Policy solutions in the U.S.

The paper focuses on relocation, retreat, zoning, insurance, and subsidy as major dimensions of coastal hazard mitigation measures that have resurfaced as potent forces for combating coastal inundation and climate change. It reviews the issues surrounding the practice of these measures and discusses compatibilities of policies, engineering measures, and natural defense. Property rights, development interest, and distorted financial incentives pose as main barriers to coastal relocation and retreat policies in hazard-prone areas. To understand and propose coastal adaptation solutions, the paper recommends place-based studies of local coastal adaptation strategies. Place-based studies offer an in-depth knowledge of local conditions specifically regarding the level of implementation of hazard mitigation policies, and shed light on important trade-offs and synergies of various hazard policies. In addition, coupling existing hazard mitigation policies with coastal management and community management can better inform long-term and comprehensive planning of coastal adaptation.     

关于苏联的平流动力分析法在东亚应用的几个问题

自从第一次全国气象技术会议后,苏联的平流动力分析法已开始在国内各预告单位陆续应用起来.中央气象台的预报工作同志在学习苏联的号召下,首先学习平流动力的理论部份,並以“锋生与高空变形场的改变、“气旋与反气旋的发生与发展”、“变压变高的平流动力理论与应用”等书为主要参考文件,同时,我们在日常天气讨论或预告工作中将学习所得的一些规则结合实况试用.     

美国现行的地基气象观测系统

美国气象部门在近十几年对其地基气象观测系统进行了新的一轮现代化的更新换代.目前,这一过程已基本完成.现对该系统的主要情况和特点作简要的介绍.     

Cluster analysis of Southeastern U.S. climate stations

Summary A two-step cluster analysis of 449 Southeastern climate stations is used to objectively determine general climate clusters (groups of climate stations) for eight southeastern states. The purpose is objectively to define regions of climatic homogeneity that should perform more robustly in subsequent climatic impact models. This type of analysis has been successfully used in many related climate research problems including the determination of corn/climate districts in Iowa (Ortiz-Valdez, 1985) and the classification of synoptic climate types (Davis, 1988).These general climate clusters may be more appropriate for climate research than the standard climate divisions (CD) groupings of climate stations, which are modifications of the agro-economic United States Department of Agriculture crop reporting districts. Unlike the CD's, these objectively determined climate clusters are not restricted by state borders and thus have reduced multicollinearity which makes them more appropriate for the study of the impact of climate and climatic change.With 5 Figures     

Regional patterns of U.S. household carbon emissions

Market-based policies to address fossil fuel-related externalities including climate change typically operate by raising the price of those fuels. Increases in energy prices have important consequences for a typical U.S. household that spent almost $4,000 per year on electricity, fuel oil, natural gas, and gasoline in 2005. A key question for policymakers is how these consequences vary over different regions and subpopulations across the country—especially as adjustment and compensation programs are designed to protect more vulnerable regions. To answer this question, we use non-publicly available data from the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey over the period 1984–2000 to estimate long-run geographic variation in household use of electricity, fuel oil, natural gas, and gasoline, as well as the associated incidence of a $10 per ton tax on carbon dioxide (ignoring behavioral response). We find substantial variation: incidence from the tax range from $97 dollars per year per household in New York County, New York to $235 per year per household in Tensas Parish, Louisiana. This variation can be explained by differences in energy use, carbon intensity of electricity generation, and electricity regulation.     

美国气候变化科学计划综述

简要回顾美国气候变化研究沿革,分析美国制定和实施气候变化科学计划(USCCSP)的背景,综述USCCSP的研究目标、研究领域和组织管理方式。首先重点阐述USCCSP的关键科学发现以及全球和美国气候变化的主要科学结论,介绍USCCSP综合评估产品。然后论述美国国家科学院研究理事会(NRC)对USCCSP进展的评估,评述未来美国气候变化研究的战略框架和领域。最后在归纳美国气候变化研究特色的基础上,阐述对我国制定长期战略规划、深化基础研究、强化模式创新、推进观测系统和资料系统建设、加强科学评估和应用服务、加快立法进程等方面的启示。     

Increasing major hail losses in the U.S.

