A New Approach to Data Assimilation

A significant attempt to design a timesaving and efficient four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4DVar) has been made in this paper, and a new approach to data assimilation, which is noted as 'three-dimensional variational data assimilation of mapped observation (3DVM)' is proposed, based on the new concept of mapped observation and the new idea of backward 4DVar. Like the available 4DVar, 3DVM produces an optimal initial condition (IC) that is consistent with the prediction model due to the inclusion of model constraints and best fits the observations in the assimilation window through the model solution trajectory. Different from the 4DVar, the IC derived from 3DVM is located at the end of the assimilation window rather than at the beginning conventionally. This change greatly reduces the computing cost for the new approach, which is almost the same as that of the three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVar). Especially, such a change is able to improve assimilation accuracy because it does not need the tangential linear and adjoint approximations to calculate the gradient of cost function. Therefore, in numerical test, the new approach produces better IC than 4DVar does for 72-h simulation of TY9914 (Dan), by assimilating the three-dimensional fields of temperature and wind retrieved from the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) observations. Meanwhile, it takes only 1/7 of the computing cost that the 4DVar requires for the same initialization with the same retrieved data.     

THE ENSEMBLE FORECASTING OF TROPICAL CYCLONE MOTION I：USING A PRIMITIVE EQUATION BAROTROPIC MODEL

1INTRODUCTIONErrorsofnumericalforecastingcomprisethoseintheinitialvalue,modelandcomputationandthefirstkindoferrorbecomesmoreandmoreoutstandingwiththeon-goingdevelopmentofcomputersandnumericalmodels.Subjecttoavailableobservationmeans,therealatmosphereisanythingbutapproximatelymeasured.Meanwhile,oneshouldpayattentiontothepossibility,assuggestedbyLorenz[1],thatanyslightdifferencesduringtheinitialstatemayleadtoresultsthatturnouttobetotallydissimilarfromwhatwouldbeexpectedotherwise,asfarasdefi…     

Dependence of Hurricane Intensity and Structures on Vertical Resolution and Time-Step Size

In view of the growing interests in the explicit modeling of clouds and precipitation, the effects of varying vertical resolution and time-step sizes on the 72-h explicit simulation of Hurricane Andrew (1992) are studied using the Pennsylvania State University/National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU/NCAR) mesoscale model (i.e., MM5) with the finest grid size of 6 km. It is shown that changing vertical resolution and time-step size has significant effects on hurricane intensity and inner-core cloud/precipitation, but little impact on the hurricane track. In general, increasing vertical resolution tends to produce a deeper storm with lower central pressure and stronger three-dimensional winds, and more precipitation. Similar effects, but to a less extent, occur when the time-step size is reduced. It is found that increasing the low-level vertical resolution is more efficient in intensifying a hurricane, whereas changing the upper-level vertical resolution has little impact on the hurricane intensity. Moreover, the use of a thicker surface layer tends to produce higher maximum surface winds. It is concluded that the use of higher vertical resolution,a thin surface layer, and smaller time-step sizes, along with higher horizontal resolution, is desirable to model more realistically the intensity and inner-core structures and evolution of tropical storms as well as the other convectively driven weather systems.     

Land Breeze and Thermals： A Scale Threshold to Distinguish Their Effects

Land breeze is a type of mesoscale circulation developed due to thermal forcing over a heterogeneous landscape. It can contribute to atmospheric dynamic and hydrologic processes through affecting heat and water fluxes on the land-atmosphere interface and generating shallow convective precipitation. If the scale of the landscape heterogeneity is smaller than a certain size, however, the resulting land breeze becomes weak and becomes mixed up with other thermal convections like thermals. This study seeks to identify a scale threshold to distinguish the effects between land breeze and thermals. Two-dimensional simulations were performed with the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System （RAMS） to simulate thermals and land breeze. Their horizontal scale features were analyzed using the wavelet transform. The thermals developed over a homogeneous landscape under dry or wet conditions have an initial scale of 2-5 km during their early stage of development. The scale jumps to 10-15 km when condensation occurs. The solution of an analytical model indicates that the reduced degree of atmospheric instability due to the release of condensation potential heat could be one of the contributing factors for the increase in scale. The land breeze, on the other hand, has a major scale identical to the size of the landscape heterogeneity throughout various stages of development. The results suggest that the effects of land breeze can be clearly distinguished from those of thermals only if the size of the landscape heterogeneity is larger than the scale threshold of about 5 km for dry atmospheric processes or about 15 km for moist ones.     

