Response of inland lake dynamics over the Tibetan Plateau to climate change

The water balance of inland lakes on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) involves complex hydrological processes; their dynamics over recent decades is a good indicator of changes in water cycle under rapid global warming. Based on satellite images and extensive field investigations, we demonstrate that a coherent lake growth on the TP interior (TPI) has occurred since the late 1990s in response to a significant global climate change. Closed lakes on the TPI varied heterogeneously during 1976–1999, but expanded coherently and significantly in both lake area and water depth during 1999–2010. Although the decreased potential evaporation and glacier mass loss may contribute to the lake growth since the late 1990s, the significant water surplus is mainly attributed to increased regional precipitation, which, in turn, may be related to changes in large-scale atmospheric circulation, including the intensified Northern Hemisphere summer monsoon (NHSM) circulation and the poleward shift of the Eastern Asian westerlies jet stream.     

Changing inland lakes responding to climate warming in Northeastern Tibetan Plateau

The main portion of Tibetan Plateau has experienced statistically significant warming over the past 50 years, especially in cold seasons. This paper aims to identify and characterize the dynamics of inland lakes that located in the hinterland of Tibetan Plateau responding to climate change. We compared satellite imageries in late 1970s and early 1990s with recent to inventory and track changes in lakes after three decades of rising temperatures in the region. It showed warm and dry trend in climate with significant accelerated increasing annual mean temperature over the last 30 years, however, decreasing periodically annual precipitation and no obvious trend in potential evapotranspiration during the same period. Our analysis indicated widespread declines in inland lake??s abundance and area in the whole origin of the Yellow River and southeastern origin of the Yangtze River. In contrast, the western and northern origin of the Yangtze River revealed completely reverse change. The regional lake surface area decreased by 11,499 ha or 1.72% from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, and increased by 6,866 ha or 1.04% from the early 1990s to 2004. Shrinking inland lakes may become a common feature in the discontinuous permafrost regions as a consequence of warming climate and thawing permafrost. Furthermore, obvious expanding were found in continuous permafrost regions due to climate warming and glacier retreating. The results may provide information for the scientific recognition of the responding events to the climate change recorded by the inland lakes.     

Emission scenario dependencies in climate change assessments of the hydrological cycle

Anthropogenic global warming will lead to changes in the global hydrological cycle. The uncertainty in precipitation sensitivity per 1 K of global warming across coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) has been actively examined. On the other hand, the uncertainty in precipitation sensitivity in different emission scenarios of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and aerosols has received little attention. Here we show a robust emission-scenario dependency (ESD); smaller global precipitation sensitivities occur in higher GHG and aerosol emission scenarios. Although previous studies have applied this ESD to the multi-AOGCM mean, our surprising finding is that current AOGCMs all have the common ESD in the same direction. Different aerosol emissions lead to this ESD. The implications of the ESD of precipitation sensitivity extend far beyond climate analyses. As we show, the ESD potentially propagates into considerable biases in impact assessments of the hydrological cycle via a widely used technique, so-called pattern scaling. Since pattern scaling is essential to conducting parallel analyses across climate, impact, adaptation and mitigation scenarios in the next report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, more attention should be paid to the ESD of precipitation sensitivity.     

青藏高原东部冬季降水对北极涛动异常的响应

基于1979—2015年中国区域CN05.1格点降水以及全球降水气候中心(GPCC)降水等数据资料,采用回归、合成分析等方法,分析了青藏高原东部(简称高原)冬季降水的南、北区域性差异及其年际变化对北极涛动(AO)异常的响应.结果表明:(1)高原北部和南部冬季降水都与AO异常存在密切关系,但降水的年际变化并不一致,对AO...     

