Incorporating organic soil into a global climate model

Organic matter significantly alters a soil’s thermal and hydraulic properties but is not typically included in land-surface schemes used in global climate models. This omission has consequences for ground thermal and moisture regimes, particularly in the high-latitudes where soil carbon content is generally high. Global soil carbon data is used to build a geographically distributed, profiled soil carbon density dataset for the Community Land Model (CLM). CLM parameterizations for soil thermal and hydraulic properties are modified to accommodate both mineral and organic soil matter. Offline simulations including organic soil are characterized by cooler annual mean soil temperatures (up to ∼2.5°C cooler for regions of high soil carbon content). Cooling is strong in summer due to modulation of early and mid-summer soil heat flux. Winter temperatures are slightly warmer as organic soils do not cool as efficiently during fall and winter. High porosity and hydraulic conductivity of organic soil leads to a wetter soil column but with comparatively low surface layer saturation levels and correspondingly low soil evaporation. When CLM is coupled to the Community Atmosphere Model, the reduced latent heat flux drives deeper boundary layers, associated reductions in low cloud fraction, and warmer summer air temperatures in the Arctic. Lastly, the insulative properties of organic soil reduce interannual soil temperature variability, but only marginally. This result suggests that, although the mean soil temperature cooling will delay the simulated date at which frozen soil begins to thaw, organic matter may provide only limited insulation from surface warming.     

Rapid vegetation responses and feedbacks amplify climate model response to snow cover changes

We investigate the response of a climate system model to two different methods for estimating snow cover fraction. In the control case, snow cover fraction changes gradually with snow depth; in the alternative scenarios (one with prescribed vegetation and one with dynamic vegetation), snow cover fraction initially increases with snow depth almost twice as fast as the control method. In cases where the vegetation was fixed (prescribed), the choice of snow cover parameterization resulted in a limited model response. Increased albedo associated with the high snow caused some moderate localized cooling (3–5°C), mostly at very high latitudes (>70°N) and during the spring season. During the other seasons, however, the cooling was not very extensive. With dynamic vegetation the change is much more dramatic. The initial increases in snow cover fraction with the new parameterization lead to a large-scale southward retreat of boreal vegetation, widespread cooling, and persistent snow cover over much of the boreal region during the boreal summer. Large cold anomalies of up to 15°C cover much of northern Eurasia and North America and the cooling is geographically extensive in the northern hemisphere extratropics, especially during the spring and summer seasons. This study demonstrates the potential for dynamic vegetation within climate models to be quite sensitive to modest forcing. This highlights the importance of dynamic vegetation, both as an amplifier of feedbacks in the climate system and as an essential consideration when implementing adjustments to existing model parameters and algorithms.     

青藏高原冬春季积雪异常对中国春夏季降水的影响

利用1956年12月～1998年12月共42a，青藏高原及其附近地区78个积雪观测站的雪深和我国160站月降水的距平资料，分析了其气候特征，并用SVD方法分析了冬春季积雪异常与春夏季我国降水异常的关系。用区域气候模式RegCM2模拟了青藏高原积雪异常的气候效应并检验了诊断分析的结果。分析表明，雪深异常，尤其是冬季雪深异常是影响中国降水的一个因子。研究证明，高原冬季雪深异常对后期中国区域降水的影响比春季雪深异常的影响更为重要。数值模拟的结果表明，高原雪深和雪盖的正异常推迟了东亚夏季风的爆发日期，减弱了季风强度，造成华南和华北降水减少，而长江和淮河流域降水增加。冬季雪深异常比冬季雪盖异常和春季雪深异常对降水的影响更为显著。机理分析指出，高原及其邻近地区的积雪异常首先通过融雪改变土壤湿度和地表温度，从而改变了地面到大气的热量、水汽和辐射通量。由此所引起的大气环流变化又反过来影响下垫面的特征和通量输送。在湿土壤和大气之间，这样一种长时间的相互作用是造成后期气候变化的关键过程。与干土壤和大气的相互作用过程有本质差别。     

