Regular and seasonal behaviour of atmospheric radio noise field strength (ARNFS) over low latitude station calcutta

Summary The electromagnetic radiation of cloud discharge known as atmospheric radio noise field strength (ARNFS) shows a gradual fall from a frequency of 9 kHz to 81 kHz as studied over a period of two years at Calcutta, very close to Bay of Bengal. The main characteristic features of ARNFS at Calcutta are that-(i) ARNFS shows that midday median value is smaller than midnight median value in all months, (ii) level of daily minimum is higher in February and monsoon compared to other seasons, (iii) sunrise effect and sunset effect are well correlated with local sunrise and sunset times, (iv) the magnitude of sunrise fade and sunrise fade rate are maximum in April and lowest during winter period, (v) the magnitude of sunset fade is higher in premonsoon and postmonsoon while it is lowest in monsoon, (vi) number of occurrence of both sunrise effect and sunset effect is remark-ably smaller in monsoon. The positions of the sun and of atmospheric sources are jointly the causes of seasonal and diurnal variations. The missing of sunrise effect and sunset effect are due to local cloud activity and variation of electron density during geomagnetic storms.With 7 Figures     

Occurrence of roll circulations in a shallow boundary layer

Meteorological measurements taken at the Näsudden wind turbine site during slightly unstable conditions have been analyzed. The height of the convective boundary layer (CBL) was rather low, varying between 60 and 300 m. Turbulence statistics near the ground followed Monin-Obukhov similarity, whereas the remaining part of the boundary layer can be regarded as a near neutral upper layer. In 55% of the runs, horizontal roll vortices were found. Those were the most unstable runs, with -z _i/L > 5. Spectra and co-spectra are used to identify the structures. Three roll indicators were identified: (i) a low frequency peak in the spectrum of the lateral component at low level; (ii) a corresponding increase in the vertical component at mid-CBL; (iii) a positive covariance {ovvw} together with positive wind shear in the lateral direction (V/z) in the CBL. By applying these indicators, it is possible to show that horizontal roll circulations are likely to be a common phenomenon over the Baltic during late summer and early winter.     

PHYSICAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATIC CHANGE ON DELTAIC COASTAL SYSTEMS (II): DRIVING TERMS

The evaluation of the impact of climatic change on deltaic coastal systems requires establishing a reference situation. As deltaic coastal zones are highly dynamic areas, it is necessary to define the reference situation as a function of their present evolutive stage. This implies characterizing coastal processes as a complex system defined by the links between driving or forcing terms and the coastal response at different temporal and spatial scales (long/large, medium and episodic scales). Starting from classical previous works on deltaic systems and including all available field and conceptual knowledge to properly consider present conditions (largely regulated rivers, subsidence, etc.) a detailed methodology to analyse forcing or driving agents at the three mentioned scales is presented. This methodology which developed the general approach presented in a companion paper, will be followed by a future paper focusing on the analysis of the coastal response.     