数字滤波方法在月尺度数值预报中的应用：II.保留不同低频过程的效果比较

用数字滤波方法对观测资料序列进行处理，得到初始场用于Ｔ４２Ｌ９全球谱模式的月预报，以去除误差增长较快的高频扰动对低频过程的影响，并且利用多时刻的观测资料提取低频过程的信息。对冬季和夏季两个不同个例进行了实例，并比较了取不同长度的观测序列，截取不同周期的过程作为初值对预报效果的影响。结果说明，经过滤波后对低频分量和平均场的预报都有显著的改进。而且对于较长时效的预报，应保留更低频的过程（比如１０ｄ以上     

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.     

第五代PSU／NCAR中尺度模式系统（MM5）介绍I：地形及地表分类参数处理（TE …

利用ＢＥＲＲＡＩＮ模块的主要功能、结构和原理对模式的安装和操作使用给予了说明。册时,为了加深 读者对该模块的认识,对不同分辨率的地形、地表分类参数的处理进行比较,分析结果表明,高分辨率地形及地表分类资料的选取能更真实地反映出下垫面的实际特征,是今后进行中尺度天气预报和基础之一。     

Heavy Rainfall Ensemble Prediction： Initial Condition Perturbation vs Multi-Physics Perturbation

Mesoscale ensemble is an encouraging technology for improving the accuracy of heavy rainfall predictions. Occurrences of heavy rainfall are closely related to convective instability and topography. In mid-latitudes, perturbed initial fields for medium-range weather forecasts are often configured to focus on the baroclinic instability rather than the convective instability. Thus, alternative approaches to generate initial perturba- tions need to be developed to accommodate the uncertainty of the convective instability. In this paper, an initial condition perturbation approach to mesoscale heavy rainfall ensemble prediction, named as Different Physics Mode Method （DPMM）, is presented in detail. Based on the PSU/NCAR mesoscale model MM5, an ensemble prediction experiment on a typical heavy rainfall event in South China is carried out by using the DPMM, and the structure of the initial condition perturbation is analyzed. Further, the DPMM ensem- ble prediction is compared with a multi-physics ensemble prediction, and the results show that the initial perturbation fields from the DPMM have a reasonable mesoscale circulation structure and could reflect the prediction uncertainty in the sensitive regions of convective instability. An evaluation of the DPMM ini- tial condition perturbation indicates that the DPMM method produces better ensemble members than the multi-physics perturbation method, and can significantly improve the precipitation forecast than the control non-ensemble run.     

Analogue Correction Method of Errors by Combining Statistical and Dynamical Methods

Based on the atmospheric analogy principle, the inverse problem that the information of historical analogue data is utilized to estimate model errors is put forward and a method of analogue correction of errors (ACE) of model is developed in this paper. The ACE can combine effectively statistical and dynamical methods, and need not change the current numerical prediction models. The new method not only adequately utilizes dynamical achievements but also can reasonably absorb the information of a great many analogues in historical data in order to reduce model errors and improve forecast skill. Furthermore, the ACE may identify specific historical data for the solution of the inverse problem in terms of the particularity of current forecast. The qualitative analyses show that the ACE is theoretically equivalent to the principle of the previous analogue-dynamical model, but need not rebuild the complicated analogue-deviation model, so has better feasibility and operational foreground. Moreover, under the ideal situations, when numerical models or historical analogues are perfect, the forecast of the ACE would transform into the forecast of dynamical or statistical method, respectively.     

