Validation of TRMM Precipitation Radar satellite data over Indonesian region

Research has been conducted to validate monthly and seasonal rain rates derived from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (PR) using rain gauge data analysis from 2004 to 2008. The study area employed 20 gauges across Indonesia to monitor three Indonesian regional rainfall types. The relationship of PR and rain gauge data statistical analysis included the linear correlation coefficient, the mean bias error (MBE), and the root mean square error (RMSE). Data validation was conducted with point-by-point analysis and spatial average analysis. The general results of point-by-point analysis indicated satellite data values of medium correlation, while values of MBE and RMSE tended to indicate underestimations with high square errors. The spatial average analysis indicated the PR data values are lower than gauge values of monsoonal and semi-monsoonal type rainfall, while anti-monsoonal type rainfall was overestimated. The validation analysis showed very good correlation with the gauge data of monsoonal type rainfall, high correlation for anti-monsoonal type rainfall, but medium correlation for semi-monsoonal type rainfall. In general, the statistical error level of monthly seasonal monsoonal type conditions is more stable compared to other rainfall types. Unstable correlations were observed in months of high rainfall for semi-monsoonal and anti-monsoonal type rainfall.     

Estimation of transboundary transport contribution to the air pollution in the far east region using the chemistry transport model

The CHIMERE mesoscale chemistry transport model is used for the quantitative assessment of the contribution of transboundary transport of anthropogenic admixtures from China to the surface concentrations of major suspended pollutants, aerosol PM₁₀, ozone O₃, and nitrogen oxides NO_x in the Far Eastern region. Analyzed in detail are the time series of concentration of mentioned substances computed with the model taking account and not taking account of anthropogenic emissions in China. It is revealed that the transboundary transport of anthropogenic pollutants can cause the recurring episodes of manyfold increase in the concentration of PM₁₀ in the south of Khabarovsk region, as well as more rare variations of O₃ and NO_x concentration. The trajectory and synoptic analysis demonstrated that the episodes of the increase in the concentration of PM₁₀ and O₃ in the south of the region mainly depend on the carryover of air masses from northeastern China in the front part of continental cyclones.     

On the effect of large-scale atmospheric transport on chemistry and amount of atmospheric precipitation in the center of European Russia

The dependence of precipitation amount, acidity, and ionic composition on the atmospheric circulation is studied based on the computation of the back trajectories over the period of 1982–1993. Quantitative estimates of basic parameters of trajectories are derived, and their significant difference in the summer and wintertime is considered. The trajectory frequency for the cases with precipitation in the center of European Russia is computed at the regular grid points depending on the diurnal precipitation amount, acidity, and sulfate/chloride ratio. It is shown that in case of abundant precipitation both in summer and winter the highest frequency of trajectories is observed in the same regions. In the case of low precipitation, seasonal differences are observed. It is revealed that precipitation with pH > 5 is mostly connected with the air inflow from Scandinavia and the north of European Russia, while during the trajectory passage over Central and Southern Europe pH < 5 prevails in precipitation. The chlorine ions prevail most often when trajectories pass over central regions of the Mediterranean and of Middle Asia and (although somewhat less) over Scandinavia and northern Russian seas.     

Diagnosis and testing of low-level cloud parameterizations for the NCEP/GFS model using satellite and ground-based measurements

The objective of this study is to investigate the quality of clouds simulated by the National Centers for Environmental Prediction global forecast system (GFS) model and to examine the causes for some systematic errors seen in the simulations through use of satellite and ground-based measurements. In general, clouds simulated by the GFS model had similar spatial patterns and seasonal trends as those retrieved from passive and active satellite sensors, but large systematic biases exist for certain cloud regimes especially underestimation of low-level marine stratocumulus clouds in the eastern Pacific and Atlantic oceans. This led to the overestimation (underestimation) of outgoing longwave (shortwave) fluxes at the top-of-atmosphere. While temperature profiles from the GFS model were comparable to those obtained from different observational sources, the GFS model overestimated the relative humidity field in the upper and lower troposphere. The cloud condensed water mixing ratio, which is a key input variable in the current GFS cloud scheme, was largely underestimated due presumably to excessive removal of cloud condensate water through strong turbulent diffusion and/or an improper boundary layer scheme. To circumvent the problem associated with modeled cloud mixing ratios, we tested an alternative cloud parameterization scheme that requires inputs of atmospheric dynamic and thermodynamic variables. Much closer agreements were reached in cloud amounts, especially for marine stratocumulus clouds. We also evaluate the impact of cloud overlap on cloud fraction by applying a linear combination of maximum and random overlap assumptions with a de-correlation length determined from satellite products. Significantly better improvements were found for high-level clouds than for low-level clouds, due to differences in the dominant cloud geometry between these two distinct cloud types.     

