Defining desertification: A review

The concept of desertification was introduced in the late forties to designate a number of ecological degradation processes in tropical Africa, in particular the progressive transformation of tropical forests in savannahs or even drier ecosystems. Since then, the word has received a number of other meanings, some of them contradictory, most of them ambiguous.This paper reviews the historical developments that lead to the introduction of the concept of desertification, summarizes some of the reasons why this issue is so controversial, and suggests specific elements that should be incorporated in the definition of the concept. The point is made that each user of the concept should probably design a definition for his or her own use, depending on the goals, among other things.The National Center for Atmospheric Research is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research and sponsored by the National Science Foundation.     

ENSO多样性研究进展

El Ni?o是热带中东太平洋异常偏暖的现象,发展过程具有显著的季节锁相特征。近年来,新形态事件更频繁发生引起了科学界广泛关注。学者们根据空间分布形态或爆发时间将ENSO事件分为两类,虽然选取标准不同,分类结果却有诸多相似点:中太平洋(Dateline、Modoki、CP、WP及SU型)El Ni?o事件发展至成熟时,正SSTA中心位于赤道太平洋中部;东太平洋(传统、EP、CT及SP型)El Ni?o发展至成熟时,正SSTA中心位于赤道东太平洋,低层西风异常更强,向东传输的距离也更远。研究结果显示,东太平洋El Ni?o比中太平洋El Ni?o持续时间更长,强度也更强;两类事件对全球气候的影响模态有很大的差异。近几十年,中太平洋El Ni?o出现频率有所增加,但其原因尚未清楚。关于两类事件生成发展和位相转换的动力原因,目前科学界普遍认为东太平洋El Ni?o是一个海盆尺度的海气耦合过程,其生消过程与温跃层的变化有紧密联系,但对中太平洋El Ni?o的动力机制尚未有统一的认识。      

Lightning and climate: A review

Research on regional and global lightning activity and the global electrical circuit is summarized. This area of activity has greatly expanded through observations of lightning by satellite and through increased use of the natural (Schumann) resonances of the Earth–ionosphere cavity. The global electrical circuit provides a natural framework for monitoring global change on many time scales. Lightning is responsive to temperature on many time scales, but the sensitivity to temperature appears to diminish at the longer time scales.     

Regional modeling: A theoretical discussion

Summary The goal of regional modeling is to make a detailed forecast for a given limited area of interst by focusing resolution over it and the immediate vicinity. As a consequence, the period of validity is necessarily more restricted than would otherwise be the case, and this is the price that must be paid for locally-enhanced resolution. The principal attributes of the non-interactive and interactive strategies for regional modeling are described. For the non0interactive strategy, particular emphasis is placed on the importance, difficulty, and impact, of well-posedness for open-domain problems. A methodology is given for estimating the size of numerical buffer zones required to obtain a forecast uncontaminated by the inward propagation of inaccurately-specified lateral boundary conditions. The interactive strategy addresses the well-posedness issue of (non-interactive) limited-area models. A computational overhead is incurred but this can be reduced through the use of variable resolution. It is argued that regardless of the preferred regional modeling strategy, experiments should be undertaken to today's regional models under carefully-controlled conditions, to reflect the significant reduction over the past two decades of other sources of error.With 7 Figures     

Decaying Scalars Emitted By A Forest Canopy: A Numerical Study

A large-eddy simulation is modified to include multiple scalars emitted by a plant canopy. Each of these scalars is subjected to varying rates of chemical loss. Presented is a detailed comparison between conservedspecies and species undergoing first- and second-order chemical loss.Profiles of mean mixing ratio, mixing-ratio variance and vertical mixing-ratio flux reveal the influence of chemical reactivity. Distribution of thescalar source through the depth of the canopy is shown to locally reducethe reaction rate for second-order species. Transport efficiencies, diffusioncoefficients, and mean source heights also exhibit chemical dependencies.Budgets of mixing-ratio variance and flux elucidate the mechanisms throughwhich chemistry modifies each. Instantaneous fields show the existence ofintermittently occurring coherent structures that are thought to enhancespecies segregation.     