Regional hydrological cycle changes in response to an ambitious mitigation scenario

Climate change impacts on the regional hydrological cycle are compared for model projections following an ambitious emissions-reduction scenario (E1) and a medium-high emissions scenario with no mitigation policy (A1B). The E1 scenario is designed to limit global annual mean warming to 2 °C or less above pre-industrial levels. A multi-model ensemble consisting of ten coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation models is analyzed, which includes five Earth System Models containing interactive carbon cycles. The aim of the study is to assess the changes that could be mitigated under the E1 scenario and to identify regions where even small climate change may lead to strong changes in precipitation, cloud cover and evapotranspiration. In these regions the hydrological cycle is considered particularly vulnerable to climate change, highlighting the need for adaptation measures even if strong mitigation of climate change would be achieved. In the A1B projections, there are significant drying trends in sub-tropical regions, precipitation increases in high latitudes and some monsoon regions, as well as changes in cloudiness and evapotranspiration. These signals are reduced in E1 scenario projections. However, even under the E1 scenario, significant precipitation decrease in the subtropics and increase in high latitudes are projected. Particularly the Amazon region shows strong drying tendencies in some models, most probably related to vegetation interaction. Where climate change is relatively small, the E1 scenario tends to keep the average magnitude of potential changes at a level comparable to current intra-seasonal to inter-annual variability at that location. Such regions are mainly located in the mid-latitudes.     

Tree-ring evidence of recent abnormal warming on the southeast Tibetan Plateau

We developed four Georgei fir (Abies georgei var. smithii) tree-ring width chronologies at the timberline in the Sygera Mts. in southeast Tibet, China. All individual standard chronologies and a regional well-replicated ring-width composite chronology (RC) show significantly positive correlations with mean summer (June-August) temperature. Herein mean summer temperature was reconstructed for southeast Tibet back to A.D. 1765 based on RC. This reconstruction successfully captures recent warming observed in the instrumental record since 1961 with the last decade being the warmest period in the past 242 years. It agrees in general with other temperature reconstructions of the Tibetan Plateau and extratropical northern hemisphere. This study allows seeing recent warming on a longer time scale in southeast Tibet.     

Human implication of changes in the hydrological regime due to climate change in Northern Greece

This paper examines the impacts of climate change on various forms of water resources and on some critical water management issues. The study area is the Aliakmon river basin including three subbasins of hydrological interest located in northern Greece. A monthly conceptual water balance model was calibrated for each subbasin separately, using historical hydrometeorological data. This model was applied to estimate runoff values at the outlet of each subbasin under different climate change scenarios. Two equilibrium scenarios (UKHI, CCC) referring to years 2020, 2050 and 2100 and one transient scenario (UKTR) referring to years 2032 and 2080 were implied. It was found that reduction of the mean annual runoff and mean winter runoff values, as well as serious reduction of the summer runoff values would occur in all cases and basins. However, the runoff values for November, December and January were increased, whereas the spring runoff values were decreased, leading to a shifting of the wet period towards December and severe prolongation of the dry period. Moreover, the results indicate that all subbasins exhibit almost the same behavior under the different climate change scenarios, while the equilibrium scenarios (UKHI, CCC) seem to give more reasonable and consistent results than the transient scenario (UKTR). Finally, the negative effects of the climatically induced changes on the hydroelectric production and the water use for agricultural purposes in the study basin were assessed.     

青藏高原大气水分循环特征

青藏高原对亚洲季风环流的形成有重要作用,同时作为"世界屋脊"拥有丰富的冰川、积雪、河流、湖泊和地下蓄水层。青藏高原特殊大地形动力和热力作用深刻地影响着亚洲与全球大气水分循环,也对全球气候与环境产生深远的影响。基于青藏高原在亚洲夏季风系统大气水分循环过程的重要地位,从青藏高原对全球大气水分循环重要作用的视角,综述了青藏高原大气水分循环过程中青藏高原局地热力对流、高原的"阶梯式"水汽流爬升"第二类条件不稳定(CISK)"物理模型、青藏高原视热源结构影响及多尺度水汽汇流通道、海洋-青藏高原"水汽源-汇"结构、青藏高原跨半球垂直环流圈水分循环结构、青藏高原大气水分循环综合模型等的相关研究进展,剖析了青藏高原大气水分循环综合模型的研究背景,探讨了青藏高原特殊大地形热力驱动机制及其云水效应,描述出与青藏高原热力驱动的亚洲区域和跨半球垂直环流圈水分循环结构,揭示了青藏高原热力强迫与海洋-大气-陆地水文过程特殊的相互反馈作用。青藏高原发源的亚洲河流水系是为人口众多的亚洲区域供给生活、农业和工业用水的重要水资源之一。因此,认识在全球变暖背景下青藏高原的水分循环及其对水资源变化影响至关重要,仍需深入地探讨青藏高原大气水分循环机制及其全球影响效应。     