Is Model Parameter Error Related to a Significant Spring Predictability Barrier for El Nio events？ Results from a Theoretical Model

Within a theoretical ENSO model, the authors investigated whether or not the errors superimposed on model parameters could cause a significant ``spring predictability barrier' (SPB) for El Nino events. First, sensitivity experiments were respectively performed to the air--sea coupling parameter, α and the thermocline effect coefficient μ. The results showed that the uncertainties superimposed on each of the two parameters did not exhibit an obvious season-dependent evolution; furthermore, the uncertainties caused a very small prediction error and consequently failed to yield a significant SPB. Subsequently, the conditional nonlinear optimal perturbation (CNOP) approach was used to study the effect of the optimal mode (CNOP-P) of the uncertainties of the two parameters on the SPB and to demonstrate that the CNOP-P errors neither presented a unified season-dependent evolution for different El Nino events nor caused a large prediction error, and therefore did not cause a significant SPB. The parameter errors played only a trivial role in yielding a significant SPB. To further validate this conclusion, the authors investigated the effect of the optimal combined mode (i.e. CNOP error) of initial and model errors on SPB. The results illustrated that the CNOP errors tended to have a significant season-dependent evolution, with the largest error growth rate in the spring, and yielded a large prediction error, inducing a significant SPB. The inference, therefore, is that initial errors, rather than model parameter errors, may be the dominant source of uncertainties that cause a significant SPB for El Nino events. These results indicate that the ability to forecast ENSO could be greatly increased by improving the initialization of the forecast model.     

基于最新全球集合预报系统的可预报性评估

为了提供有价值且可靠的概率(或者不确定性)预报,最新的全球集合预报系统已在美国国家环境预报中心日常业务运行,以满足社会需求。通过对各个关键要素的概率预报统计检验,可为广大用户提供这些概率预报的信心指数。但是预报(或集合预报)能力不仅取决于我们使用的预测要素,而且与时间和空间分辨率,极端事件或者高影响天气,以及预报时效有关。以大尺度天气系统预报为例,通常选择北半球500 hPa位势高度距平相关指数或概率指数表征模式的预报能力。如参照北半球500 hPa位势高度的距平相关指数(60%AC)或概率预报技巧指数(25%CRPSS),美国全球集合预报系统能够提供大约10 d的技巧预报。从全球集合预报系统输出的各预报要素,满足不同时空尺度需求的角度进行讨论,其可预报性(或预报极限)能够为模式研发人员、一线预报员和用户提供参考。尤其是对大气可预报性的深入研究,对于从科学与技术角度全面提升数值预报系统水平非常重要。当能够确定可预报性(或是预报误差)的真实来源时,科学家(包括模式研发人员)就能够有针对性地修改与完善。将传统的可预报性研究与改进的能够更客观地表述预报不确定性的集合预报相结合,所得可预报性将提供另一种有价值的参考。可预报性研究总体表明,全球集合预报系统对行星波、大尺度和天气尺度的系统(或者过程)可能分别具备约15、12、10 d的预报能力。对于热带天气过程的预报,如果进一步改善模式偏差和物理参数化过程,其MJO(Madden-Julian Oscillation)预报技巧可以延长至32.5 d。     

集合敏感性在预报误差及可预报性研究中的应用进展综述

研究大气的可预报性和预报误差产生的原因,对于改进数值预报,提升业务预报技巧具有重要意义。集合敏感性基于具有流依赖特性的集合预报,通过建立预报与初始场或前期预报大气状态之间的统计关系,为揭示与预报对象可预报性相关的动力学特征及理解预报误差来源和传播机制提供了一种新方法。同时,介绍了集合敏感性的定义和度量,并综述了其针对典型天气系统和高影响天气事件研究的进展,并讨论了该方法的优势和局限性。     

欧洲业务集合预报系统进展

由于大气初值与数值模式中物理过程存在不确定性等客观事实,集合预报无疑代表着数值天气预报未来前进与发展的方向,它标志着天气预报的预报范式转变,即用户不仅可以得到未来大气状态的单一现实,还可得到未来大气可能出现的一系列场景。文中扼要地梳理了欧洲全球业务集合预报与有限区域模式高分辨业务集合预报的研究动态与技术发展、基本问题及其未来最新发展方向,包括:1)欧洲中期天气预报中心的业务集合预报系统发展沿革及概况;2)欧洲国家主要业务高分辨率集合预报系统概况;3)当前业务集合预报存在的问题、挑战及未来前进的方向。文中除了关注欧洲中期天气预报中心的集合预报应用,还梳理了目前欧洲高分辨业务集合预报取得的成就,以引起有关研究人员的注意。总之,借鉴欧洲业务集合预报的发展思路,不仅有助于集合预报理论创新,还对发展集合预报业务有重要指导意义。     