A radiation and energy balance study of mature forest and clear-cut sites

Components of the radiation and energy balances were measured over a clear-cut area and a mature, mixed forest during the summer of 1981 at the Petawawa National Forestry Institute, Chalk River, Ontario. The work concentrated on the clear-cut site which supported a canopy layer composed primarily of bracken fern and logging remnants.Forty days of radiation data were collected at the clear-cut site. After the first four weeks of measurements (the green season), most of the ferns quickly died, and their foliage changed appearance from a green to brownish colour (the brown season). The daily mean reflection coefficient of solar radiation determined over the green season was 0.20 and decreased to 0.13 for the brown season. The corresponding value for the forest was 0.13, based on a limited amount of data. The clear-cut site received 11% and 21% less net radiation than the forest on a 24-hr and daylight-hours basis, respectively, as a consequence of the higher reflection coefficient and larger daytime longwave radiation emission.A reversing temperature difference measurement system (RTDMS), incorporating ten-junction thermopiles was employed at each site in order to determine Bowen ratios () via differential psychrometry. Both systems performed well, especially the RTDMS over the forest which was capable of resolving very small differences of temperature, typically less than 0.2 °C over a height of 3 m. The mean hourly Bowen ratio, calculated from values from 0800 to 1600 hr, varied from 0.2 to 1.0 for the forest and from 0.4 to 0.8 for the clear-cut site in the green season.A significant canopy heat storage component of the energy balance, Q _S , was found at the clear-cut site. In the early morning, a portion of the available energy was used to heat the biomass materials and air within the canopy layer. The stored heat within the canopy was released later in the day, increasing the available energy total.The daily mean value of the Priestley-Taylor coefficient (Priestley and Taylor, 1972) for the green season at the clear-cut site was 1.14, and individual values tended to increase during wet surface conditions and decrease when the surface dried. The daylight mean value during dry canopy conditions at the forest was 1.05, and much higher values occurred when the canopy was wet. The enhancement of for the wet forest was a result of the evaporation of intercepted rain (which is not limited by stomatal resistance) and the concomitant transfer of sensible heat to the forest.     

Interactions between internal gravity waves and their traumatic effect on a continuous stratification

An investigation is made of the detailed kinematic conditions which characterize breaking of internal waves in a continuous density field. It has been observed that breaking is associated with localized, abruptly appearing intensifications of the density gradient. Turbulence subsequently develops from these intensifications or traumata.Interactions between two or more disparate waves produce distortions more extreme than would be deduced from linear combination. This is exploited experimentally by crossing two weak internal wave beams from separate sources.Lagrangian integration of the motion field defined by the beams gives extrema of isopycnic slope, Richardson number defined by shear across isopycnics and dynamic vertical density gradient, and dynamic density gradient, under conditions for the appearance of traumata.     

Stable boundary layers: Observations,models and variability part I: Modelling and measurements

Selected field measurements of evening stable boundary layers are presented in detail comparable with published Large Eddy Simulation results. Such models appear to match idealized theories more closely than do some boundary-layer observations. Any attempt to compare detailed observations with idealized models therefore highlights the variability of the real boundary layer.Here direct turbulence measurements across the stable boundary layer from a heterogeneous and an ideal site are contrasted. Recommendations are made for the information needed to distinguish heterogeneous and ideal cases.The companion paper (Part II) discusses further the issues of data, analysis in the presence of variability, and the effects of averaging over heterogeneous terrain.Part of UK Meteorological Office Atmospheric Process Research Division.     

On Trajectory Curvature as a Selection Criterion for Valid Lagrangian Stochastic Dispersion Models

Recently Wilson and Flesch (Boundary-Layer Meteorology, 84, 411-426, 1997) suggested that the average increment d z to the orientation = arctan(w/u) of the Lagrangian velocity-fluctuation vector can be used to distinguish the better Lagrangian stochastic models within the well-mixed class. Here it is demonstrated that the specification of d z constitutes neither a sufficient or universally applicable criterion to distinguish the better Lagrangian stochastic models within the well-mixed class. The hypothesis made by Wilson and Flesch that Lagrangian stochastic models with /P_E irrotational are zero-spin models, having d z=0, is proven     

The greening of the McGill Paleoclimate Model. Part I: Improved land surface scheme with vegetation dynamics

The formulation of a new land surface scheme (LSS) with vegetation dynamics for coupling to the McGill Paleoclimate Model (MPM) is presented. This LSS has the following notable improvements over the old version: (1) parameterization of deciduous and evergreen trees by using the models climatology and the output of the dynamic global vegetation model, VECODE (Brovkin et al. in Ecological Modelling 101:251–261 (1997), Global Biogeochemical Cycles 16(4):1139, (2002)); (2) parameterization of tree leaf budburst and leaf drop by using the models climatology; (3) parameterization of the seasonal cycle of the grass leaf area index; (4) parameterization of the seasonal cycle of tree leaf area index by using the time-dependent growth of the leaves; (5) calculation of land surface albedo by using vegetation-related parameters, snow depth and the models climatology. The results show considerable improvement of the models simulation of the present-day climate as compared with that simulated in the original physically-based MPM. In particular, the strong seasonality of terrestrial vegetation and the associated land surface albedo variations are in good agreement with several satellite observations of these quantities. The application of this new version of the MPM (the green MPM) to Holocene millennial-scale climate changes is described in a companion paper, Part II.