青藏高原冬春积雪和地表热源影响亚洲夏季风的研究进展

青藏高原冬春积雪和地表热源的气候效应是青藏高原气候动力学的两个重要内容。大量资料分析和数值试验研究均表明这两个因子对亚洲季风有一定的预测意义,本文对此做了比较系统的回顾和总结,并进一步比较了青藏高原积雪和地表热源影响东亚和南亚夏季降水的异同。结果表明,东亚夏季降水在年际和年代际尺度上均存在"三极型"和"南北反相"型的空间分布特征,高原春季地表热源在年代际和年际尺度上主要影响东亚夏季降水"三极型"模态;在年代际尺度上它是中国东部出现"南涝北旱"格局的重要原因,而高原冬季积雪的作用相反。另一方面,高原冬季积雪在年际和年代际尺度上对印度夏季风降水的预测效果均要优于高原地表热源。无论是空间分布还是时间演变特征,高原冬季积雪与春季地表热源整体上均无统计意义上的显著联系。不断完善高原地面观测网和改进模式在高原地区的模拟性能,将是进一步深入理解高原积雪和地表热源影响亚洲季风物理过程和机制的关键所在。     

中国东部夏季降水异常与青藏高原冬季积雪的关系

基于中国740站月降水、积雪、地温资料和NCEP/NCAR再分析月资料,采用相关分析、合成分析和最大协方差法,研究了1979—2008年青藏高原冬季积雪异常与长江中下游夏季降水的关系及其可能的影响机制。结果表明:(1)在年际时间尺度上,青藏高原中北部12月—翌年1月积雪指数与长江中下游夏季降水呈显著正相关。在年代际时间尺度上,1990s—2000s的高原积雪指数与长江中下游夏季降水具有较好的同位相变化特征。表明高原中北部12月—翌年1月积雪指数对长江中下游夏季降水异常具有较好的指示意义,可作为预测长江中下游夏季降水年际年代变化的依据。(2)高原12月—翌年1月积雪异常偏多,是长江中下游夏季洪涝的一个强信号,12月—翌年1月积雪指数正异常年与长江中下游夏季降水正异常年有很好的一致性。(3)高原冬季积雪异常影响长江中下游夏季降水的可能途径是:高原冬季积雪异常通过影响同期及其后春季地温,再由春季地温以某种方式把异常信号维持到夏季。之后,地温异常又改变了局地地气热量交换,导致周围大气环流异常,从而影响到其下游的降水过程。     

The coupling of the Common Land Model (CLM0) to a regional climate model (RegCM)

Summary We replace the existing land surface parameterization scheme, the Biosphere-Atmosphere Transfer Scheme (BATS), in a regional climate model (RegCM) with the newly developed Common Land Model (CLM0). The main improvements of CLM0 include a detailed 10-layer soil model, the distinction between soil ice and water phases, a linked photosynthesis-stomatal conductance model, a multilayer snow model, and an improved runoff parameterization. We compare the performance of CLM0 and BATS as coupled to the RegCM in a one year simulation over East Asia. We find that the RegCM/CLM0 improves the winter cold bias present in the RegCM/BATS simulation. With respect to the surface energy balance, lower CLM0 albedos allow the absorption of more solar radiation at the surface. CLM0 tends to simulate higher sensible heat and lower latent heat fluxes than its BATS counterpart. The surface water balance also changes considerably between the two land surface schemes. Compared to BATS, CLM0 precipitation is reduced overall and surface runoff is increased, thereby allowing less water to enter the soil column. Evapotranspiration is lower in CLM0 due to lower ground evaporation, which leads to a wetter surface soil in CLM0 in spite of less precipitation input. However, transpiration is greater in CLM0 than BATS, which has an overall effect of less surface storage during the summertime. Comparison with station observations indicates that CLM0 tends to improve the simulation of root zone soil water content compared to BATS. Another pronounced difference between the two schemes is that CLM0 produces lower snow amounts than BATS because of different snow models and warmer CLM0 temperatures. In this case, BATS snow cover amounts are more in line with observations. Overall, except for the snow amounts, CLM0 appears to improve the RegCM simulation of the surface energy and water budgets compared to BATS.     

