新元古代地球气候研究进展

新元古代曾发生过强烈的全球性冰川作用,本文回顾了新元古代晚期全球性冰川作用存在的证据及其特点,论述了新元古代冰期产生的原因,综述了一些代表性的“雪球地球”模型并探讨了“雪球地球”对早期生物演化的影响,最后对未来“雪球地球”研究趋势进行了展望.     

Testing Gaia: The Effect of Life on Earth's Habitability and Regulation

The Gaia theory proposes that the Earth system self-regulates in a habitable state. Here the effect of life on the state of the Earth and its response to forcing and perturbation is considered. It is argued that life has not survived for >3.8 billion years purely by chance, rather the Earth system possesses regulatory mechanisms. The Earth system is more resistant and resilient to many (but not all) perturbations with life present and the Earth is predicted to remain inhabitable for longer with life present than it would without. With only one case to study, it is difficult to test whether the Earth exhibits such regulation by chance or because regulatory outcomes of life-environment interaction are more probable. The search for life on extra-solar planets and artificial life simulations of virtual worlds may increase the sample size. Theoretical principles suggest that regulation is a probable outcome of life-environment coupling, and on Earth it appears that there may be an innate tendency for regulatory properties to accumulate and strengthen as the biota evolves.     

Beyond Gaia: Thermodynamics of Life and Earth System Functioning

Are there any general principles that govern the way in which life affects Earth system functioning? Most prominently, the Gaia hypothesis addresses this question by proposing that near-homeostatic conditions on Earth have been maintained “by and for the biosphere.” Here the role of the biota in the Earth system is described from a viewpoint of nonequilibrium thermodynamics, particularly with respect to the hypothesis of maximum entropy production (MEP). It is argued that the biota introduce additional degrees of freedom to Earth system processes. Therefore, we should expect biotic activity, and Earth system processes affected by the biota, to evolve to states of MEP. The consistent effects of the biota on entropy production are demonstrated with a conceptual model of biogeochemical cycling, by using extreme climate model simulations of a “Desert World” and a “Green Planet”, and by a simple coupled climate-carbon cycle model. It is shown that homeostatic behavior can emerge from a state of MEP associated with the planetary albedo. This thermodynamic perspective is then discussed in the context of the original Gaia hypothesis and in light of a recent discussion in Climatic Change. Potential implications of the MEP hypothesis for global change research are also discussed. It is concluded that the resulting behavior of a biotic Earth at a state of MEP may well lead to near-homeostatic behavior of the Earth system on long time scales, as stated by the Gaia hypothesis. However, here homeostasis is a result of the application of the MEP hypothesis to biotically influenced processes rather than a postulate. Besides providing a fundamental perspective on homeostasis, the MEP hypothesis also provides a framework to understand why photosynthetic life would be a highly probable emergent characteristic of the Earth system and why the diversity of life is an important characteristic of Earth system functioning.     

Earth System governmentality: Reflections on science in the Anthropocene

This paper examines Earth System Science as a novel approach to global environmental change research. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's governmentality concept, the paper opens up the Earth System metaphor to political analysis and asks what it does to our understanding of nature and society as a governable domain. We trace the scientific practices that have produced the Earth System as a thinkable analytical category back to the International Geophysical Year in 1957. We also identify ‘the Anthropocene’ as a central and yet ambiguous system of thought for Earth System Science that harbours different strategies for sustainability in terms of (1) the persons over whom government is to be exercised; (2) the distribution of tasks and actions between authorities; and (3) contrasting ideals or principles for how government should be directed.     

Preface to the Special Issue on Fengyun Meteorological Satellites:Data,Application and Assessment

正1Fengyun Meteorological Satellite Innovation Center, National Satellite Meteorological Center,China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China2China Meteorological Administration, Beijing 100081, China     

The representation of tropical upper tropospheric water in EC Earth V2

Tropical upper tropospheric humidity, clouds, and ice water content, as well as outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), are evaluated in the climate model EC Earth with the aid of satellite retrievals. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder and Microwave Limb Sounder together provide good coverage of relative humidity. EC Earth’s relative humidity is in fair agreement with these observations. CloudSat and CALIPSO data are combined to provide cloud fractions estimates throughout the altitude region considered (500–100?hPa). EC Earth is found to overestimate the degree of cloud cover above 200?hPa and underestimate it below. Precipitating and non-precipitating EC Earth ice definitions are combined to form a complete ice water content. EC Earth’s ice water content is below the uncertainty range of CloudSat above 250?hPa, but can be twice as high as CloudSat’s estimate in the melting layer. CERES data show that the model underestimates the impact of clouds on OLR, on average with about 9?W?m^?2. Regionally, EC Earth’s outgoing longwave radiation can be ～20?W?m^?2 higher than the observation. A comparison to ERA-Interim provides further perspectives on the model’s performance. Limitations of the satellite observations are emphasised and their uncertainties are, throughout, considered in the analysis. Evaluating multiple model variables in parallel is a more ambitious approach than is customary.     