Property losses due to hailstorms on April 13–14, 2006, resulted in Midwestern property losses that totaled $1.822 billion, an amount considerably more than the previous record high of $1.5 billion set by an April 2001 hail event. The huge April 2006 loss was largely due to multiple severe storms with frequent large hail hitting major metropolitan areas. A highly unstable air mass that developed on April 13 led to several supercell storms and they then produced large hailswaths across portions of Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin during a 30-h period. This storm event and prior recent major hail losses occurred when several major hailstorms developed and then traveled for hundreds of kilometers. The nation’s top ten loss events during 1950–2006 reveal a notable temporal increase with most losses in the 1992–2006 period. Causes for the increases could be an increasing frequency of very unstable atmospheric conditions leading to bigger, longer lasting storms, and/or a greatly expanded urban society that has become increasingly vulnerable to hailstorms.     

Carbon fluxes resulting from U.S. private timberland management

A carbon budget model was developed to examine the effects of forest management practices on carbon storage in U.S. private timberlands. The model explicitly incorporates the demand for wood products and its impact on harvesting and other management decisions. Forest carbon is divided into four components: carbon stored in trees, soils, forest litter, and understory vegetation. Changes in the forest carbon inventory result from tree growth and management activities, in particular harvesting. Harvesting of timber for wood products is determined by demand and supply forces. The model then tracks carbon in timber removals through primary and secondary processing and disposal stages. Harvesting also has effects on carbon in soils, forest litter, and understory vegetation. A base-run scenario projects increases in carbon storage in U.S. private timberlands by 2040; however, this increase is offset by carbon emissions resulting from harvesting.     

Economic Impacts of Carbon Charges on U.S. Agriculture

We evaluate the farm sector impacts that would result from implementing a system of carbon based charges on energy intensive inputs. Our emphasis is on production costs, crop acreage, commodity prices, input use, farm income, and farm welfare. The charges considered – $14, $100, and$200 per metric ton of carbon – were developed from the literature and areconsistent with reducing U.S. GHG emissions to a 1990 minus 7% level by 2010 underdifferent levels of carbon trading and developing country participation. Impacts are relatively modest for a charge of $14 per mt. Relative to baseline conditions, producer and consumer surplus decline 0.02 and 0.03 percent, respectively. Across crop and livestock commodities, price increases and production declines are all less than 1.0%. As the carbon charge increases, farm sector impacts become more pronounced and determination of whether the aggregate effect is significant or not becomes more subjective.     

Global Climate Change: Why U.S. Insurers Care

The number of natural catastrophes in this decade is four times greater than in the 1960s; economic losses are eight times greater; and insured losses are 15 times greater. The insurance industry's financial interest is inter-dependent with climate and weather. Natural events drive the demand for insurance coverage and can threaten the viability of an insurer if it is over-exposed in high risk areas. Early in the 1990s, the industry began to recognize that historical data were potentially misleading with respect to future natural catastrophe exposure. The U.S. insurance industry is pursuing a variety of new approaches including: the use of catastrophe computer models to integrate the natural knowledge about extreme events taken from the sciences into the actuarial sciences. The evaluation of building codes and building code enforcement in every community in the country enhanced its support for hazard mitigation.     