Modeling the concentration of pollutants using the WRF-ARW atmospheric model and CHIMERE chemistry transport model

Described is a system for analyzing and forecasting the air quality in the central regions of Russia, During the operation of the system, the detailed meteorological information provided by the WRF-ARW model is used by the CHIMERE chemistry transport model for simulating the processes of transport, chemical transformation, and deposition of atmospheric minor constituents. Considered is the quality of retrieved and forecasted (with the lead time up to three days) concentrations of O₃, NO₂, NO, CO, and PM₁₀. The presented verification scores of pollutant concentrations demonstrate a relative success of the system. Demonstrated is a need in improving the data on the emissions of the air pollutants used for simulations. A procedure for the statistical correction of computed concentrations is described and verification scores of its results are given.     

Evaluation of summer temperature and precipitation forecasts generated by the MM5 model over central European Russia

The results of the MM5 regional meteorological model are compared with the station data. The simulations are carried out for the central part of the East European Plain for summer with a horizontal grid resolution of 15 km (24 × 34 grid points) and 24 vertical σ-levels, the upper level corresponding to 100 hPa. The MM5 model reliably reproduces information at a spatial scale of about 100 km, systematically overestimating temperature by about 1.5°C and underestimating daily precipitation totals by about 1 mm. The distribution functions for model and observed temperatures coincide with the Gaussian distribution function. The precipitation distribution functions are rather similar and have a form of the χ²-distribution with one degree of freedom. Station and model temperature extremes generally coincide in time. Extremes of daily precipitation totals are slightly underestimated by MM5.     

Long-term variations of wind regime in the free atmosphere over the European territory of Russia

The time series of seasonal average values and standard deviations of wind speed components at the isobaric surfaces of 850 and 200 hPa are analyzed on the basis of the data of upper-air observations carried out in 1961–2003 at 18 stations of the Russian Federation territory. The energy spectra of wind speed components in the first and in the second halves of the whole period under study are compared. On the whole, an increase in average values of U-component and decrease in average values of V-component took place both in upper and lower troposphere, and the largest variations occurred in winter season in the upper troposphere. Average coefficients of linear trends of average winter values for the whole region amount to 0.57 and ?0.62 m/s per 10 years for the wind components U and V at the isobaric surface of 200 hPa, respectively. The increase in the standard deviations of both components was registered in the upper troposphere in winter period almost on the whole territory. The average coefficients of linear trends of standard deviations at the isobaric surface of 200 hPa in winter for the whole region amount to 0.53 and 0.61 m/s per 10 years for U- and V-components, respectively. The intensity of the annual cycle and processes of intraseasonal scale both in the lower and upper troposphere increased in the second half of the whole interval under study.     

晴空热对流泡的风廓线雷达探测研究

文中将风廓线雷达和无线电-声探测系统探测资料用于边界层晴空热对流探测研究.结合探测事例分析了晴空热对流的演变过程和热对流对上层空气的加热效应.在热对流初期,对流高度逐渐抬高,伴有较强上升速度的热对流泡逐渐升高的现象.在热对流旺盛期,热泡合并现象明显,不论是上升还是下沉气流瞬时速度都可以超过1 m/s,可以在约2 km的高度范围内形成一致的上升或下沉运动,并形成闭合环流、周期约1 h.在热对流消退期,对流高度逐渐降低,上升运动变得相对和缓并维持较长时间.在热对流过程中,热泡运动造成气层温度的起伏,热泡与周围温度差可以达到2-4℃.探测结果表明风廓线雷达具有很高的灵敏度,可以探测到晴空热对流泡.并且,风廓线雷达资料具有很高的时间和高度分辨率,可以精细刻画热对流泡的时空分布和演变,配合无线电-声探测系统还可以精确探测热泡温度分布及其对周围温度垂直分布的影响.通过对晴空热对流风廓线雷达探测资料的初步分析,在一定程度上拓展和加深了对热对流泡和边界层热对流运动特征的了解.借助风廓线雷达探测可有效改善低层大气探测,有利于开展低层大气动力与热力过程的数值研究,对于中尺度模式、降水预报的改进等具有重要参考作用.     