Neutral Flow Over A Series Of Rough Hills: A Laboratory Experiment

This paper presents laboratory experiments of aerodynamically fully rough, neutral flow over a series of sinusoidal hills. Two sets of hills, with maximum gradients (slopes) of 0.2 (10°) and 0.4 (20°), were considered.The flow remained attached in the former case while separation occurredin the latter. Characteristics of the mean flow and turbulence statistics are discussed and compared with profiles over a flat surface covered with the same roughness as the hills. Comparisons are made with linear theory predictions for the flow in the inner region and aloft. Accurate measurements of the surface pressure were also made, enabling the comparison between the measured pressure drag and predictions from theoretical and computational work with different turbulent closure schemes. Organised secondary flow in the spanwise direction, observed previously in both experimental and computational studies, was also observed here over the small hills.     

Modeling microclimate environments: A verification study

A numerical model is developed for simulating microclimate of plants and bare soil. The model evaluates heat, mass, momentum, and radiative fluxes in the soil-plant-atmosphere system. Its vertical domain may extend throughout the whole Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). The model requires, either, temporal meteorological data of solar radiation, wind speed, air temperature and humidity measured over the field, or, when applied to the whole PBL, initial values of the latter three at its top. Vegetation parameters (leaf area index, photometric properties, root distribution and density) as well as soil texture, hydraulic and photometric properties are considered. The model was verified with meteorological data taken from two different climatological regions, above a bare soil and two cotton fields.For all case studies, observed and calculated values of air (except for within-canopy) and soil temperatures, wind speed, net radiation, and soil-, latent-, and sensible heat fluxes, agreed well with measurements.     

随机镇定与反镇定概述

本文概述了随机镇定与反镇定理论的研究现状.主要回顾了一个微分方程的随机镇定与反镇定普遍理论及其发展,并围绕该理论的应用和扩展从四个方面阐述连续时间系统噪声镇定理论的当前发展概况.此外,本文还概述了离散时间系统随机镇定方面的最新进展.     

Drought in Southwest China: A Review

The clustering of severe and sustained droughts in Southwest China(SWC)during the last decade has resulted in tremendous losses,including crop failure,a lack of drinking water,ecosystem destruction,health problems,and even deaths.Various attempts have been made to explore the variability and causes of drought in SWC.Here,the authors summarize and integrate this accumulated but fragmented knowledge.On the whole,general agreement has been reached on the evolution of drought in SWC,which has become more frequent and intense during the past 50 years and is projected to continue throughout the 21st century.However,it is unclear and even disputable as to what and how sea surface temperatures and circulation oscillation patterns affect the drought condition.Meanwhile,the presence of strong nonlinearity places considerable challenges in both understanding and predicting drought in SWC.Therefore,much remains to be learned concerning the mechanisms responsible for drought disasters in SWC and accurate forecast practice.In addition to pursuing research on factors and processes involved in drought formation,above all,there is an urgent need to develop appropriate strategies and plans for mitigating the threats of drought.     

Robert's recursive frequency filter: A reexamination

Summary The recursive filter designed by Robert (1966) has been investigated in detail. The filter is found to have a dual impact on the wave on which it acts in the sense that it changes the phase and amplitude of the wave unlike a nonrecursive filter which only changes the wave amplitude. The dual nature of the filter's effect is attibuted primarily to its recursive nature. Procedures for choosing the correct value of the smoothing element of the filter for achieving some desired postfiltration results are also discussed.With 4 Figures     

Predicting climate anomalies:A real challenge

过去几十年,气候变化和极端气候事件造成的经济损失和灾害显著增加.虽然全球的科学家在理解和预测气候变异方面做出了巨大的努力,但当前在气候预测领域仍然存在几个重大难题.2020年,依托于国家自然科学基金基础科学中心项目的气候系统预测研究中心(CCSP)成立了,该中心旨在应对和处理气候预测领域的三大科学难题:厄尔尼诺-南方涛动(ENSO)预测,延伸期天气预报,年际-年代际气候预测,并为更加准确的气候预测和更加有效的灾害防御提供科学依据.因此,本文介绍了CCSP的主要目标和面对的科学挑战,回顾了CCSP在季风动力过程,陆-气相互作用和模式开发,ENSO变率,季节内振荡,气候预测等方面已取得的重要研究成果.未来CCSP将继续致力于解决上述领域的关键科学问题.     