Potential Soil C Sequestration on U.S. Agricultural Soils

Soil carbon sequestration has been suggested as a means to help mitigate atmospheric CO₂ increases, however there is limited knowledge aboutthe magnitude of the mitigation potential. Field studies across the U.S. provide information on soil C stock changes that result from changes in agricultural management. However, data from such studies are not readily extrapolated to changes at a national scale because soils, climate, and management regimes vary locally and regionally. We used a modified version of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) soil organic C inventory method, together with the National Resources Inventory (NRI) and other data, to estimate agricultural soil C sequestration potential in the conterminous U.S. The IPCC method estimates soil C stock changes associated with changes in land use and/or land management practices. In the U.S., the NRI provides a detailed record of land use and management activities on agricultural land that can be used to implement the IPCC method. We analyzed potential soil C storage from increased adoption of no-till, decreased fallow operations, conversion of highly erodible land to grassland, and increased use of cover crops in annual cropping systems. The results represent potentials that do not explicitly consider the economic feasibility of proposed agricultural production changes, but provide an indication of the biophysical potential of soil C sequestration as a guide to policy makers. Our analysis suggests that U.S. cropland soils have the potential to increase sequestered soil C by an additional 60–70 Tg (10¹²g) C yr^{– 1}, over present rates of 17 Tg C yr^–1(estimated using the IPCC method), with widespread adoption of soil C sequestering management practices. Adoption of no-till on all currently annually cropped area (129Mha) would increase soil C sequestration by 47 Tg C yr^–1. Alternatively, use of no-till on 50% of annual cropland, with reduced tillage practices on the other 50%, would sequester less – about37 Tg C yr^–1. Elimination of summer fallow practices and conversionof highly erodible cropland to perennial grass cover could sequester around 20 and 28Tg C yr^–1, respectively. The soil C sequestration potentialfrom including a winter cover crop on annual cropping systems was estimated at 40Tg C yr^–1. All rates were estimated for a fifteen-yearprojection period, and annual rates of soil C accumulations would be expected to decrease substantially over longer time periods. The total sequestration potential we have estimated for the projection period (83 Tg C yr^–1) represents about 5% of 1999total U.S. CO₂ emissions or nearly double estimated CO₂ emissionsfrom agricultural production (43 Tg C yr^–1). For purposes ofstabilizing or reducing CO₂ emissions, e.g., by 7% of 1990 levels asoriginally called for in the Kyoto Protocol, total potential soil C sequestration would represent 15% of that reduction level from projected 2008 emissions(2008 total greenhouse gas emissions less 93% of 1990 greenhouse gasemissions). Thus, our analysis suggests that agricultural soil C sequestration could play a meaningful, but not predominant, role in helping mitigate greenhouse gas increases.     

Some patterns of rainfall in the North-Central U.S.A.

Summary Weekly statistics of rainfall occurrence in the North-Central United States show certain preferences for precipitation in early April and early June. Dry spells are most common in late October, Mid-November, Mid-December and at the end of the year. A northward migration of the rainy condition in spring and early summer is linked with a comparable motion of the jet stream. The possible connection of these spells with singularities elsewhere andBowen's rain statistics is discussed but no firm relations can be established.

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Zusammenfassung Wöchentliche Werte der Niederschlagswahrschein-lichkeit in der nördlichen Mittelzone der Vereinigten Staaten zeigen bevorzugte Regenperioden zu Anfang der Monate April und Juni. Trockene Wochen sind am häufigsten im Spätoktober, Mitte November, Mitte Dezember und zur Jahreswende. Eine nordwärts gerichtete Wanderung der Regentendenz im Frühling und Frühsommer wird mit einer gleichzeitigen Verschiebung des jet stream in Zusammenhang gebracht. Eine mögliche Beziehung dieser Witterungsfälle zu den Singularitäten in anderen Gegenden und zuBowens Regenstatistik wird erörtert, doch sind gesicherte Beziehungen nicht feststellbar.

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Résumé Des valeurs hebdomadaires de la probabilité de pluie dans la zone moyenne septentrionale des Etats-Unis mettent en évidence des périodes pluvieuses particulièrement fréquentes au début des mois d'avril et de juin. Des semaines sèches apparaissent le plus souvent à la fin d'octobre, au milieu de novembre et de décembre et vers le Nouvel-An. Un déplacement vers le Nord de la tendance pluvieuse au printemps et au début de l'été peut être mis en parallèle avec un déplacement simultané du jet stream. On ne peut pas déceler de relations sûres entre ces cas de pluviosité et les singularités dans d'autres régions, pas plus qu'avec la statistique pluvieuse deBowen.

