumps have indeed occurred in the last four decades.     

A Modeling Study of Climatic Change and Its Implication for Agriculture in C

The trends and features of China’s climatic change in the past and future are analysed by applying station obser-vations and GCM simulation results. Nationally, the country has warmed by 0.3oC in annual mean air temperature and decreased by 5% in annual precipitation over 1951-1990. Regionally, temperature change has varied from a cooling of 0.3oC in Southwest China to a warming of 1.0oC in Northeast China. With the exception of South China, all regions of China have shown a declination in precipitation. Climatic change has the features of increasing remark-ably in winter temperature and decreasing obviously in summer precipitation. Under doubled CO2 concentration, climatic change in China will tend to be warmer and moister, with increases of 4.5oC in annual mean air temperature and 11% in annual precipitation on the national scale. Future climatic change will reduce the temporal and spatial differences of climatic factors.     

A Review of Research on Human Activity Induced Climate ChangeⅠ. Greenhouse Gases and Aerosols

Extensive research on the sources and sinks of greenhouse gases, carbon cycle modeling, and the characterization of atmospheric aerosols has been carried out in China during the last 10 years or so. This paper presents the major achievements in the fields of emissions of greenhouse gases from agricultural lands, carbon cycle modeling, the characterization of Asian mineral dust, source identification of the precursors of the tropospheric ozone, and observations of the concentrations of atmospheric organic compounds. Special, more detailed Information on the emissions of methane from rice fields and the physical and chemical characteristics of mineral aerosols are presented.     

Study on the Response of Antarctic Region to Global Change and Its Feedback Effect

TheprojectStudyontheResponseofAntarcticRegiontoGlobalChangeandItsFeedbackEffect(98-927)isoneoftheNationalKeyScienceandTechnologyProjectsduringthe9thFive-YearPlan.CAMSparticipatesinthesub-projectResearchontheAntarcticAtmosphereandUpper-AtmosphericPhysicalProcessesandTheirResponsetoGlobalChange,undertakingtworesearches:MonitoringofAntarcticOzoneandUltravioletRadiationandTheirVariationMechanismStudy;andObservationalResearchontheInteractionProcessbetweenAntarcticIce/SnowandAtmosp…     

Interannual Variability of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index on the Tibetan Plateau and Its Relationship with Climate Change

The Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, or Tibetan Plateau, is a sensitive region for climate change, where the manifestation of global warming is particularly noticeable. The wide climate variability in this region significantly affects the local land ecosystem and could consequently lead to notable vegetation changes. In this paper, the interannual variations of the plateau vegetation are investigated using a 21-year normalized difference vegetation index （NDVI） dataset to quantify the consequences of climate warming for the regional ecosystem and its interactions. The results show that vegetation coverage is best in the eastern and southern plateau regions and deteriorates toward the west and north. On the whole, vegetation activity demonstrates a gradual enhancement in an oscillatory manner during 1982-2002. The temporal variation also exhibits striking regional differences： an increasing trend is most apparent in the west, south, north and southeast, whereas a decreasing trend is present along the southern plateau boundary and in the central-east region. Covariance analysis between the NDVI and surface temperature/precipitation suggests that vegetation change is closely related to climate change. However, the controlling physical processes vary geographically. In the west and east, vegetation variability is found to be driven predominantly by temperature, with the impact of precipitation being of secondary importance. In the central plateau, however, temperature and precipitation factors are equally important in modulating the interannual vegetation variability.