Indirect radiative forcing and climatic effect of the anthropogenic nitrate aerosol on regional climate of China

The regional climate model (RegCM3) and a tropospheric atmosphere chemistry model (TACM) were coupled, thus a regional climate chemistry modeling system (RegCCMS) was constructed, which was applied to investigate the spatial distribution of anthropogenic nitrate aerosols, indirect radiative forcing, as well as its climatic effect over China. TACM includes the thermodynamic equilibrium model ISORROPIA and a condensed gas-phase chemistry model. Investigations show that the concentration of nitrate aerosols is relatively high over North and East China with a maximum of 29 μg m^-3 in January and 8 μg m^-3 in July. Due to the influence of air temperature on thermodynamic equilibrium, wet scavenging of precipitation and the monsoon climate, there are obvious seasonal differences in nitrate concentrations. The average indirect radiative forcing at the tropopause due to nitrate aerosols is -1.63 W m^-2 in January and -2.65 W m^-2 in July, respectively. In some areas, indirect radiative forcing reaches $-$10 W m^-2. Sensitivity tests show that nitrate aerosols make the surface air temperature drop and the precipitation reduce on the national level. The mean changes in surface air temperature and precipitation are -0.13 K and -0.01 mm d^-1 in January and -0.09 K and -0.11 mm d^-1 in July, respectively, showing significant differences in different regions.     

The contribution of anthropogenic forcings to regional changes in temperature during the last decade

Regional distributions of the mean annual temperature in the 2000s are computed with and without the effect of anthropogenic influences on the climate in several sub-continental regions. Simulated global patterns of the temperature response to external forcings are regressed against observations using optimal fingerprinting. The global analysis provides constraints which are then used to construct the regional temperature distributions. A similar approach was also employed in previous work, but here the methodology is extended to examine changes in any region, including areas with a poor observational coverage that were omitted in the earlier study. Two different General Circulation Models (GCMs) are used in the analysis. Anthropogenic forcings are found to have at least quadrupled the likelihood of occurrence of a year warmer than the warmest year since 1900 in 23 out of the 24 regions. The temperature distributions computed with the two models are very similar. While a more detailed assessment of model dependencies remains to be made once additional suitable GCM simulations become available, the present study introduces the statistical methodology and demonstrates its first application. The derived information concerning the effect of human influences on the regional climate is useful for adaptation planning. Moreover, by pre-computing the change in the likelihood of exceeding a temperature threshold over a range of thresholds, this kind of analysis enables a near real-time assessment of the anthropogenic impact on the observed regional temperatures.     

Detection of the anthropogenic signal and urbanization effects in extreme temperature changes in eastern China

With its rapid rise in temperatures and accelerated urbanization in recent decades, eastern China may be affected by both global warming and the urban heat island effect. To investigate the influence of anthropogenic forcing and urbanization on extreme temperature, the authors conducted detection and attribution analyses on 16 extreme indices using extended observational data during 1958–2020 and the models that participated in CMIP5 and CMIP6. The extended observational data till 2020 show continued warming in extreme temperatures in recent years. Most of the indices display an increase in warm extremes and decrease in cold extremes. Both CMIP5 and CMIP6 models are able to reflect these warming features, albeit the models can over- or underestimate some extreme indices. The two-signal detection with anthropogenic and urbanization effects jointly considered showed that the anthropogenic and urban signals can be simultaneously detected and separated only in two frequency indices, i.e., the frequency of warm and cold nights. The anthropogenic forcing explains about two-thirds of the warming, while URB contributes about one-third for these two indices. For most of the other indices, only the anthropogenic signal can be detected. This indicates that the urban signal is distinct from the natural variability mainly for the nighttime frequency indices but not for the other extreme temperature indies. Given the important influence of nighttime extremes on human health, this suggests an urgent need for cities to adapt to both global warming and urbanization.摘要作为中国经济最发达的地区, 中国东部受到城市热岛效应和温室气体排放等人类活动的明显影响. 本文利用最新的观测和全球气候模式资料, 对极端温度强度, 频率和持续时间等16个极端温度指数进行了检测归因分析, 研究了人为强迫和城市化效应对中国东部极端温度变化的影响. 结果表明, 近年来极端温度持续增暖, 极端暖事件增加, 极端冷事件减少. 新一代全球气候模式能够合理地反映这些变暖特征, 但是部分模式可能高估或低估了观测到的变化. 基于最优指纹方法的双信号检测表明, 人为信号和城市化效应只能在暖夜和冷夜两个频率指标上同时被检测并分离, 其变化约三分之二可归因于人类活动, 剩余的三分之一可归因于城市化效应. 而在极端温度其他指数的变化中, 只有人类活动的影响能够被检测到.     