Comparison of free atmosphere temperature series from radiosonde and satellite data

The series ofair temperature anomalies inthe free atmosphere from radiosonde and satellite data are compared. Along with the well-known datasets of leading foreign centers, the datasets are considered of monthly temperature anomalies for isobaric surfaces and tropospheric and lower tropospheric layers obtained in the All-Russian Research Institute of Hydrometeoroiogical Information-World Data Center (RIHMI-WDC) from the data of the global network of radiosonde observations. Following numerous literature sources, the study corroborates that it is impossible to detect the so called tropospheric amplification of warming in observational data. The results of the comparison of statistical parameters for different series of air temperature anomalies prove that the RIHMI-WDC dataset is appropriate for solving the problems of climate monitoring on the assessment of air temperature in the free atmosphere. A doubtless advantage of these datasets for the preparation of the data of monitoring and diagnosis of the current climate is that their operational update is possible by processing new monthly portions of radiosonde data for the global network. The other advantage is that they do not depend on the modes of series update in the foreign sources.     

气象卫星遥感地表温度推算近地表气温方法研究

气温是各种植物生理、水文、气象、环境等模式或模型中的一个非常重要的近地表气象参数.多年来气温数据以离散的常规气象站点观测为主,连续分布的格点气温数据则以站点资料插值而得到,分辨率低,无法反映地形等下垫面因素对局地气温的影响,在农业气候区划等研究中具有一定的局限性.随着卫星遥感地表温度算法的日趋成熟,为探讨卫星遥感地表温度数据在气温观测中的可能性和可行性,利用全中国2340个站点1998 2007年的逐旬平均最高气温数据,以及相应时段的NOAA/AVHRR旬最高地表温度数据,以线性回归及拟合模型为主,通过考虑植被指数、土地覆盖类型、季节、风速、气压、降水等各类影响因子,建立了旬最高地表温度与旬平均最高气温间的推算模型,并利用未参与建模的2002-2003年的常规气象站点气温数据,同时与推算气温和插值气温结果进行对比分析.结果表明,利用卫星遥感地表温度数据推算的旬值气温数据可取得较高的精度,尤其在地形复杂地区以及站点稀疏地区精度明显高于插值气温结果.     

The assessment of aerosol optical properties over Mohal in the northwestern Indian Himalayas using satellite and ground-based measurements and an influence of aerosol transport on aerosol radiative forcing

The present study deals with the aerosol optical properties which are assessed during the period 2007 to 2009 over Mohal (31.9oN, 77.12oE) in the northwestern Indian Himalaya, using ground-based measurements and multi-satellite data. The daily average value of aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 500?nm, ?ngstr?m exponent and turbidity coefficient are 0.24?±?0.08, 1.02?±?0.34 and 0.13?±?0.05, respectively. The comparative study of satellite and ground-based measurements reveals that the percentage retrieval for daily AOD at 550?nm over Mohal within the expected accuracy (???? _p?? ?=?±0.05?±?0.15?? _p?? ) is around 87%, with a significant correlation coefficient of 0.76. The present study suggests that the retrieval of AOD through satellite data is able to characterise the distribution of AOD over Mohal. However, further efforts are needed in order to eliminate systematic errors in the existing Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) algorithm. The transport of desert dust and anthropogenic aerosol during high aerosol loading days caused a significant reduction in surface-reaching solar radiation by 149 and 117%, respectively. This large reduction in surface-reaching solar radiation increased the atmospheric heating rate by 0.93 and 0.72?K?day^?1, respectively. This study indicates significant climatic implications due to the transport of aerosols in the northwestern Indian Himalaya.     