土壤湿度初始异常对东亚区域气候模拟影响的敏感性试验

利用耦合了CLM3.5陆面模式的区域气候模式RegCM4.0,通过敏感性试验,探讨了人为减小春季初始土壤体积水含量对短期时间尺度东亚夏季气候模拟的可能影响。结果表明:较低的初始土壤湿度场能够明显改变区域的地表能量平衡,引起地表净长波辐射和感热通量的显著增加,进而加强了地表对大气的加热,因而引起东亚大范围地区特别是中国东部、印度北部和中亚地区地表温度、气温的升高。与气温不同,初始土壤湿度场对降水的影响很小而且有较大的不确定性,同时偏暖的下垫面使得对流层中高层出现暖高压异常,但这些影响均不显著。综合来看,土壤湿度初始场的初始异常,对RegCM4.0 模式东亚气候模拟的结果有一定影响,特别是在地表温度、气温和能量平衡方面,应在以后的模拟中加以考虑。     

The effect of snow on Antarctic sea ice simulations in a coupled atmosphere-sea ice model

 The effect of a snow cover on sea ice accretion and ablation is estimated based on the ‘zero-layer’ version sea ice model of Semtner, and is examined using a coupled atmosphere-sea ice model including feedbacks and ice dynamics effects. When snow is disregarded in the coupled model the averaged Antarctic sea ice becomes thicker. When only half of the snowfall predicted by the atmospheric model is allowed to land on the ice surface sea ice gets thicker in most of the Weddell and Ross Seas but thinner in East Antarctic in winter, with the average slightly thicker. When twice as much snowfall as predicted by the atmospheric model is assumed to land on the ice surface sea ice also gets much thicker due to the large increase of snow-ice formation. These results indicate the importance of the correct simulation of the snow cover over sea ice and snow-ice formation in the Antarctic. Our results also illustrate the complex feedback effects of the snow cover in global climate models. In this study we have also tested the use of a mean value of 0.16 Wm^-1 K^-1 instead of 0.31 for the thermal conductivity of snow in the coupled model, based on the most recent observations in the eastern Antarctic and Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas, and have found that the sea ice distribution changes greatly, with the ice becoming much thinner by about 0.2 m in the Antarctic and about 0.4 m in the Arctic on average. This implies that the magnitude of the thermal conductivity of snow is of considerable importance for the simulation of the sea ice distribution. An appropriate value of the thermal conductivity of snow is as crucial as the depth of the snow layer and the snowfall rate in a sea ice model. The coupled climate models require accurate values of the effective thermal conductivity of snow from observations for validating the simulated sea ice distribution under the present climate conditions. Received: 20 November 1997/Accepted: 27 July 1998     

Relative contribution of soil moisture and snow mass to seasonal climate predictability: a pilot study

Land surface hydrology (LSH) is a potential source of long-range atmospheric predictability that has received less attention than sea surface temperature (SST). In this study, we carry out ensemble atmospheric simulations driven by observed or climatological SST in which the LSH is either interactive or nudged towards a global monthly re-analysis. The main objective is to evaluate the impact of soil moisture or snow mass anomalies on seasonal climate variability and predictability over the 1986–1995 period. We first analyse the annual cycle of zonal mean potential (perfect model approach) and effective (simulated vs. observed climate) predictability in order to identify the seasons and latitudes where land surface initialization is potentially relevant. Results highlight the influence of soil moisture boundary conditions in the summer mid-latitudes and the role of snow boundary conditions in the northern high latitudes. Then, we focus on the Eurasian continent and we contrast seasons with opposite land surface anomalies. In addition to the nudged experiments, we conduct ensembles of seasonal hindcasts in which the relaxation is switched off at the end of spring or winter in order to evaluate the impact of soil moisture or snow mass initialization. LSH appears as an effective source of surface air temperature and precipitation predictability over Eurasia (as well as North America), at least as important as SST in spring and summer. Cloud feedbacks and large-scale dynamics contribute to amplify the regional temperature response, which is however, mainly found at the lowest model levels and only represents a small fraction of the observed variability in the upper troposphere.     

