Numerical simulation of the critical scale of oasis maintenance and development in the arid regions of Northwest China

Oasis is a special geographic landscape among the vast desert/Gobi in Northwest China (NWC). The surface sensitive heat flux and latent heat flux at Zhangye Oasis during 1 to 11 August 1991 are simulated using the NCAR nonhydrostatic mesoscale model MM5 Version 3. The horizontal grid resolution is set as 1km. By comparing the simulation results with HEIFE observations, it is proved that the model can be used to simulate the surface energy and water mass exchange of arid and semiarid regions in NWC.Based on the above results, the influence of different oasis scales on the local atmospheric field near the ground surface, and the critical scale of oasis maintenance, in NWC are studied dynamically. The following conclusion is obtained: the local thermal circulation between the oasis and the desert/Gobi is formed in the oasis downstream if the oasis scale is larger than 4 km. This local thermal circulation between the oasis and the desert adjacent to the oasis helps to conserve water vapor over the oasis. At the sametime, it transfers the abundant water vapor from the oasis into the desert/Gobi near to the oasis to supply relatively plentiful water vapor for desert crops to grow on the fringe of the oasis. So, it is advantageous for oasis extension. However, if the scale of the oasis is smaller than 4 km, it is not easy for the local thermal circulation between the oasis and the desert/Gobi to take shape. This study provides a new standpoint for oasis maintenance and development.     

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL STRUCTURE OF THE SEA BREEZE OVER SOUTHWESTERN BOHAI GULF

In this paper,a simulation study is made on the sea breeze process over southwestern Bohai Gulf byuse of the Pielke mesoscale meteorological model.The simulated results show that when a south wind of 8m/s blows over the top of the model,a strong wind zone of 15—25 km wide with a maximum speed more than14 m/s,which is close and nearly parallel to the south shore,will appear at 160 m above the sea surface.When a strong sea breeze penetrates inland,there often appears a thermal internal boundary layer(TIBL)near shore.The inversion above the TIBL can damp the vertical dispersion of atmospheric pollution.Besides,it is also found that,for a three-dimensional sea/land breeze circulation,if the divergence centre inthe return flow departs vertically far from the correspondent convergence centre in the sea breeze,a centre ofstrong descending movement will be formed at the middle and upper levels of the return flow.The resultsin this paper is also applicable to the Laizhou Bay.     

STATISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF SEA LAND BREEZES IN HAINAN ISLAND

The sea-land breeze circulation （SLBC） occurs regularly at coastal locations and influences the local weather and climate significantly. In this study, based on the observed surface wind in 9 conventional meteorological stations of Hainan Island, the frequency of sea-land breeze （SLB） is studied to depict the diurnal and seasonal variations. The statistics indicated that there is a monthly average of 12.2 SLB days and an occurrence frequency of about 40%, with the maximum frequency （49%） in summer and the minimum frequency （29%） in autumn. SLB frequencies （41%） are comparable in winter and spring. A higher frequency of SLB is present in the southern and central mountains due to the enhancement effect of the mountain-valley breeze. Due to the synoptic wind the number of SLB days in the northern hilly area is less than in other areas. Moreover, the WRF model, adopted to simulate the SLBC over the island for all seasons, performs reasonably well reproducing the phenomenon, evolution and mechanism of SLBC. Chiefly affected by the difference of temperature between sea and land, the SLBC varies in coverage and intensity with the seasons and reaches the greatest intensity in summer. The typical depth is about 2.5 km for sea breeze circulation and about 1.5 km for land breeze circulation. A strong convergence zone with severe ascending motion appears on the line parallel to the major axis of the island, penetrating 60 to 100 km inland. This type of weak sea breeze convergence zone in winter is north-south oriented. The features of SLBC in spring are similar both to that in summer with southerly wind and to that in winter with easterly wind. The coverage and intensity of SLBC in autumn is the weakest and confined to the southwest edge of the central mountainous area. The land breeze is inherently very weak and easily affected by the topography and weather. The coverage and intensity of the land breeze convergence line is significantly less than those of the sea breeze. The orographic forcing of the cen     

SST THERMAL FORCING – A DISCUSSION ON THE MECHANISM OF ATMOSPHERIC LOW-FREQUENCY OSCILLATION

Dynamic and numerical methods are used to discuss the atmospheric response to SST thermal forcing. The results show that for planetary scale systems, the standing SST thermal forcing can quickly excite a stable atmospheric equilibrium state response, which is characterized by obvious large-scale teleconnection oscillation in east-west and south-north directions. For synoptic scale systems, the SST thermal forcing mainly excites the atmospheric low-frequency oscillation. Some basic relation and dynamic processes between SST thermal forcing and atmospheric response pattern are revealed and some new viewpoints are presented.     