Aspects Of The Atmospheric Surface Layers On Mars And Earth

The structures of mean flow and turbulence in the atmospheric surface boundary layer have been extensively studied on Earth, and to a far less extent on Mars, where only the Viking missions and the Pathfinder mission have delivered in-situ data. Largely the behaviour of surface-layer turbulence and mean flow on Mars is found to obey the same scaling laws as on Earth. The largest micrometeorological differences between the two atmospheres are associated with the low air density of the Martian atmosphere. Together with the virtual absence of water vapour, it reduces the importance of the atmospheric heat flux in the surface energy budget. This increases the temperature variation of the surface forcing the near-surface temperature gradient and thereby the diabatic heat flux to higher values than are typical on the Earth, resulting in turn in a deeper daytime boundary layer. As wind speed is much like that of the Earth, this larger diabatic heat flux is carried mostly by larger maximal values of T_*, the surface scale temperature. The higher kinematic viscosity yields a Kolmogorov scale of the order of ten times larger than on Earth, influencing the transition between rough and smooth flow for the same surface features.The scaling laws have been validated analysing the Martian surface-layer data for the relations between the power spectra of wind and temperature turbulence and the corresponding mean values of wind speed and temperature. Usual spectral formulations were used based on the scaling laws ruling the Earth atmospheric surface layer, whereby the Earth's atmosphere is used as a standard for the Martian atmosphere.     

27.3-day and Average 13.6-day Periodic Oscillations in the Earth’s Rotation Rate and Atmospheric Pressure Fields Due to Celestial Gravitation Forcing

Variation in length of day of the Earth (LOD, equivalent to the Earth’s rotation rate) versus change in atmospheric geopotential height fields and astronomical parameters were analyzed for the years 1962-2006. This revealed that there is a 27.3-day and an average 13.6-day periodic oscillation in LOD and atmospheric pressure fields following lunar revolution around the Earth. Accompanying the alternating change in celestial gravitation forcing on the Earth and its atmosphere, the Earth’s LOD changes from minimum to maximum, then to minimum, and the atmospheric geopotential height fields in the tropics oscillate from low to high, then to low. The 27.3-day and average 13.6-day periodic atmospheric oscillation in the tropics is proposed to be a type of strong atmospheric tide, excited by celestial gravitation forcing. A formula for a Tidal Index was derived to estimate the strength of the celestial gravitation forcing, and a high degree of correlation was found between the Tidal Index determined by astronomical parameters, LOD, and atmospheric geopotential height. The reason for the atmospheric tide is periodic departure of the lunar orbit from the celestial equator during lunar revolution around the Earth. The alternating asymmetric change in celestial gravitation forcing on the Earth and its atmosphere produces a "modulation" to the change in the Earth’s LOD and atmospheric pressure fields.     

The transition from the present-day climate to a modern Snowball Earth

We use the coupled atmosphere–ocean general circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM to investigate the transition from the present-day climate to a modern Snowball Earth, defined as the Earth in modern geography with complete sea-ice cover. Starting from the present-day climate and applying an abrupt decrease of total solar irradiance (TSI) we find that the critical TSI marking the Snowball Earth bifurcation point is between 91 and 94% of the present-day TSI. The Snowball Earth bifurcation point as well as the transition times are well reproduced by a zero-dimensional energy balance model of the mean ocean potential temperature. During the transition, the asymmetric distribution of continents between the Northern and Southern Hemisphere causes heat transports toward the more water-covered Southern Hemisphere. This is accompanied by an intensification of the southern Hadley cell and the wind-driven subtropical ocean cells by a factor of 4. If we set back TSI to 100% shortly before the transition to a modern Snowball Earth is completed, a narrow band of open equatorial water is sufficient for rapid melting. This implies that for 100% TSI the point of unstoppable glaciation separating partial from complete sea-ice cover is much closer to complete sea-ice cover than in classical energy balance models. Stable states can have no greater than 56.6% sea-ice cover implying that ECHAM5/MPI-OM does not exhibit stable states with near-complete sea-ice cover but open equatorial waters.     

Research Project Entitled "The Dynamics and Physical Processes in The Weather and Climate System" --Part Ⅰ: A Brief Introduction

In the beginning of the 21st century, the Tenth Five-Year Priority Research Projects of the Earth Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) were initiated. After nearly a two-year long process to prepare, the first version of six Priority Research Projects of Earth Sciences was published in October 2001 by NSFC, viz., Local Response to Global Changes, Life Process and Environment,Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System, Continental Dynamics, Regional Sustainable Development, Solar-Terrestrial Environment and Space Weather. The process involved more than 200 renowned Chinese scientists and many departments and agencies in China. The six Priority Research Projects guide the research effort of the earth sciences for the NSFC from year 2001 to 2005.This paper provides a brief introduction to the Third Priority Research Project of the Department of Earth Sciences of NSFC-Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System (DPWOS).     