青藏高原大气热源和冬春积雪与中国东部降水的年代际变化关系

利用NCEP 1950—2004年逐日再分析资料,采用倒算法,对青藏高原大气热源的长期变化进行了计算,结果发现,青藏高原及附近地区上空大气春夏季热源在过去50年里,尤其是最近20年,表现为持续减弱的趋势。而1960—2004年青藏高原50站的冬春雪深却出现了增加,尤其是春季雪深在1977年出现了由少到多的突变。用SVD方法对高原积雪和高原大气热源关系的分析表明,二者存在非常显著的反相关关系,即高原冬春积雪偏多,高原大气春夏季热源偏弱。高原大气春夏季热源和中国160站降水的SVD分析表明,高原大气春夏季热源和夏季长江中下游降水呈反相关,与华南和华北降水呈正相关;而高原冬春积雪和中国160站降水的SVD分析显示,高原冬春积雪和夏季长江流域降水呈显著正相关,与华南和华北降水呈反相关。在年代际尺度上,青藏高原大气热源和冬春积雪与中国东部降水型的年代际变化(南涝北旱)有很好的相关。最后讨论了青藏高原大气热源影响中国东部降水的机制。青藏高原春夏季热源减弱,使得海陆热力差异减小,致使东亚夏季风强度减弱,输送到华北的水汽减少,而到达长江流域的水汽却增加;同时,高原热源减弱,使得副热带高压偏西,夏季雨带在长江流域维持更长时间。导致近20年来长江流域降水偏多,华北偏少,形成"南涝北旱"雨型。高原冬春积雪的增加,降低了地表温度,减弱了地面热源,并进而使得青藏高原及附近地区大气热源减弱。     

植被覆盖异常变化影响陆面状况的数值模拟

利用NCAR最新的公用陆面模式CLM3．0，通过数值模拟初步研究了植被叶面积指数（LAI，leafareaindex）异常变化对陆面状况的可能影响，结果表明，植被LAI的异常变化能够引起地表能量平衡、地表水循环等陆面状况的异常。（1）植被LAI的异常变化主要影响太阳辐射在植被与地表之间的分配，以及地表的感热、潜热通量。植被LAI增大，能够引起植被吸收的太阳辐射增加，而到达土壤表面的太阳辐射减小，并导致植被的蒸发、蒸腾潜热通量增加，造成地表的蒸发潜热和感热通量不同程度的减小。（2）植被LAI增大时，植被对降水的拦截和植被叶面的蒸发增大，植被的蒸腾作用也明显增强；植被LAI增加会使得热带地区各个季节的土壤表面蒸发、地表径流减小，而土壤湿度有所增加；LAI增加造成中高纬度地区土壤蒸发的减少主要出现在夏季；LAI增加还能够引起中高纬地区冬、春积雪深度不同程度的增加，造成春末、夏初地表径流的增加。（3）植被LAI增加能够使得叶面和土壤温度有所下降，但植被LAI的变化对叶面、土壤温度的影响相对较小。     

欧亚北部冬季增雪“影响”我国夏季气候异常的机理研究——陆面季节演变异常的“纽带”作用

本文主要利用美国冰雪资料中心 (The National Snow and Ice Data Center) 提供的卫星反演积雪资料和ERA40土壤温度再分析资料, 采用相关分析, 对欧亚北部冬季新增雪盖面积 (冬季TFSE) 与我国夏季气候异常关系的可能物理途径进行了初步研究。结果表明, 春夏季陆面季节演变异常是上述“隔季相关” 的重要纽带: 当冬季TFSE偏大时, 欧亚北部大范围积雪—冻土自西向东、 由南向北的融化进程明显减慢, 受其影响, 至夏季, 东亚中高纬区积雪和地表冻土的融化异常强烈, 土壤温度明显偏低, 这种夏季陆面异常可能通过自身的冷却作用, 通过加强东亚中高纬异常北风对东亚中纬区夏季变冷产生直接影响, 进而与西太平洋副热带高压, 乃至与我国江南夏季降水异常产生关联; 冬季TFSE偏小时相反。分析表明, 冬季TFSE信号在东亚中高纬局地的春季积雪—冻土融化过程中被加强, 并在夏季达到显著。     