Detection and attribution of anthropogenic forcing to diurnal temperature range changes from 1950 to 1999: comparing multi-model simulations with observations

Observations show that the surface diurnal temperature range (DTR) has decreased since 1950s over most global land areas due to a smaller warming in maximum temperatures (T _max) than in minimum temperatures (T _min). This paper analyzes the trends and variability in T _max, T _min, and DTR over land in observations and 48 simulations from 12 global coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation models for the later half of the 20th century. It uses the modeled changes in surface downward solar and longwave radiation to interpret the modeled temperature changes. When anthropogenic and natural forcings are included, the models generally reproduce observed major features of the warming of T _max and T _min and the reduction of DTR. As expected the greenhouse gases enhanced surface downward longwave radiation (DLW) explains most of the warming of T _max and T _min while decreased surface downward shortwave radiation (DSW) due to increasing aerosols and water vapor contributes most to the decreases in DTR in the models. When only natural forcings are used, none of the observed trends are simulated. The simulated DTR decreases are much smaller than the observed (mainly due to the small simulated T _min trend) but still outside the range of natural internal variability estimated from the models. The much larger observed decrease in DTR suggests the possibility of additional regional effects of anthropogenic forcing that the models can not realistically simulate, likely connected to changes in cloud cover, precipitation, and soil moisture. The small magnitude of the simulated DTR trends may be attributed to the lack of an increasing trend in cloud cover and deficiencies in charactering aerosols and important surface and boundary-layer processes in the models.     

Detection of urbanization signals in extreme winter minimum temperature changes over Northern China

Although previous studies show that urbanization contributes to less than 10 % of the long-term regional total warming trend of mean surface air temperature in northeast China (Li et al. 2010), the urban heat island (UHI) impact on extreme temperatures could be more significant. This paper examines the urbanization impact on extreme winter minimum temperatures from 33 stations in North China during the period of 1957–2010. We use the Generalized Extreme Value (GEV) distribution to analyze the distribution of extreme minimum temperatures and the long-term variations of the three distributional characteristics parameters. Results suggest that among the three distribution parameters, the position parameter is the most representative in terms of the long-term extreme minimum temperature change. A new classification method based on the intercommunity (factors analysis method) of the temperature change is developed to detect the urbanization effect on winter extreme minimum temperatures in different cities. During the period of rapid urbanization (after 1980), the magnitude of variations of the three distribution parameters for the urban station group is larger than that for the reference station group, indicating a higher chance of occurrence of warmer weather and a larger fluctuation of temperatures. Among different types of cities, the three parameters of extreme minimum temperature distribution of the urban station group are, without exception, higher than those of the reference station group. The urbanization of different types of cities all show a warming effect, with small-size cities have the most evident effects on extreme minimum temperatures.     

Time of emergence of anthropogenic warming signals in the Northeast Asia assessed from multi-regional climate models

Time of Emergence (ToE) is the time at which the signal of climate change emerges from the background noise of natural climate variability, and can provide useful information for climate change impacts and adaptations. This study examines future ToEs for daily maximum and minimum temperatures over the Northeast Asia using five Regional Climate Models (RCMs) simulations driven by single Global Climate Model (GCM) under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) emission scenarios. Noise is defined based on the interannual variability during the present-day period (1981-2010) and warming signals in the future years (2021-2100) are compared against the noise in order to identify ToEs. Results show that ToEs of annual mean temperatures occur between 2030s and 2040s in RCMs, which essentially follow those of the driving GCM. This represents the dominant influence of GCM boundary forcing on RCM results in this region. ToEs of seasonal temperatures exhibit larger ranges from 2030s to 2090s. The seasonality of ToE is found to be determined majorly by noise amplitudes. The earliest ToE appears in autumn when the noise is smallest while the latest ToE occurs in winter when the noise is largest. The RCP4.5 scenario exhibits later emergence years than the RCP8.5 scenario by 5-35 years. The significant delay in ToEs by taking the lower emission scenario provides an important implication for climate change mitigation. Daily minimum temperatures tend to have earlier emergence than daily maximum temperature but with low confidence. It is also found that noise thresholds can strongly affect ToE years, i.e. larger noise threshold induces later emergence, indicating the importance of noise estimation in the ToE assessment.     