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With 4 Figures     

U.S. Agriculture and Climate Change: New Results

We examined the impacts on U.S. agriculture of transient climate change assimulated by 2 global general circulation models focusing on the decades ofthe 2030s and 2090s. We examined historical shifts in the location of cropsand trends in the variability of U.S. average crop yields, finding thatnon-climatic forces have likely dominated the north and westward movement ofcrops and the trends in yield variability. For the simulated future climateswe considered impacts on crops, grazing and pasture, livestock, pesticide use,irrigation water supply and demand, and the sensitivity to international tradeassumptions, finding that the aggregate of these effects were positive for theU.S. consumer but negative, due to declining crop prices, for producers. Weexamined the effects of potential changes in El Niño/SouthernOscillation (ENSO) and impacts on yield variability of changes in mean climateconditions. Increased losses occurred with ENSO intensity and frequencyincreases that could not be completely offset even if the events could beperfectly forecasted. Effects on yield variability of changes in meantemperatures were mixed. We also considered case study interactions ofclimate, agriculture, and the environment focusing on climate effects onnutrient loading to the Chesapeake Bay and groundwater depletion of theEdward's Aquifer that provides water for municipalities and agriculture to theSan Antonio, Texas area. While only case studies, these results suggestenvironmental targets such as pumping limits and changes in farm practices tolimit nutrient run-off would need to be tightened if current environmentalgoals were to be achieved under the climate scenarios we examined     

美国业务谱模式预报的系统性误差

本文对美国业务数值预报图月平均误差分布特点及其季节变化情况进行了考察。 从系统性误差与标准差的比值分布,可以看出需要并适合于进行系统性误差订正的地区。这些地区主要在低纬度。 本文还对1985年4月模式的垂直分辨率和一些物理参数化项目改变前后的预报结果做了比较,又与同期欧洲中期天气预报中心的预报水平情况做了比较。     

Understanding U.S. public support for domestic climate change policies

In the U.S., public support for federal, state and local efforts to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) continues to be a crucial element of the political viability of these proposals. We present a detailed analysis of the reasons given by the general public of Michigan and Virginia for supporting or rejecting a number of policies that could be implemented to meet GHG reductions. The data allow us to analyze the relationships between reasons provided by respondents, social psychological and demographic characteristics, and policy support. This analysis can provide policymakers pragmatic guidance in (1) developing tactics to engage the public that build on current concerns about climate change policies and (2) crafting and communicating policies that garner support from various segments of the public. This analysis also raises theoretical questions regarding the relationship between public discourse on environmental issues and the formation of public policy support. We suggest that future efforts to understand the U.S. dynamics of public support for climate change policies could benefit from understanding the public discursive and the reasoning processes that underlie public opinion formation.     

SYSTEMATIC FORECAST ERROR IN U.S.NMC OPERATIONAL SPECTRAL MODEL

The distribution of monthly mean error of NMC model forecasts and its seasonal variation are investi-gated.The ratio of monthly mean error to standard deviation is used here to find out that the region where acorrection of systematic error is needed and appropriate is mainly in low latitudes.The improvement,afterthe model's vertical resolution and some physical parameters were changed from April 1985,is investigated,andthe NMC operational model forecasts have also compared with those of ECMWF.     

Increasing prevalence of extreme summer temperatures in the U.S.

Human-caused climate change can affect weather and climate extremes, as well as mean climate properties. Analysis of observations and climate model results shows that previously rare (5th percentile) summertime average temperatures are presently occurring with greatly increased frequency in some regions of the 48 contiguous United States. Broad agreement between observations and a mean of results based upon 16 global climate models suggests that this result is more consistent with the consequences of increasing greenhouse gas concentrations than with the effects of natural climate variability. This conclusion is further supported by a statistical analysis based on resampling of observations and model output. The same climate models project that the prevalence of previously extreme summer temperatures will continue to increase, occurring in well over 50% of summers by mid-century.