POSSIBLE CONTRIBUTION OF A TROPICAL CYCLONE TO SHORT-TERM CLIMATE ANOMALIES IN EAST ASIA VIA SNOW COVER ON THE TIBETAN PLATEAU

Snow cover on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has been shown to be essential for the East Asian summer monsoon. In this paper, we demonstrate that tropical cyclone (TC) 04B (1999) in the northern Indian Ocean, which made landfall during the autumn of 1999, may have contributed to climate anomalies over East Asia during the following spring and summer by increasing snow cover on the TP. Observations indicate that snow cover on the TP increased markedly after TC 04B (1999) made landfall in October of 1999. Sensitivity experiments, in which the TC was removed from a numerical model simulation of the initial field, verified that TC 04B (1999) affected the distribution as well as increased the amount of snow on the TP. In addition, the short-term numerical modeling of the climate over the region showed that the positive snow cover anomaly induced negative surface temperature, negative sensible heat flux, positive latent heat flux, and positive soil temperature anomalies over the central and southern TP during the following spring and summer. These climate anomalies over the TP were associated with positive (negative) summer precipitation anomalies over the Yangtze River valley (along the southeastern coast of China).     

欧亚大陆土壤焓异常持续性的时空变化特征

土壤焓作为一种综合考虑地表状况(如土壤湿度、土壤温度等)的特殊陆面因子,可以直接从能量角度反映陆地下垫面的热力状况,故探讨土壤焓异常持续性的相关特征,有助于加深理解地表热力异常对气候的影响。本研究基于陆面过程模式CLM4.0模拟的土壤温度、土壤液态水和土壤固态水及土壤物质类型(IGBP地表属性),分别计算了欧亚大陆冬季和夏季土壤干物质焓、土壤液态水焓和土壤固态水焓及土壤焓(前三者之和);由于土壤温度和土壤固、液态水含量的差异,浅层土壤焓及其三个组元表现出明显的区域性和季节性特征;欧亚大陆冬季土壤焓异常持续性总体较夏季强,尤其是中高纬地区;另外,土壤干物质焓、液态水焓的纬度和季节性差异也体现在对近地面大气的热力强迫上,具体表现为土壤干物质焓、液态水焓分别与感热、潜热密切相关。本研究通过较为细致地分析土壤焓异常持续性的时空变化特征,为进一步开展下垫面热力异常(以土壤焓表征)的气候效应提供了重要的信息参考。     

亚洲季风模拟试验中青藏高原积雪强迫问题的讨论

青藏高原积雪对亚洲季风和东亚，南亚时旱涝灾害的影响，百余年来一直为中外气候学家所瞩目。近几年来用大气环流模式进行数值试验已成为该研究领域的主要手段，但是由于假设的积雪强迫不同，模拟结果很不一致。作者概据美国宇航局ＳＭＭＲ微波逐候积雪深度１０年的观测结果，提出了一个真实的青藏高原积雪强迫试验方案。     