1961—2016年我国区域性暴雨过程的客观识别及其气候特征

利用全国2287个气象观测站1961—2016年逐日降水资料,基于对暴雨区进行连续追踪的思路,采用暴雨相邻站点数和暴雨区中心距离确定了中国区域性暴雨过程的客观识别方法;根据区域性暴雨过程的平均强度、持续时间和平均范围构建了区域性暴雨过程的综合强度评估模型。利用该客观方法对1961—2016年中国的区域性暴雨过程进行识别,并分析其气候和气候变化特征。结果显示：我国区域性暴雨过程年均38.5次;区域性暴雨过程一年各月均可出现,但主要出现在4—9月,其中7、8月发生最为频繁,6月区域性暴雨过程持续时间长、范围广、综合强度强,这与长江中下游地区梅雨现象有关。一年中,区域性暴雨过程首次出现日期平均为3月6日,末次出现日期平均为11月14日;1961—2016年,我国年区域性暴雨过程首次出现日期呈明显提前、末次日期呈显著推后、暴雨期呈显著延长的变化趋势;年发生总频次呈微弱增多,较强区域性暴雨过程次数呈明显增加趋势;区域性暴雨过程的覆盖范围和综合强度均呈显著增大趋势。南方型区域暴雨过程变化趋势与全国的基本一致;北方型首次日期呈提前、末次日期呈推后趋势,发生频次有微弱减少趋势,覆盖范围、持续时间、综合强度均无明显变化趋势。     

铜川气温气候特点及成因分析

运用统计学方法分析铜川3站40a实测气温资料,结果表明：铜川3站气温在20世纪60年代到90年代初变化平稳,90年代初到2003年明显变暖,北部山区增暖显著;全市没有出现过40℃以上的高温天气,北部最高气温仅有33．5℃,夏季北部凉爽,冬季中部严寒;地理地形原因导致北部山区在有冷空气活动时提前1d降温,且降温幅度大于中南部,气团稳定控制时北部的最低气温高于中部;日较差3—6月偏大、9月最小;气候季节呈现冬季长,其他季节偏短的特点。     

Attribution of twentieth century temperature change to natural and anthropogenic causes

  We analyse possible causes of twentieth century near-surface temperature change. We use an “optimal detection” methodology to compare seasonal and annual data from the coupled atmosphere-ocean general circulation model HadCM2 with observations averaged over a range of spatial and temporal scales. The results indicate that the increases in temperature observed in the latter half of the century have been caused by warming from anthropogenic increases in greenhouse gases offset by cooling from tropospheric sulfate aerosols rather than natural variability, either internal or externally forced. We also find that greenhouse gases are likely to have contributed significantly to the warming in the first half of the century. In addition, natural effects may have contributed to this warming. Assuming one particular reconstruction of total solar irradiance to be correct implies, when we take the seasonal cycle into account, that solar effects have contributed significantly to the warming observed in the early part of the century, regardless of any relative error in the amplitudes of the anthropogenic forcings prescribed in the model. However, this is not the case with an alternative reconstruction of total solar irradiance, based more on the amplitude than the length of the solar cycle. We also find evidence for volcanic influences on twentieth century near-surface temperatures. The signature of the eruption of Mount Pinatubo is detected using annual-mean data. We also find evidence for a volcanic influence on warming in the first half of the century associated with a reduction in mid-century volcanism. Received: 24 January 2000 / Accepted: 20 April 2000     

Space-detailed climatic forecasting of air temperature and precipitation in Eastern Siberia on the basis of accounting for local features of the underlying surface

A physical-statistical approach is used for space specification of forecasting fields of air temperature and precipitation in the mid-21st century in Eastern Siberia. The initial data on the monthly mean values representing ensemble-averaged results of 12 general circulation models of the atmosphere and the ocean, with a 2° × 2° latitude-longitude grid are specified on a 12.5 × 12.5 km grid accounting for local features of surface topography and reflectivity. The most pronounced effect of increasing space resolution is found in the areas with complicated relief, especially in summer. This corresponds to physical properties of the processes affecting local features of precipitation and air temperature fields and demonstrates efficiency of the approach under use.     