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The Askervein Hill Project: Mean wind variations at fixed heights above ground

This is one of a series of papers on the Askervein Hill Project. It presents results on the variations in mean wind speed at fixed heights (z) above the ground from linear arrays of anemometer posts and towers. Most of the data are for z = 10 m but some are for z = 3 m. Selected and directionally grouped data from the 55 Mean Flow runs are presented together with mean flow data from Askervein '83 Turbulence runs. Comparisons are made between the data and guideline estimates of fractional speed-up ratio at hilltop locations and between the data and MS3DJH/3 model predictions along the tower lines. There is good agreement in most cases.     

Uncertainty, Complexity and Concepts of Good Science in Climate Change Modelling: Are GCMs the Best Tools?

In this paper we explore the dominant position of a particular style of scientific modelling in the provision of policy-relevant scientific knowledge on future climate change. We describe how the apical position of General Circulation Models (GCMs) appears to follow logically both from conventional understandings of scientific representation and the use of knowledge, so acquired, in decision-making. We argue, however, that both of these particular understandings are contestable. In addition to questioning their current policy-usefulness, we draw upon existing analyses of GCMs which discuss model trade-offs, errors, and the effects of parameterisations, to raise questions about the validity of the conception of complexity in conventional accounts. An alternative approach to modelling, incorporating concepts of uncertainty, is discussed, and an illustrative example given for the case of the global carbon cycle. In then addressing the question of how GCMs have come to occupy their dominant position, we argue that the development of global climate change science and global environmental management frameworks occurs concurrently and in a mutually supportive fashion, so uniting GCMs and environmental policy developments in certain industrialised nations and international organisations. The more basic questions about what kinds of commitments to theories of knowledge underpin different models of complexity as a normative principle of good science are concealed in this mutual reinforcement. Additionally, a rather technocratic policy orientation to climate change may be supported by such science, even though it involves political choices which deserve to be more widely debated.     

Properties of spatial temperature derivatives in the atmospheric surface layer

A pair of parallel cold wires separated in either the vertical or lateral direction was used to obtain the three components _x, _y, _z of the temperature derivative in the streamwise, lateral and vertical directions, respectively. The average absolute skewness values of _x and _z are nonzero and approximately equal, while the skewness of _y is approximately zero. These results appear to be consistent with the presence of a large, three-dimensional organised structure in the surface layer. There is an apparent low-frequency contamination in the spectral density of _y and _z due mainly to small errors in estimating the sensitivity of the cold wires. The temperature derivatives were high-pass filtered, the filter being set to remove possible contributions from the large structure and to minimise low-frequency sensitivity contamination. The filtered rms ratios \~_x/\~_y and \~_x/\~_z were in the range 0.7 to 0.9, a result in qualitative agreement with that obtained in the laboratory boundary layer by Sreenivasan et al. (1977). The skewness of filtered _x or _z is negligible, consistent with local isotropy of small-scale temperature fluctuations and in support of the high wavenumber spectral isotropy discussed in Antonia and Chambers (1978).     

Advertent/inadvertent changes in the spatial distribution of rainfall in the central coastal plain of Israel

Analysis of recent rainfall normals reveals an unusual spatial pattern where the rainfall increases with the distance from the sea over the central coastal plain of Israel. Applying a multiple regression technique separately to rainfall amounts for the two randomized experiments of cloud seeding of seeded days and not seeded days, leads to the conclusion that the inadvertent influence of recent urbanization processes along the coastal plain are the cause of this phenomenon, rather than the advertent artificial cloud seeding. The seeding effect at the target area, on the other hand, seems to increase the inhomogeneity of the spatial structure of the rainfall distribution.     