山西陆面过程对A1B排放情景下全球变化趋势的响应

山西地处气候过渡带,气候敏感、生态脆弱,在全球气候变暖背景下其陆面物理过程受气候波动影响十分明显。本文利用NCAR CCSM IPCC AR4陆面分量模式(CLM)20世纪气候模拟(20C3M)和21世纪SRES A1B排放情景下的模拟结果,对山西省21世纪(2001~2099年)与20世纪(1901~1999年)陆面能量和水文变量进行了对比分析。结果显示:(1)模式模拟出山西地区未来地面温度的空间及时间分布特征。未来山西省地面温度呈明显上升趋势,上升速率冬季大于夏季。空间上,增温幅度冬季自北向南递减,夏季自西向东递减;(2)未来山西省陆面各分量空间上,净辐射通量西北增幅大于东南,降水率和径流率则与其相反,潜热通量与蒸发率一致,西南部增加幅度大,土壤含水率冬夏分布相反,感热通量呈下降趋势,西南下降幅度大;时间上,净辐射通量、潜热通量均表现出不同程度的上升趋势,土壤热通量冬季上升,夏季下降;地表水循环的各分量均呈增加趋势。     

Improving the treatment of the vertical snow burial fraction over short vegetation in the NCAR CLM3

One deficiency of the NCAR Community Land Model (CLM3) is the disappearance of the simulated snow even in the middle of winter over a boreal grassland site due to unrealistically modeled high downward turbulent fluxes. This is caused by the inappropriate treatment of the vertical snow burial fraction for short vegetation. A new snow burial fraction formulation for short vegetation is then proposed and validated using in situ observations. This modification in the CLM3 largely removes the unrealistic surface turbulent fluxes, leading to a more reasonable snowmelt process, and improves the snow water equivalent (SWE) simulation. Moreover, global offline simulations show that the proposed formulation decreases sensible and latent heat fluxes as well as the ground temperature during the snowmelt season over short vegetation dominant regions. Correspondingly, the SWE is enhanced, leading to the increase in snowmelt-induced runoff during the same period. Furthermore, sensitivity tests indicate that these improvements are insensitive to the exact functional form or parameter values in the proposed formulation.     

青藏高原冬春季雪盖对东亚夏季大气环流影响的研究

通过分析青藏高原积雪的基本特征，指出高原冬春季雪盖在东亚夏季气候形成与异常中的重要作用，同时分别总结了高原冬春季积雪对东亚夏季大气环流影响的诊断研究和数值试验进展，提出了高原冬春季雪盖对气候影响的可能机制。     

中国东部冬季温度异常偶极型模态的一个前兆信号

利用中国160站逐月温度、NCEP再分析、NOAA-CIRES 20世纪再分析以及NOAA海表温度等资料,分析了中国东部（100°E以东地区）冬季温度年际变化的主要模态,并重点研究了其中第2模态（即偶极型模态）的成因机理和前期信号。同时,也以2012～2013年冬季为例,探讨了这一温度异常模态的预测方法。研究主要发现:除中国东部大范围一致偏冷或偏暖模态以外,110°E以东的北方地区偏冷（暖）还经常对应着华南和110°E以西地区的偏暖（冷）,构成温度异常反向变化的偶极型模态。这种偶极型模态也是冬季气候变化的一个主要模态,2012～2013年冬季温度异常即属于这一模态。中国东部冬季温度一致型模态主要与前期秋季中东太平洋海温异常、亚洲大陆北部积雪,及其邻近的北冰洋地区海冰密集度异常联系紧密。而对于偶极型模态,海温的影响并不明显,前期秋季的东亚中纬度地区积雪、北冰洋斯瓦尔巴群岛、法兰士约瑟夫地群岛附近海域的海冰密集度异常,以及它们引起的表面温度异常分布可能具有重要贡献,其中北冰洋海冰密集度异常导致的该地区表面温度异常的影响可能更为重要。综合了海冰和积雪信号的前期秋季北冰洋—东亚温度差异（Arctic Ocean-East Asian temperature contrast,简称AE）指数与中国东部冬季温度异常偶极型模态具有显著联系,可以作为一个重要的预测因子。2012年秋季赤道中东太平洋海温的正常状态以及北冰洋暖异常和东亚中纬度地区冷异常的表面温度分布特征,都不利于中国东部冬季温度南北一致型异常的发生,而是有利于偶极型异常分布。利用AE指数可以有效地预测2012～2013年中国东部冬季温度异常特征。