NCEP、ECMWF及CMC全球集合预报业务系统发展综述

总结了目前最具代表性的3个全球集合预报系统（global ensemble forecast system,GEFS）——美国国家环境预报中心（National Centers for Environmental Prediction,NCEP）、欧洲中期天气预报中心（European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts,ECMWF）和加拿大气象中心（Canadian Meteoro-logical Centre,CMC）建成至今的发展概况。由于计算资源的不断扩展,各中心集合预报系统的模式分辨率、集合成员数也随之增加。同时各中心都在不断地致力于发展和完善初始和模式扰动方法,来更好地估计与初值和模式有关的不确定性,促进预报技巧的提高。其中初始扰动方法从最初的奇异向量法（ECMWF）、增殖向量法（NCEP）和观测扰动法（CMC）更新为现在的集合资料同化—奇异向量法（ECMWF）、重新尺度化集合转换法（NCEP）和集合卡尔曼滤波（CMC）。在估计模式不确定性方面,ECMWF和CMC都修订了各自的随机参数化方案和多参数化方案,NCEP最近也在模式中加入了随机全倾向扰动。为提高全球高影响天气预报的准确率,TIGGE计划（the THORPEX interactive grand global ensemble）的提出增进了国际间对多模式、多中心集合预报的合作研究,北美集合预报系统（North American ensemble forecast system,NAEFS）为建立全球多模式集合预报系统提供了业务框架,这都将有助于未来全球交互式业务预报系统的构建     

集合预报产品综合分析显示平台关键技术与实现

针对集合预报方法在天气预报业务中的应用,开发了具有自主知识产权的集合预报产品综合分析显示平台。以集合预报模式输出数据量大、气象图表显示效率和质量要求高两个主要需求为出发点,采用客户端服务器架构设计。服务器端将原始数据转换为产品数据以提高客户端执行效率。该文详细分析了平台关键技术,针对数据延时问题,轮询式数据处理技术实时检查原始数据变化状态并更新产品,采用生产者消费者互斥方法解决多线程锁死问题。为提高图表美观程度,动态页面布局显示技术对所有图形要素进行分类, 并给出显示属性的抽象描述,结合图形渲染技术,实现了看图模式和出图模式的动态切换。该平台为预报员和服务决策者提供了宝贵的不确定性信息,在中小尺度极端天气预报、台风路径预报中发挥了重要作用。     

Ensemble mean forecast skill and applications with the T213 ensemble prediction system

Ensemble forecasting has become the prevailing method in current operational weather forecasting. Although ensemble mean forecast skill has been studied for many ensemble prediction systems(EPSs) and different cases, theoretical analysis regarding ensemble mean forecast skill has rarely been investigated, especially quantitative analysis without any assumptions of ensemble members. This paper investigates fundamental questions about the ensemble mean, such as the advantage of the ensemble mean over individual members, the potential skill of the ensemble mean, and the skill gain of the ensemble mean with increasing ensemble size. The average error coefficient between each pair of ensemble members is the most important factor in ensemble mean forecast skill, which determines the mean-square error of ensemble mean forecasts and the skill gain with increasing ensemble size. More members are useful if the errors of the members have lower correlations with each other, and vice versa. The theoretical investigation in this study is verified by application with the T213 EPS. A typical EPS has an average error coefficient of between 0.5 and 0.8; the 15-member T213 EPS used here reaches a saturation degree of 95%(i.e., maximum 5% skill gain by adding new members with similar skill to the existing members) for 1–10-day lead time predictions, as far as the mean-square error is concerned.     

气象预报的方法与不确定性

根据历史上有关气象的文字记载,结合大气科学发展的历史和现状,以深入浅出的方式回顾了气象预报制作方法的变更与发展.概述了当前业务预报的水平和相关研究的主要进展.针对数值预报,讨论了导致气象预报结果不确定性的主要原因.并通过介绍集合预报,对公众应当如何理解和使用预报产品提出了看法.     