WRF模式中同化地基微波辐射计对降水的影响

地基微波辐射计观测已经用于数值预报中,并对预报效果产生不同的影响。目前,中国约有上百台地基微波辐射计,但是观测数据用到数值预报系统的很有限。本文尝试将两台地基微波辐射计数据同化到WRF数值预报模式,并针对北京一次暴雨过程,进行同化试验,结合地面雨量计测量结果进行比对。试验结果比较表明:同化地基微波辐射计能较明显影响降水初期的降水强度和分布,与雨量计分布更为接近;随着暴雨系统发展,同化两台地基微波辐射计对大面积强降水系统的影响甚微。     

Wind regime in the lower atmosphere over Moscow from the long-term acoustic sounding data

Presented are the results of the sounding of the lower atmospheric 500-meter layer for the period of 2004–2012 carried out at the Meteorological Observatory of the Moscow State University (MSU) with the MODOS Doppler acoustic radar (sodar) produced by METEK (Germany). Discussed is the methodological basis of the sodar wind data analysis. It is demonstrated that in the air layer up to 200 m the maximum values in the annual course of the wind speed are observed more often in autumn and winter, and the minimum values, in summer; this is associated with the fact that during the cold period of the year Moscow is often located in the zones of intense gradient currents. The diurnal course of the wind speed is characterized by the daytime maximum and night-time minimum in the layer up to 40–60 m from the surface; it is poorly pronounced and characterized by the minimum in the morning in the layer of 80–120 m; and the daytime minimum and night-time maximum are observed above 140–160 m. The layer from 80 to 120 m approximately corresponds to the height of the wind rotation. The amplitude of diurnal variations of the wind speed increases from 0.3 m/s at the height of 7 m and 0.6 m/s at the height of 15 m, to 4.5 m/s at the height of 400 m; however, its secondary minimum (0.5 m/s) associated with the rotation height is registered at the altitude of 80 m. The statistical relationship between the wind speed and surface air temperature is direct during the cold season, inverse during the warm season, and is absent in April and October. The average maximum wind speed over Moscow for ten minutes in the layer up to 500 m from the surface reaches 30–35 m/s in some cases if two conditions concur: the capital is located on the periphery of vast pressure formations (usually of deep cyclones) and the local low-level jet stream is present in the wind profile.     

On the estimation of surface radiation using satellite data

Summary Model calculations are used to investigate the uncertainties in the surface radiative flux empirically derived from satellite radiation measurements and theoretically calculated from radiation models using satellite-inferred cloud parameters. The empirical approach depends upon how well the satellite-measured radiances (represented here by the top-of-the-atmosphere flux) correlate with the net flux at the surface. The model calculations show that while the TOA flux and the net surface flux are correlated with respect to changes in optical thickness, they are not correlated with respect to changes in cloud height and negatively correlated with respect to changes in water vapor content. It is also found that the solar zenith angle has a strong effect on these relationships. It is, therefore, important to correct for the effects of atmospheric water vapor content and the solar zenith angle in the empirical estimation of surface radiative flux.The theoretical approach depends upon the net effect of the uncertainty in satellite-inferred cloud parameters. In the solar spectral region, the effects of the uncertainty in satellite retrieval of could cover and optical thickness on the net downward surface flux are systematically in opposite directions, so that the combined effects is typically small (< 7 Wm^–2). In the thermal infrared region, an error of 7 Wm^–2 could be induced by an uncertainty of 100 mb in the cloud-base height or an uncertainty of 0.1 in the fractional cloud cover. As opposed to what is commonly perceived, the error in the surface flux is likely to be larger in the IR region than in the solar spectral region.