Research Project Entitled “The Dynamics and Physical Processes in The Weather and Climate System“ --Part Ⅰ: A Brief Introduction

1. Introduction Human activities including social and economic de-velopments, are closely related to the change of theweather and climate system. Since the beginning oftime, weather and climate, which are the general termsfor the entire range of phenom…     

简论人类圈(Anthroposphere)在地球系统中的作用

工业革命后, 人类活动影响地球环境达到了空前的程度。近年提出的人类世 (anthropocene) 概念就是为表征地球系统演变进入了这一特殊的新纪元。然而, 人类活动并非单向地影响自然, 它在改变自然环境的同时, 环境变化也影响着人类行为, 迫使人类去适应自然变化, 改变生存方式。为更深入地表征人类活动与地球环境相互作用的这种特征, 作者讨论了在地球系统模式里引入“人类圈 (anthroposphere)” 的必要性以及由此带来的新的科学挑战, 并提出了构建包含人类圈的地球系统模式的一些思路。     

Toward the snowball earth deglaciation…

The current state of knowledge suggests that the Neoproterozoic snowball Earth is far from deglaciation even at 0.2 bars of CO₂. Since understanding the termination of the fully ice-covered state is essential to sustain, or not, the snowball Earth theory, we used an Atmospheric General Climate Model (AGCM) to explore some key factors which could induce deglaciation. After testing the models’ sensitivity to their parameterizations of clouds, CO₂ and snow, we investigated the warming effect caused by a dusty surface, associated with ash release during a mega-volcanic eruption. We found that the snow aging process, its dirtiness and the ash deposition on the snow-free ice are key factors for deglaciation. Our modelling study suggests that, under a CO₂ enriched atmosphere, a dusty snowball Earth could reach the deglaciation threshold.     

Research Project Entitled "The Dynamics and Physical Processes in The Weather and Climate System" --Part Ⅰ: A Brief Introduction

In the beginning of the 21st century, the Tenth Five-Year Priority Research Projects of the Earth Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) were initiated. After nearly a two-year long process to prepare, the first version of six Priority Research Projects of Earth Sciences was published in October 2001 by NSFC, viz., Local Response to Global Changes, Life Process and Environment,Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System, Continental Dynamics, Regional Sustainable Development, Solar-Terrestrial Environment and Space Weather. The process involved more than 200 renowned Chinese scientists and many departments and agencies in China. The six Priority Research Projects guide the research effort of the earth sciences for the NSFC from year 2001 to 2005.This paper provides a brief introduction to the Third Priority Research Project of the Department of Earth Sciences of NSFC-Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System (DPWOS).     

A possibility of determination of earth surface radiation budget from calculated and satellite data

The possibility is considered ofusing calculated and satellite data in addition to the results of direct actinometric observations in order to maintain the series of Earth surface radiation budget and to study its spatial variability. The empirical relationships are obtained based on the regression analysis of atmospheric radiation and meteorological parameters using the data of long-term observations in Lomonosov Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory (MSU MO). Satellite data needed to compute the Earth surface radiation budget are compared with the respective data of ground-based observations in MSU MO, and the possibility of using them is assessed.     

利用卫星图像分析南京信息工程大学校园变化特征

本文主要目的是利用卫星图像资料分析南京信息工程大学（Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology,NUIST）建校之初至今校园的变化特征.共分析了1964年11月至1970年12月之间的5幅无云的美国侦察卫星图像（1995年解密）,地理配准后图像的位置精度为4.8至7.8 m,图像中的建筑物、道路和水体都清晰可见.通过对比这些黑白的侦察卫星图像与2006—2018年的Google Earth彩色图像,发现现在校园面积远远大于旧校园;旧图像里中苑老操场跑道长度为298 m,2006年Google Earth图像中为406.5 m,操场中心点向东移动了9 m,向南移动了47 m.侦察卫星图像和Google Earth图像都是以统一坐标系做地理位置校正,相关图像见附件.     

The statistical structure of the field of surface soil layer moisture from ground-based and satellite observations

The following data was used: the archives of measurements of available water capacity carried out at Roshydromet network of stations and satellite measurements of relative humidity of the upper soil layer from ASCAT data (from the MetOp satellites). The statistical structure of the field of available water capacity in the upper 10- and 20-cm soil layers is assessed. The correlations between the Earth remote sensing data and data from agrometeorological stations are revealed. The procedure of automatic data checking from ground-based observations is developed. The algorithm is suggested for statistically optimal conversion of the Earth remote sensing data to the estimate of moisture content in the upper soil layer.     

The ideas of secondary school children concerning ozone layer damage

The understanding of pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 about the ozone layer — what it is, what will damage it and what will be the likely result of such damage — has been studied. Following the use of a preliminary open-form questionnaire, the ideas of a large cohort of children have been probed by closed-form questionnaire and by interviews with a subset of this group. The authors explain that most pupils seem aware that the ozone layer is a layer of gas around Earth, but less sure what that gas is. They also know that it protects Earth from ultra-violet rays from the sun, and that further depletion will allow more ultra-violet to Earth and cause more skin cancer. Most also know that one cause of depletion is the use of CFCs, but many confuse the depletion of the ozone layer with the greenhouse effect and other forms of atmospheric pollution. The authors provide evidence to suggest that such confusion of ideas is strongly held and that, even with this relatively new and abstract phenomenon, ideas are held in a consistent and similar framework by most pupils.