“16·7”华北极端强降水过程对流尺度集合模拟试验不确定性分析

基于4km水平分辨率的WRF-ARW中尺度模式,对2016年7月19日华北地区的极端暴雨过程进行了不同降水微物理过程的对流尺度集合模拟试验。结果表明:各个成员模拟降水的强度、时空分布与观测实况较为接近,但也具有明显的不确定性。通过邻域检验的ETS评分、相关系数和均方根误差等指标进行评估表明,采用Morrison方案和WSM6_P2方案的集合成员表现较好,对流尺度集合模式在降水强度和准确度较全球数值模式预报有一定提升。频率检验表明集合预报在50 mm以下量级的预报存在过量预报的倾向,而100 mm以上的强降水预报相对偏弱。不同降水物理过程的集合成员在高空急流和地面气旋等关键天气尺度系统的发展过程中表现出明显的不确定性;通过降水量与整层可降水含量,低层相对涡度和垂直运动等诊断量的联合分析表明,集合成员可分为强降水集合和弱降水集合两类,其中强降水集合拥有较强的对流性回波、较明显的对流性下沉以及较强的地面冷池,强的潜热反馈也导致对流层中层出现相对较大的正位涡异常,并进一步影响天气系统发展。弱降水集合成员降水以暖云降水为主,对流性上升和地面冷池相对较弱,但较为接近本次以稳定性暖云降水为主的天气过程。检验模拟雷达回波表明双参量降水物理方案在反映层云回波亮带和层云与对流核的分离特征上更为清晰合理。利用WSM6物理方案参数设置的敏感性试验表明,不同参数组合设置的预报成员分别表达了强对流风暴和暖云强降水两种性质的强降雨过程,对于一次特定天气过程中的对流系统发展能够预计到更多的不确定性,展现了对流尺度集合预报的优越性。     

集合预报对台风天鹅(2015)远距离暴雨的不确定性研究

2015年8月23—24日期间台风天鹅引发华东中部沿海地区出现暴雨或大暴雨天气。基于欧洲中期天气预报中心的集合预报分析导致此次远距离暴雨预报不确定的关键原因,并利用集合敏感性分析方法研究影响此次暴雨过程的主要天气系统的敏感区域,此外对暴雨发生发展的热动力机制展开探讨,主要结论包括:集合预报对此次台风天鹅引起的远距离暴雨的可预报性明显偏低,仅在暴雨发生前24 h才做出较大调整。在不同起报时次下,当台风路径的系统性偏差最小时,台风降水集合预报也最接近实况,但是进一步的分析表明,台风路径误差与降水量级之间的对应关系并不确定。不同雨量成员组间中低层环流场的对比分析表明:高空槽的预报差异是集合预报不确定的主要原因,高空槽东移加深有利于增加暴雨区的斜压不稳定,也有利于增强对流层低层的水汽输送急流带。500 hPa高度场的敏感性分析表明无论是初始场还是预报场,暴雨区平均降雨量均与高空槽的东移和加深显著相关,且随着预报时次的临近,显著相关区域向低槽下游明显扩大。此外还发现高空槽的东移有利于增强(减弱)暴雨区左(右)侧低层冷空气的强度,使得台风右侧更多暖湿气流向暴雨区输送。     

基于非静力模式物理扰动的中尺度集合预报试验

以GRAPES中尺度有限区模式作为试验模式, 从模式的不确定性方面来构造中尺度的集合预报, 重点考虑物理因子与初始条件的扰动作用。针对2004年7月10日北京城区的突发性暴雨过程进行了36 h的集合预报试验。结果表明:GRAPES模式可有效地捕捉到中尺度过程的信息; 中尺度集合预报是可行的, 可改进中尺度暴雨过程落区、强度的预报; 不同集合方案的预报结果各不相同, 同一方案各个成员的预报结果也有差异, 即存在适宜的离散度; 在离散度分析中发现在北京附近存在一个明显大值区, 且在大气中低层的垂直结构表现出一致性, 表明这一区域的预报不确定性很大。从集合检验结果中得到:单纯考虑模式物理扰动来构造中尺度集合预报系统有一定难度, 当加入初始场不确定信息后, 同时考虑模式的不确定性和初始场的不确定性, 有助于捕捉更多的中尺度系统的不确定信息, 有助于构造更为有效的中尺度集合预报系统。