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Zusammenfassung In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden mit Hilfe von Modellberechnungen die Unsicherheiten in den durch Satellitenmessungen empirisch gewonnenen Strahlungsflüssen an der Oberfläche und jene, die bei der Benützung von Strahlungsmodellen, die auf mit Satelliten abgeleiteten Wolkenparametern beruhen, verglichen. Die Gültigkeit des empirischen Näherungsverfahren ist davon abhängig, wie sehr die vom Satelliten gemessene Strahlung (im weiteren als top-of-the-atmosphere flux — TOA — bezeichnet) mit dem Nettostrahlungsfluß an der Oberfläche korreliert. Die Modellberechnungen zeigen, daß TOA-Fluß und Nettostrahlungsfluß an der Oberfläche zwar in bezug auf Änderungen der optischen Dicke, nicht aber in bezug auf Änderungen der Wolkenhöhe korreliert sind, während sie in bezug auf Veränderungen des Wasserdampfgehalts negativ korreliert sind. Es zeigt sich weiters, daß der Zenithwinkel der Sonne einen wesentlichen Einfluß auf diese Zusammenhänge hat. Daher ist es wichtig, die Auswirkungen des atmosphärischen Wasserdampfgehalts und des Sonnenzenithwinkels in den empirischen Berechnungen des Strahlungsflusses an der Oberfläche zu korrigieren.Der theroretische Ansatz ist abhängig vom Einfluß der Unsicherheiten der satellitenermittelten Wolkenparameter. Im solaren Spektralbereich wird der zur Oberfläche gerichtete Nettofluß durch die Unsicherheiten in der satellitenermittelten Wolkendecke und der optischen Dicke systematisch in entgegengesetzter Richtung beeinflußt, so daß der gemeinsame Effekt im allgemeinen gering bleibt (< 7 Wm^–2). Im thermischen Infrarotbereich kann ein Fehler von 7 Wm^–2 durch eine Unsicherheit von 100 mb in der Wolkenbasishöhe oder von 0.1 in der Bedeckung hervorgerufen werden. Im Gegensatz zur weitverbreiteten Ansicht ist also der Fehler bei Berechnungen des Flusses an der Oberfläche im thermischen Infrarotbereich aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach größer als im solaren Spektrum.

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With 11 Figures     

Investigation of aerosol–cloud interactions using a chemical transport model constrained by satellite observations

This study simulates optical depth of marine warm clouds for year 2001 based on interactively predicted aerosol concentrations with a global chemical transport model (CTM) driven by the ERA-40 re-analysis meteorological data. The simulated aerosol and cloud droplet number concentrations (CDNC) largely reproduce the variations between polluted and pristine marine environment as revealed by surface and aircraft measurements. By constraining cloud liquid water path (CLWP) with satellite microwave measurements, the simulated global and southern hemispheric aerosol optical depth (AOD) and cloud optical depth (COD) are well within 10% of the observed values. As a result of larger anthropogenic aerosol loadings over the northern oceans, the simulated CDNC and COD are, respectively, by 51 and 18% higher than those over the southern oceans, while the column-averaged droplet effective radius is 13% smaller. These simulated interhemispheric differences, while qualitatively consistent with satellite observations, are larger than the observations. Inclusion of drizzle effect improved the disparities but not entirely. The constrained CTM generally captures the seasonality in AOD and CLWP observations, and demonstrates that annual cycle of COD is dominated by CLWP. During winter monsoon the simulated and observed COD correlate more strongly with changes in AOD over the N. Indian Ocean.     

Examination of the quality of GOSAT/CAI cloud flag data over Beijing using ground-based cloud data

It has been several years since the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite （GOSAT） began to observe the distribution of CO2 and CH4 over the globe from space. Results from Thermal and Near-infrared Sensor for Carbon Observation-Cloud and Aerosol Imager （TANSO-CAI） cloud screening are necessary for the retrieval of CO2 and CH4 gas concentrations for GOSAT TANSO-Fourier Transform Spectrometer （FTS） observations. In this study, TANSO-CAI cloud flag data were compared with ground-based cloud data collected by an all-sky imager （ASI） over Beijing from June 2009 to May 2012 to examine the data quality. The results showed that the CAI has an obvious cloudy tendency bias over Beijing, especially in winter. The main reason might be that heavy aerosols in the sky are incorrectly determined as cloudy pixels by the CAI algorithm. Results also showed that the CAI algorithm sometimes neglects some high thin cirrus cloud over this area.     

The impact of radar data assimilation on atmosphere state analysis in the Moscow region

The results of numerical experiments with the data assimilation system including the WRF-ARW mesoscale atmospheric model and WRFDA analysis package in the 3D-Var mode are considered. The focus is on the impact of Doppler weather radar data on the quality of short-range weather forecasting. The maps of weather events and cloud top constructed from the modeling by GIMET-2010 software package are analyzed using the web-GIS METEORAD. The experiments in the Moscow region demonstrated that if only radial wind is assimilated, the intensity of simulated cloud and precipitation formation is the closest to the observed one; however, the spatial mismatches of simulated and observed cloud systems are possible. If Doppler radar data on radial wind and reflectivity are assimilated, the general pattern and location of clouds and precipitation are simulated more accurately, but there is a certain overestimation of convection intensity which leads to the overestimation of the number of thunderstorms and rainfall rate.