土壤热异常影响地表能量平衡的个例分析和数值模拟

The statistical relationship between soil thermal anomaly and short-term climate change is presented based on a typical case study. Furthermore, possible physical mechanisms behind the relationship are revealed through using an off-line land surface model with a reasonable soil thermal forcing at the bottom of the soil layer.In the first experiment, the given heat flux is 5 W m-2 at the bottom of the soil layer (in depth of 6.3 m)for 3 months, while only a positive ground temperature anomaly of 0.06℃ can be found compared to the control run. The anomaly, however, could reach 0.65℃ if the soil thermal conductivity was one order of magnitude larger. It could be even as large as 0.81℃ assuming the heat flux at bottom is 10 W m-2. Meanwhile, an increase of about 10 W m-2 was detected both for heat flux in soil and sensible heat on land surface, which is not neglectable to the short-term climate change. The results show that considerable response in land surface energy budget could be expected when the soil thermal forcing reaches a certain spatial-tem poral scale. Therefore, land surface models should not ignore the upward heat flux from the bottom of the soil layer. Moreover, integration for a longer period of time and coupled land-atmosphere model are also necessary for the better understanding of this issue.     

Urban Heat Island and Boundary Layer Structures under Hot Weather Synoptic Conditions: A Case Study of Suzhou City, China

A strong urban heat island (UHI) appeared in a hot weather episode in Suzhou City during the period from 25 July to 1 August 2007. This paper analyzes the urban heat island characteristics of Suzhou City under this hot weather episode. Both meteorological station observations and MODIS satellite observations show a strong urban heat island in this area. The maximum UHI intensity in this hot weather episode is 2.2℃, which is much greater than the summer average of 1.0℃ in this year and the 37-year (from 1970 to 2006) average of 0.35℃. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulation results demonstrate that the rapid urbanization processes in this area will enhance the UHI in intensity, horizontal distribution, and vertical extension. The UHI spatial distribution expands as the urban size increases. The vertical extension of UHI in the afternoon increases about 50 m higher under the year 2006 urban land cover than that under the 1986 urban land cover. The conversion from rural land use to urban land type also strengthens the local lake-land breeze circulations in this area and modifies the vertical wind speed field.     

Using a Modified Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Scheme （MSPAS） to Simulate the Interaction between Land Surface Processes and Atmospheric Boundary Layer in Semi-Arid Regions

This paper uses a Modified Soil-Plant-Atmosphere Scheme (MSPAS) to study the interaction betweenland surface and atmospheric boundary layer processes. The scheme is composed of two main parts:atmospheric boundary layer processes and land surface processes. Compared with SiB and BATS, which arefamous for their detailed parameterizations of physical variables, this simplified model is more convenientand saves much more computation time. Though simple, the feasibility of the model is well proved inthis paper. The numerical simulation results from MSPAS show good agreement with reality. The schemeis used to obtain reasonable simulations for diurnal variations of heat balance, potential temperature ofboundary layer, and wind field, and spatial distributions of temperature, specific humidity, vertical velocity,turbulence kinetic energy, and turbulence exchange coefficient over desert and oasis. In addition, MSPAS isused to simulate the interaction between desert and oasis at night, and again it obtains reasonable results.This indicates that MSPAS can be used to study the interaction between land surface processes and theatmospheric boundary layer over various underlying surfaces and can be extended for regional climate andnumerical weather prediction study.     

Numerical Study on Microphysical Processes of Two Different Snowfall Cases in Northern China