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     

青藏高原雨季特征及其对气候增暖的响应

利用青藏高原气象台站逐日观测资料,采用候雨量稳定通过临界阈值的方法对高原雨季起讫期进行客观定量划分,在此基础上,进一步分析增暖背景下雨季起讫期和雨季降水演变特征,并对比增暖前后高原雨季起讫期及不同等级降水的响应特征.结果表明:青藏高原雨季平均开始期为5月第3候、结束期为9月第6候、共持续28候;青藏高原雨季降水集中期为...     

西藏藏北高原典型植被生长对气候要素变化的响应

选取西藏藏北高原西部高寒草原植被、中部高寒草甸植被及东南部高寒灌丛草甸植被 3 种藏北地区最典型的植被类型, 结合临近 3 个气象观测站的资料, 分析这 3 种典型植被类型地区 1999—2001 年旬平均气温、旬总降水量和 SPOT VEGETATION 卫星 10 d 最大值合成归一化植被指数 (NDVI) 变化特征以及 3 种典型植被基于 SPOT VEGETATION NDVI 的生长变化对旬平均气温和旬总降水量两个主要气候要素变化的响应关系。 结果表明: 藏北地区降水资源的空间分布特点是东南部向西北部逐渐减少, 气温则由南向北逐渐递减, 与降水资源分布相反, 蒸发量西部高, 东部低; SPOT VEGETATION NDVI 能够较为准确地反映 3 种典型植被生长变化特征, 所反映的植被返青期和枯黄期等重要植被生长阶段与由积温计算的植被生长特征基本一致; 藏北地区基于 SPOT VEGETATION NDVI 的植被生长变化与气温的相关系数明显高于与降水的相关系数 , 其中以那曲为代表的高寒草甸植被的 NDVI 与旬气温和旬降水总量的相关系数最大, 分别为 0.81 和 0.68 , 表明藏北地区由于海拔高, 气候寒冷, 气温对该地区植被生长的影响明显高于降水的影响, 即该地区植被生长变化对气温的响应程度明显高于对降水的响应程度 , 是植被生长的限制性因素; 不同植被类型对气温和降水两个要素的响应程度大小依次是高寒草甸、高寒灌丛草甸和高寒草原。     

Downscaling the hydrological cycle in the Mackenzie basin with the Canadian regional climate model

Abstract

The Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM) has been nested within the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis ‘ second generation General Circulation Model (GCM), for a single month simulation over the Mackenzie River Basin and environs. The purpose of the study is to assess the ability of the higher resolution CRCM to downscale the hydrological cycle of the nesting GCM. A second 1‐month experiment, in which the CRCM was nested within analyzed fields of a global data assimilation system, was also performed to examine the sensitivity of the basin moisture budget to atmospheric lateral boundary forcing.