Atmospheric correction of infrared measurements of sea surface temperature using channels at 3.7, 11 and 12 Μm

Atmospheric effects upon the radiometric determination of surface temperature were studied for channels centered at 3.7, 11 and 12 m. The error due to the atmosphere is least for the channel centered at 3.7 m, which is a real advantage. The use of a linear combination of two or all three of these channels allows one to eliminate most of the atmospheric effect. If instrumental noise of from 0.1 to 0.2 K is accounted for in each channel, the best results are obtained by a combination of the two channels at 3.7 and 12 m.     

Small-Scale Variability in the Coastal Atmospheric Boundary Layer

The influence of the main large-scale wind directions on thermally driven mesoscale circulations at the Baltic southwest coast, southeast of Sweden, is examined. The aim of the study is to highlight small-scale alterations in the coastal atmospheric boundary layer. A numerical three-dimensional mesoscale model is used in this study, which is focused on an overall behaviour of the coastal jets, drainage flows, sea breezes, and a low-level eddy-type flow in particular. It is shown that synoptic conditions, together with the moderate terrain of the southeast of Sweden (max. height h₀ 206 m), governs the coastal mesoscale dynamics triggered by the land-sea temperature difference T. The subtle nature of coastal low-level jets and sea breezes is revealed; their patterns are dictated by the interplay between synoptic airflow, coastline orientation, and T.The simulations show that coastal jets typically occur during nighttime and vary in height, intensity and position with respect to the coast; they interact with downslope flows and the background wind. For the assigned land surface temperature (varying ±8 K from the sea temperature) and the opposing constant geostrophic wind 8 m s^-1, the drainage flow is more robust to the opposing ambient flow than the sea breeze later on. Depending on the part of the coast under consideration, and the prevailing ambient wind, the sea breeze can be suppressed or enhanced, stationary at the coast or rapidly penetrating inland, locked up in phase with another dynamic system or almost independently self-evolving. A low-level eddy structure is analyzed. It is governed by tilting, divergence and horizontal advection terms. The horizontal extent of the coastal effects agrees roughly with the Rossby radius of deformation.     

Breaking global temperature records after Mt. Pinatubo

The probability of setting global temperature records is reconsidered in light of cooling due to the Mt. Pinatubo eruption. The cooling resets temperature by moving it away from the top of its 100-year range. Depending on the statistical model for temperature, this reset can lead to a much lower probability for a record in the next few years. The exercise illustrates how record setting depends on the underlying model, the current record value, and - if there is serial correlation- the current temperature.     

The validation of various schemes for parameterizing evaporation from bare soil for use in meteorological models: A numerical study using in situ data

Parameterization of evaporation from a non-plant-covered surface is very important in the hierarchy strategy of modelling land surface processes. One of the representations frequently used in its computation is the resistance formulation. The performance of the evaporation schemes using the , , and their combination resistance approaches to parameterize evaporation from bare soil surfaces is discussed. For that purpose, the nine schemes, based on a different dependence of and on volumetric soil moisture content and its saturated value, are used.The tests of performances of the considered schemes are based on time integrations by the land surface module (BARESOIL) using observed data. The 23 data sets at a bare surface experimental site in Rimski anevi, Yugoslavia on chernozem soil, were used for the resistance algorithm evaluation. The quality of the schemes was compared with the observed values of the latent heat flux using several statistical parameters.     