全球变暖趋缓研究进展

近十几年来,全球年平均表面温度上升趋势显示出停滞状态,即全球变暖趋缓,这引起了国际社会的广泛关注,同时也引发了对全球变暖的质疑,各国气候学家正努力就全球变暖趋缓的事实、原因及其可能影响展开研究。本文综述了目前国内外对全球变暖趋缓的研究结果。多数科学家认可近十几年来全球变暖停滞的事实,并认为太阳活动处于低位相、大气气溶胶（自然和人为）增加以及海洋吸收热量是变暖停滞的可能影响因子,其中海洋（尤其是700米以下的深海）对热量的储存可能是变暖停滞的关键。国际耦合模式比较计划第5阶段中的模式并未精确地描述各种有利降温影响因子的近期位相演变,因而其模拟的近期增暖趋势较观测偏强。由此推断,变暖停滞主要是自然因素造成的,并且预测变暖趋缓将在近几年或几十年内结束（依赖于太平洋年代际振荡的位相转变）,未来气温将仍主要受到温室气体增加的影响而表现出明显的上升趋势。因此,目前的全球变暖趋缓不大可能改变到本世纪末全球大幅度变暖带来的风险。本综述展望未来的研究热点包括:精确估算全球气温和海洋热含量的变率及其不确定性,海洋年代际信号（太平洋以及大西洋的年代际振荡）的转型机制,存储在深海的热量将在何时返回海洋表面及其对区域气候的潜在影响。     

The global electrical circuit: A review

Research topics on the global electrical circuit are addressed that have received attention in recent years. These topics include the diurnal variation of the global circuit, surface measurements of electric field at high latitude, the annual variation, the semiannual variation, the role of lightning as a source for the global circuit, the electrical contribution of mesoscale convective systems, the possible effect of thunderstorms on the E and F regions of the ionosphere, the evidence for a global circuit impact from nuclear weapons tests, the controversy over long-term variations, the response to climate change, and finally the impact of the global circuit on climate.     

Narratives and water: A bibliometric review

Social and environmental sciences have shown that narratives have significant impact on human behaviour. Understanding water narratives can therefore help policy-makers understand and regulate public behaviour. We carry out a bibliometric analysis of water narratives, which gives us a broad overview of the types of work, collaborations and key insights. We couple this with a smaller qualitative review, which enabled us to construct a typology that captures the range of themes found in the literature. Narratives might be classified along an axis of expert and local knowledge and an axis of time – retrospective and prospective. We also show that narratives are a useful tool for legitimation and mobilization, and a form of “System 1” heuristic. Given that so many water challenges are tied to human activities, an understanding of water narratives and the link to behavioural change would be a useful part of future research agendas.     

Paleoclimate modeling in China: A review

This paper provides a review of paleoclimate modeling activities in China. Rather than attempt to cover all topics, we have chosen a few climatic intervals and events judged to be particularly informative to the international community. In historical climate simulations, changes in solar radiation and volcanic activity explain most parts of reconstructions over the last millennium prior to the industrial era, while atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations play the most important role in the20 th century warming over China. There is a considerable model–data mismatch in the annual and boreal winter temperature change over China during the mid-Holocene [6000 years before present(ka BP)], while coupled models with an interactive ocean generally perform better than atmospheric models. For the Last Glacial Maximum(21 ka BP), climate models successfully reproduce the surface cooling trend over China but fail to reproduce its magnitude, with a better performance for coupled models. At that time, reconstructed vegetation and western Pacific sea surface temperatures could have significantly affected the East Asian climate, and environmental conditions on the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau were most likely very different to the present day. During the late Marine Isotope Stage 3(30–40 ka BP), orbital forcing and Northern Hemisphere glaciation, as well as vegetation change in China, were likely responsible for East Asian climate change. On the tectonic scale,the Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau uplift, the Tethys Sea retreat, and the South China Sea expansion played important roles in the formation of the East Asian monsoon-dominant environment pattern during the late Cenozoic.