We have found that the CRCM can produce realistic lee cyclogenesis, preferentially in the Liard sub‐basin, along with associated circulation and precipitation patterns, as well as an improved rainshadow in the lee of the Rocky Mountains compared to the GCM. While these features do quantitatively affect the monthly average climate statistics, the basin scale moisture budgets of the models were remarkably similar, though some of this agreement is due to compensating errors in the GCM. Both models produced excessive precipitation compared to a recent climatology for the region, the cause of which is traced to lateral boundary forcing. A second experiment, identical to the first except that the CRCM was forced with analyzed fields at the lateral boundaries, produced a qualitatively different basin moisture budget, including a much more realistic precipitation field. Errors in the moisture budget of the first experiment appear to be associated with the poor representation of the Aleutian Low in the GCM, and do not appear to be strongly connected to (local) surface processes within the models. This suggests that an effective strategy for modelling the hydrological cycle of the Mackenzie Basin on the fast climate timescale ‐ a major requirement of the Mackenzie GEWEX Study ‐ will involve nesting the CRCM within analyzed (or re‐analyzed) atmospheric fields.     

中全新世时期中国地区水循环因子变化的模拟研究

利用全球气候模式CAEM3嵌套区域模式MM5模拟了现代和中全新世时的气候,从模拟结果可以发现中全新世有效降水变化中心随季节变化,最大的有效降水增加出现在夏季东北地区和内蒙古东部,最大值超过3 mm/d;同时,黄河与长江之间区域降水减少,最大变化超过2 mm/d.中国北方地区云量增加,同时,中国东部的长江流域云量减少.高云量变化较小,低云量变化最大,最大变化超过2成.夏季,对应着黄河与长江之间区域的云量减少,这个区域的温度升高最大.从水汽的变化可以看到长江流域地区水汽减少,相对湿度也减少,这与云量的变化一致;华南地区水汽的变化与季节有关;东北地区水汽增加,相对湿度增大,对应云量的增加和降水增多.从结果可以发现相对湿度最大的变化超过15%,不是一个常数.有些地区温度升高,但是水汽却减少.但是,在LGM的温度降低的区域,水汽一致减少.这说明温度降低水汽对应减少,但温度升高不一定对应水汽增加.这与全球尺度水汽相对湿度基本保持常数的结果不同.中全新世时,长江流域除春季外变得干燥、少雨和高温,东北和内蒙古东部变得多雨和潮湿.     

Quantifying recent precipitation change and predicting lake expansion in the Inner Tibetan Plateau

Lake expansion since the middle of the 1990s is one of the most outstanding environmental change events in the Tibetan Plateau (TP). This expansion has mainly occurred in the Inner TP, a vast endorheic basin with an area of about 708,000 km² and containing about 780 lakes larger than 1 km². The total lake area of the Inner TP has increased from 24,930 km² in 1995 to 33,741 km² in 2015. The variability of the lake area in the coming decades is crucial for infrastructure planning and ecology policy for this remote region. In this study, a lake mass balance model was developed to describe the lake area response to climate change. First, the model was used to inversely estimate the change in precipitation from the change in lake volume. The result shows that precipitation has increased by about 21?±?7% since the middle of the 1990s, as seen in GPCC global data set. Then, the lake size in the coming two decades was predicted by the model driven with either current climate or a projected future climate, showing the lake area would expand continuously, but at a lower rate than before. Both predictions yield a total lake area of 36150?±?500 km² in 2025 and a rise of average lake level by about 6.6?±?0.3 m from 1995 to 2025. However, the two predictions become disparate in the second decade (2026–2035), as the future climate is more warming and wetting than the current climate. It is noted that the prediction of lake expansion is robust for the entire inner TP lake system but not always applicable to individual subregions or specific lakes due to their spatiotemporal heterogeneity.     

Past and future changes in climate and hydrological indicators in the US Northeast