In this paper,two snowfall cases under different weather conditions in northern China are simulated by using the meso scale model MM5.Two-way nesting structure of domains is designed for each case.Among the explicit schemes of MM5,the Reisner graupel scheme is selected to describe the microphysical process. The simulated snow-bands of two cases are basically consistent with observations.The simulated results of microphysical processes are mainly discussed.The hydrometeors and their sources and sinks under different weather backgrounds are described.The feedback effects of microphysical processes on the thermal and dynamic processes are also discussed.Method that outputs the accumulative sources and sinks per hour is used to analyze the distribution characteristics of hydrometeors during the strongest snowfall period.Two sensitivity tests (called heat test and drag test) are conducted to examine the effects of microphysical pro- cesses on cloud produced by the latent heat and drag force. Results have shown that the distribution of particles has a close relation with temperature.The tem- perature of Beijing snowfall is under 0℃and there exist vapor and solid phase particles,while Liaoning snowfall has vapor,liquid,and solid phase particles due to the warm temperature.The distribution of these particles is not the same at different development stages.From the analyses of the characteristics of sources and sinks,it is found that snow is mainly produced by the deposition and accretion with ice.Cloud water is crucial to graupel.The melting of ice-phase particles enhances the rain production.The results of heat tests and drag tests reveal that the microphysical processes have interacted with the dynamic and thermal processes.Latent heat release of hydrometeors feeds back positively on snowfall while the drag force not. At last,comparisons of simulated results have been done between the two different kinds of snowfall cases. The microphysical processes of Liaoning snowfall case is more complicated than those of Beijing snowfall case.The values of the cloud variables are larger and the interactions between the microphysical processes and the thermal and dynamic processes of Liaoning snowfall case are stronger than those of Beijing snowfall case.     

Evaluation of Atmosphere–Land Interactions in an LES from the Perspective of Heterogeneity Propagation

Atmosphere–land interactions simulated by an LES model are evaluated from the perspective of heterogeneity propagation by comparison with airborne measurements. It is found that the footprints of surface heterogeneity, though as 2D patterns can be dissipated quickly due to turbulent mixing, as 1D projections can persist and propagate to the top of the atmospheric boundary layer. Direct comparison and length scale analysis show that the simulated heterogeneity patterns are comparable to the observation. The results highlight the model's capability in simulating the complex effects of surface heterogeneity on atmosphere–land interactions.     

Formation and Variation of the Atmospheric Heat Source over the Tibetan Plateau and Its Climate Effects

To cherish the memory of the late Professor Duzheng YE on what would have been his 100 th birthday, and to celebrate his great accomplishment in opening a new era of Tibetan Plateau(TP) meteorology, this review paper provides an assessment of the atmospheric heat source(AHS) over the TP from different data resources, including observations from local meteorological stations, satellite remote sensing data, and various reanalysis datasets. The uncertainty and applicability of these heat source data are evaluated. Analysis regarding the formation of the AHS over the TP demonstrates that it is not only the cause of the atmospheric circulation, but is also a result of that circulation. Based on numerical experiments, the review further demonstrates that land–sea thermal contrast is only one part of the monsoon story. The thermal forcing of the Tibetan–Iranian Plateau plays a significant role in generating the Asian summer monsoon(ASM), i.e., in addition to pumping water vapor from sea to land and from the lower to the upper troposphere, it also generates a subtropical monsoon–type meridional circulation subject to the angular momentum conservation, providing an ascending-air large-scale background for the development of the ASM.     

Bivariate conditional sampling of buoyancy flux during an intense cold-air outbreak

Buoyancy fluxes in the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) for the cloud street regime, observed during the Genesis of Atlantic Lows Experiment (GALE), have been analyzed using the technique of joint frequency distribution. For the lower half of the MABL, the results suggest that the buoyancy flux is mainly generated by the rising thermals and the sinking compensating ambient air, and is mainly consumed by the entrainment and detrainment of thermals, penetrative convection, and the entrainment from the MABL top.The results are compared to those from previous studies of mesoscale cellular convection (Air-Mass Transformation Experiment, AMTEX), the dry convective boundary layer, and the trade-wind MABL. For the lower MABL, the quadrant buoyancy fluxes, fractional coverages, and flux intensities are in good agreement with those of mesoscale cellular convection (AMTEX) and the dry convective boundary layer. The results suggest that, if the buoyancy flux is primarily driven by the temperature flux, the physical processes for generating buoyancy flux mentioned above are about the same for the lower boundary layers over land and ocean, even with different convective regimes. For the trade-wind MABL, the buoyancy flux is mainly driven by the moisture flux; the quadrant flux intensities are stronger than those of the other three studies except for the buoyant updrafts (thermals). These results suggest that the entrainment and detrainment of thermals are more effective in the trade-wind MABL than in the boundary layers driven by the temperature flux.Scale analysis of the buoyancy flux is in good agreement with that of AMTEX. For the lower half of the MABL, the buoyancy flux is mainly generated by the intermediate scale (200 m to 2 km), which includes the dominant convective thermals in the surface layer and the mixed layer. The scale smaller than 200 m is important only in the surface layer. The scale larger than 2 km, which includes the roll vortices, increases its significance upward. While most of the positive and negative fluxes are associated with the updrafts for the intermediate scale, the downdrafts are as important as updrafts for the larger scale.ST Systems Corporation, Lanham, MD, 20706, U.S.A.     