Gas-Phase Ozone Oxidation of Monoterpenes: Gaseous and Particulate Products

Atmospheric oxidation of monoterpenes contributes to formation of tropospheric ozone and secondary organic aerosol, but their products are poorly characterized. In this work, we report a series of outdoor smog chamber experiments to investigate both gaseous and particulate products in the ozone oxidation of four monoterpenes: -pinene, -pinene, ³-carene, and sabinene. More than ten oxygenated products are detected and identified in each monoterpene/O₃ reaction by coupling derivatization techniques and GC/MS detection. A denuder/filter pack sampling system is used to separate and simultaneously collect gas and aerosol samples. The identified products, consisting of compounds containing carbonyl, hydroxyl, and carboxyl functional groups, are estimated to account for about 34–50%, 57%, 29–67%, and 24% of the reacted carbon mass for -pinene, sabinene, -pinene, and ³-carene, respectively. The identified individual products account for >83%, 100%, >90%, and 61% of the aerosol mass produced in the ozone reaction of -pinene, sabinene, -pinene, and ³-carene. The uncertainty in the yield data is estimated to be ±50%. Many of the products partition between gas and aerosol phases, and their gas-aerosol partitioning coefficients are determined and reported here. Reaction schemes are suggested to account for the products observed.     

A SIMPLE FORMULA FOR ATTENUATION OF EDDY FLUXES MEASURED WITH FIRST-ORDER-RESPONSE SCALAR SENSORS

A simple formula, (1 + (2fmc))-1,is proposed to estimate the attenuation of a scalar flux measurement made by eddy-correlation using a fast-response anemometer and a linear, first-order-response scalar sensor with a characteristic time constant c.In this formula, =7/8 for neutral and unstable stratification within the surface-flux layer and =1 both within the convective boundary layer (CBL) and for stable stratification in the surface layer.fm is the frequency of the peak of the logarithmic cospectrum and can be estimated from fm = nm /z, where z is the measurement height and is thewind speed at that height. The dimensionless frequency at the cospectral maximum nm is estimated here from observations of its behavioras a function of atmospheric stability, z/L within the surface layeror z/zi within the CBL, where L is the Obukhov stability length and zi is the depth of the CBL. The predicted dependence of flux attenuation on measurement height is discussed.     

Observed variations of σθ and σΦ in the nocturnal drainage flow in a deep valley

The variations of and in the drainage flow in the Brush Creek valley of western Colorado are investigated using data from Doppler acoustic sodars and instrumented towers. The data were obtained on two experimental nights during the 1984 ASCOT field study. There is good agreement between the variations derived from low-level observations of the sodars and those derived from the towers located throughout the valley. The observed hourly average and in the nocturnal drainage flow are about 20 ° to 25 ° and 5 °, respectively; these values are much larger than those generally observed over flat terrain during nighttime stable conditions. After sunrise (about 0600 MST), as the valley warms and the flow direction changes to up-valley, these parameters increase sharply to their peak values at about 0800 MST and then decrease to their normal daytime values after about two hours.In the drainage flow, the hourly average varies inversely with wind speed according to the relation u 0.7ms^-1. The vertical standard deviation is much less enhanced by complex terrain than the horizontal standard deviation. The observed values are predicted fairly well by the local similarity theory.Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Summer Research Participant at ATDD in 1987 andOak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) Summer Research Participant at ATDD in 1987 and     

Potential refractivity as a similarity variable

The validity of a common radiometeorological application of Monin-Obukhov (M-O) similarity theory to potential refractivity (), which is a nonlinear combination of and q, is determined by whether the properly nondimensionalized gradient is a universal function of z/L. We develop expressions for the flux of (and its scaling parameter, *) in terms of temperature and moisture fluxes, and an M-O similarity expression for the vertical gradient. Results show that even if and q are accepted as exactly following M-O similarity expressions, when the surface layer is stable, does not obey such an expression. That is, when properly nondimensionalized, the vertical gradient of does not collapse to a single universal function of z/L. The assumption that behaves as a similarity variable is approximately correct for well-mixed surface layers under unstable and near-neutral conditions.The gradient of is an important factor in determining microwave propagation conditions. We demonstrate the error induced in a simple algorithm when is assumed to obey M-O similarity theory. An alternative methodology, consistent with the application of similarity theory to and q, is then developed without requiring that itself satisfy similarity theory.