To assess the influence of global climate change at the regional scale, we examine past and future changes in key climate, hydrological, and biophysical indicators across the US Northeast (NE). We first consider the extent to which simulations of twentieth century climate from nine atmosphere-ocean general circulation models (AOGCMs) are able to reproduce observed changes in these indicators. We then evaluate projected future trends in primary climate characteristics and indicators of change, including seasonal temperatures, rainfall and drought, snow cover, soil moisture, streamflow, and changes in biometeorological indicators that depend on threshold or accumulated temperatures such as growing season, frost days, and Spring Indices (SI). Changes in indicators for which temperature-related signals have already been observed (seasonal warming patterns, advances in high-spring streamflow, decreases in snow depth, extended growing seasons, earlier bloom dates) are generally reproduced by past model simulations and are projected to continue in the future. Other indicators for which trends have not yet been observed also show projected future changes consistent with a warmer climate (shrinking snow cover, more frequent droughts, and extended low-flow periods in summer). The magnitude of temperature-driven trends in the future are generally projected to be higher under the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) mid-high (A2) and higher (A1FI) emissions scenarios than under the lower (B1) scenario. These results provide confidence regarding the direction of many regional climate trends, and highlight the fundamental role of future emissions in determining the potential magnitude of changes we can expect over the coming century.

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Fast versus slow response in climate change: implications for the global hydrological cycle

Recent studies have shown that changes in global mean precipitation are larger for solar forcing than for CO₂ forcing of similar magnitude. In this paper, we use an atmospheric general circulation model to show that the differences originate from differing fast responses of the climate system. We estimate the adjusted radiative forcing and fast response using Hansen’s “fixed-SST forcing” method. Total climate system response is calculated using mixed layer simulations using the same model. Our analysis shows that the fast response is almost 40% of the total response for few key variables like precipitation and evaporation. We further demonstrate that the hydrologic sensitivity, defined as the change in global mean precipitation per unit warming, is the same for the two forcings when the fast responses are excluded from the definition of hydrologic sensitivity, suggesting that the slow response (feedback) of the hydrological cycle is independent of the forcing mechanism. Based on our results, we recommend that the fast and slow response be compared separately in multi-model intercomparisons to discover and understand robust responses in hydrologic cycle. The significance of this study to geoengineering is discussed.     

Coupling between subtropical cloud feedback and the local hydrological cycle in a climate model

In HadGEM2-A, AMIP experiments forced with observed sea surface temperatures respond to uniform and patterned +4 K SST perturbations with strong positive cloud feedbacks in the subtropical stratocumulus/trade cumulus transition regions. Over the subtropical Northeast Pacific at 137°W/26°N, the boundary layer cloud fraction reduces considerably in the AMIP +4 K patterned SST experiment. The near-surface wind speed and the air-sea temperature difference reduces, while the near-surface relative humidity increases. These changes limit the local increase in surface evaporation to just 3 W/m² or 0.6 %/K. Previous studies have suggested that increases in surface evaporation may be required to maintain maritime boundary layer cloud in a warmer climate. This suggests that the supply of water vapour from surface evaporation may not be increasing enough to maintain the low level cloud fraction in the warmer climate in HadGEM2-A. Sensitivity tests which force the surface evaporation to increase substantially in the +4 K patterned SST experiment result in smaller changes in boundary layer cloud and a weaker cloud feedback in HadGEM2-A, supporting this idea. Although global mean surface evaporation in climate models increases robustly with global temperature (and the resulting increase in atmospheric radiative cooling), local values may increase much less, having a significant impact on cloud feedback. These results suggest a coupling between cloud feedback and the hydrological cycle via changes in the patterns of surface evaporation. A better understanding of both the factors controlling local changes in surface evaporation and the sensitivity of clouds to such changes may be required to understand the reasons for inter-model differences in subtropical cloud feedback.     

Response of high-mountain Altai thermal regime to climate global warming of recent decades

The paper presents a brief climatic characteristic and statistical analysis on dynamics of thermal regime in Altai Mountains. The close correlation between temperature series of the Russian and northern part of Mongolian Altai was determined. It was found that the rate of temperature increase for the period under consideration (1940?C2008) ranged from 0.19 to 0.53 °??/10?years, and the most significant increase was registered during the cold seasons. During the maximum global warming (1980?C1999), a 2?C4.5 times increase of annual average temperature was observed as compared to the period of 1940?C1979. The temperature series variations obtained with the Welch's method and wavelet analysis correspond to the periods of North Atlantic Oscillation and solar activity variation.