Comparative Studies In The Local Circulations Induced By Land-Use And By Topography

A two-dimensional numerical model witha simplified land-use paramaterizationis used to investigate the effects of land usetopography on local circulationsystems. A criterion is presented indicating therelative importance of land use onlocal circulations.Land-use contrast in the numerical model is parameterized by moisture availability and roughness length. Numerical experiments were carried out under various atmospheric stabilities with various dimensions for the mountains.Numerical results show the following: (1) Anabatic winds prevail in high mountains,while the land–land breeze is stronger when the horizontal contrast of the heat fluxfrom each land surface is large. (2) In the early morning, anabatic winds tend to prevailover land–land breezes, but the land–land breeze tends to prevail in the later afternoon.(3) While atmospheric stability has a large influence on the mesoscale circulation, thehorizontal scale of the mountain is not as important for the intensity of the mesoscalecirculation. (4) In strong stable conditions or weak insolation, the anabatic wind tendsto be more active than the land–land breeze; namely, the heat flux from inhomogeneousland use becomes a less important factor for the generation of a mesoscale disturbancethan the orographic forcing in the case of strong atmospheric stability. (5) The predominantmesoscale circulation is predicted by a criterion based upon the horizontal adjustmenttheory of the mixed layer. The criterion proposed in this study is based on the mountainheight, the ratio of the heat flux from the different land use patterns, the atmospheric staticstability, and the time-integrated heat flux. The criterion gives results that generally agreewith the numerical results.     

干旱区绿洲诱发的中尺度运动的模拟及其关键因子的敏感性实验

利用一个非静力平衡的、高分辨的、二维中尺度大气数值模式，并在仅考虑简单过程的情况下，模拟了干旱区中绿洲所诱发的中尺度运动，并进行了这种中尺度大气运动的强度对绿洲水平尺度、绿洲与周围环境的水平热力差异、大尺度背景场水平风速和大尺度地表加热率等一些重要物理参数关系的敏感性实验研究。研究发现：中尺度大气运动强度随水平热力差异的增大而加强，随背景场水平风速和大尺度地表加热率增强而分别减弱。但随绿洲水平尺度的变化并不像前三个因子一样为单调函数，而是在绿洲水平尺度为20km时中尺度大气运动最强，绿洲水平尺度更大或更小时中尺度大气运动强度均会减弱。通过统计甘肃省河西地区的绿洲水平尺度分布规律，发现绿洲分布最集中的尺度在15－25km，与模拟所得到的能源发最强中尺度运动的绿洲水平尺度基本一致。     

沙漠绿洲非均匀分布引起的中尺度通量的数值模拟

为了研究大气环流模式次网格中尺度通量的参数化问题，本文发展了一个Pielke中尺度边界层与陆面过程的耦合模式，陆面过程模式中包括一个简单植被水热传输模式及一个裸土沙漠模式。利用这一耦合模式，对黑河试验区中沙漠和绿洲这种典型的非均匀下垫面进行了模拟，20多个数值试验的模拟结果表明:（1）中尺度通量在特定的情况下具有和湍流通量相当的重要性，因此，大尺度模式中对中尺度通量的参数化是十分必要的。（2）对于中尺度通量的发展存在一个明显的最优尺度和最优块数，即当绿洲尺度为60 km，3块时，中尺度通量最大。而且当块数增加到一定数目时，可以忽略非均匀效应。（3）背景风速的增大可以使中尺度通量减小；粗糙度的试验说明非均匀块之间的热力差异的减小可使中尺度通量非线性地减小。     

Thermal effect of the sea breeze on the structure of the boundary layer and the heat budget over land

The daytime boundary-layer heating process and the air-land heat budget were investigated over the coastal sea-breeze region by means of observations over the Sendai plain in Japan during the summer. In this area, the onset of the sea breeze begins at the coast around 0900 LST, intruding about 35 km inland by late afternoon. The cold sea breeze creates a temperature difference of over 10°C between the coastal and inland areas in the afternoon. On the other hand, warm air advection due to the combination of the counter-sea breeze and land-to-sea synoptic wind occurs in the layer above the cold sea breeze in the coastal region. Owing to this local warm air advection, there is no significant difference in the daytime heating rate over the entire atmospheric boundary layer between the coastal and inland areas. The sensible heat flux from the land surface gradually decreases as distance from the coastline increases, being mainly attributed to the cold sea breeze. The daytime mean cold air advection due to the sea breeze is estimated asQ _adv ^local =–29 W m^–2 averaged over the sea breeze region (035 km from the coastline). This value is 17% of the surface sensible heat fluxH over the same region. The results of a two-dimensional numerical model show that the value ofQ _adv ^local /H is strongly affected by the upper-level synoptic wind direction. The absolute value ofQ _adv ^local /H becomes smaller when the synoptic wind has the opposite direction of the sea breeze. This condition occurred during the observations used in the present study.     

Effects of land-surface heterogeneity on numerical simulations of mesoscale atmospheric boundary layer processes

Landscape heterogeneity that causes surface flux variability plays a very important role in triggering mesoscale atmospheric circulations and convective weather processes. In most mesoscale numerical models, however, subgrid-scale heterogeneity is somewhat smoothed or not adequately accounted for, leading to artificial changes in heterogeneity patterns (e.g., patterns of land cover, land use, terrain, and soil types and soil moisture). At the domain-wide scale, the combination of losses in subgrid-scale heterogeneity from many adjacent grids may artificially produce larger-scale, more homogeneous landscapes. Therefore, increased grid spacing in models may result in increased losses in landscape heterogeneity. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting model in this paper, we design a number of experiments to examine the effects of such artificial changes in heterogeneity patterns on numerical simulations of surface flux exchanges, near-surface meteorological fields, atmospheric planetary boundary layer (PBL) processes, mesoscale circulations, and mesoscale fluxes. Our results indicate that the increased heterogeneity losses in the model lead to substantial, nonlinear changes in temporal evaluations and spatial patterns of PBL dynamic and thermodynamic processes. The decreased heterogeneity favor developments of more organized mesoscale circulations, leading to enhanced mesoscale fluxes and, in turn, the vertical transport of heat and moisture. This effect is more pronounced in the areas with greater surface heterogeneity. Since more homogeneous land-surface characteristics are created in regional models with greater surface grid scales, these artificial mesoscale fluxes may have significant impacts on simulations of larger-scale atmospheric processes.     

夏季青海湖局地环流及大气边界层特征的数值模拟

使用美国NCAR新版MM5V3.6非静力模式,采用两重嵌套方法,模拟了青海湖区域的局地环流及大气边界层特征,并且与无湖试验进行了比较。结果表明:白天由于青海湖的存在有很好的降温作用,夜晚则有保温效应,表现出明显的冷(暖)湖效应;青海湖对感热和潜热的影响有很强的日变化,白天湖面感热、潜热都小,夜间情况相反,这使得白天青海湖是冷干岛,夜间是暖湿岛;青海湖使得白天湖面边界层顶低,陆面边界层顶高,夜间相反。这样的边界层顶高度和温度、地面能量通量相配合,形成了一个很好的保护机制,对青海湖的水土保持和生态环境的维持有正效应;青海湖使得湖面上空大气下沉,陆面上空大气上升,从而产生了湖面上空大气冷干,陆面上空大气暖湿的边界层特征;青海湖边缘的陆面形成的较大的湿气柱围绕着湖面,起到了保护湖面的作用;青海湖低空白天有明显的湖面向四周的辐散气流,而夜间则为从北偏东方向来的陆风。     

Dynamical controls on the diurnal cycle of temperature in complex topography

We examine the climatological diurnal cycle of surface air temperature in a 6 km resolution atmospheric simulation of Southern California from 1995 to the present. We find its amplitude and phase both have significant geographical structure. This is most likely due to diurnally-varying flows back and forth across the coastline and elevation isolines resulting from the large daily warming and cooling over land. Because the region’s atmosphere is generally stably stratified, these flow patterns result in air of lower (higher) potential temperature being advected upslope (downslope) during daytime (nighttime). This suppresses the temperature diurnal cycle amplitude at mountaintops where diurnal flows converge (diverge) during the day (night). The nighttime land breeze also advects air of higher potential temperature downslope toward the coast. This raises minimum temperatures in land areas adjacent to the coast in a manner analogous to the daytime suppression of maximum temperature by the cool sea breeze in these same areas. Because stratification is greater in the coastal zone than in the desert interior, these thermal effects of the diurnal winds are not uniform, generating spatial structures in the phase and shape of the temperature diurnal cycle as well as its amplitude. We confirm that the simulated characteristics of the temperature diurnal cycle as well as those of the associated diurnal winds are also found in a network of 30 observation stations in the region. This gives confidence in the simulation’s realism and our study’s findings. Diurnal flows are probably mainly responsible for the geographical structures in the temperature diurnal cycle in other regions of significant topography and surface heterogeneity, their importance depending partly on the degree of atmospheric stratification.