A survey of anthropogenic vegetation changes in West Africa during the last century — climatic implications

The extent of albedo change resulting from anthropogenic modification of the vegetation cover over the last century has been investigated in West Africa. The climatic implications of these changes are briefly discussed.West Africa spans a suite of vegetation zones ranging latitudinally northward from tropical rainforest to desert scrub, and comprises environmental problems from extremely rapid deforestation of the tropical forests in Ivory Coast or Ghana to desertification in the Sahel.Historical vegetation changes have been digitized on a 1° × 1° grid map based on a literature survey of government censuses, forestry and agricultural reports, supplemented by atlases, and other historical, economic and geographic sources.The principal processes of land cover modification during the last century include clearing of the natural vegetation for agriculture, grazing, logging, and degradation of marginal semi-arid to arid ecosystems by excessive grazing or cultivation. Forestry surveys for West Africa suggest clearance of around 56% of the forest zone; estimated losses for Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Liberia range between 64% and 70%. Estimates of total land conversion range between 88 million ha, from the digitized land use map (Figure 4) to 122.8 million ha, from extrapolation of forestry data (Section 3.1).The change in albedo corresponding to the land use modification is relatively small, using conservative estimates for desertification amounting to an increase of around 0.4% regionally over 100 yr and 0.5% since agriculture began. Thus 4/5 of the total albedo may have occurred within the last century. Additional assumptions regarding desertification and a lower albedo value for tropical forest compensate for each other and do not significantly alter the result of the initial calculation. The maximum zones of increased albedo are concentrated in the forest zone (4°–8° N) and savanna-southern sahel (10°–12°) which correspond to zones of maximum agricultural and population growth. Between 13° N and 17° N, the albedo change is small or negative due to both less intensive land utilization and replacement of scattered vegetation on exposed sandy soil by lower albedo irrigated crops.These estimates may represent a lower limit, particularly if desertification is more extensive than initially assumed. Under an extreme assumption that the entire Sahel zone between 14°–20° N has been desertified, the regional mean albedo could increase by as much as 4%. This represents an upper limit to likely historical anthropogenic disturbances of the land surface.Although historical climate records show three major droughts during the 20th century (1910–1920, 1940's, 1969–1975, possibly continuing into the 1980's; Nicholson, 1980a; Hare, 1983), and stream flow fluctuations which correlate well with precipitation (Faure and Gac, 1981;Palutikof et al., 1981), these records do not appear to indicate a regional secular decrease in precipitation as suggested by several climate models. Evidence for apparent desiccation or desert creep (= desertification) may be attributed, in large part, to adverse changes in soil and stream hydrology caused by anthropogenic disruption of the vegetation cover.     

1957—2011年牙克石市低温气候特征分析

文章主要通过利用牙克石市1957—2011年(历年1—3、11—12月)的低温气候资料进行分析,找出牙克石市近55a来的低温气候变化特点。得出了低温天数的年、月变化以及与极端最低气温的对应关系,牙克石55a来共计出现低温天气673d,低温日数年际变化大,最长为47d,最少为1d,低温出现的高峰期在历年的1月份,低温强度最大值也在1月份。55a中≤-37℃低温最长连续日数长达17d,其次是13d。文章还利用Mann-kendall检验方法对低温年际变化进行了突变分析,分析发现在1984年发生了明显的突变,突变呈减少的趋势。     

Probabilistic projections of regional temperature and precipitation extending from observed time series

Probabilistic projections of change in regional temperature and precipitation previously derived allow for the range of sensitivities to global warming simulated by CMIP3 models. However, the changes were relative to an idealized base climate for 1980–1999, disregarding observed trends, such as those in rainfall in some Australian regions. Here we propose a method that represents projections for both forced change and decadal means as time series that extend from the observed series, illustrated using data for central Victoria. The main idea is to estimate the time-evolving underlying (or forced) past climate then convert this to a series of absolute values, by using the mean of the full observational record. We again use the pattern scaling assumption, and combine the CMIP3 sensitivities used for future change with a global warming series beginning at 1900. Like the confidence interval of regression theory, the analysis gives an estimate of the range of the underlying climate at each decade. This range can be augmented to allow for natural variability. A Bayesian theory can be applied to combine the model-based sensitivity with that estimated from observations. The time series are modified and the persistence of current observed anomalies considered, ultimately merging the probabilistic projections with the observed record. For some other cases, such as rainfall in southwest and north Australia and temperature in the state of Iowa, the two sensitivity estimates appear less compatible, and possible additional forcings are considered. Examples of the potential use of such time series are presented.     

Large signals of climatic variation over the ocean in the asian monsoon region

The aim of this paper is to identify and delineate large signals of climatic variation in the Asian monsoon region and try to understand the nature of transformation from one climate regime to another.It is found that the summer monsoon over the Indian and western Pacific oceans stows distinct climatic regimes with changes occurring in the years around 1875, 1900, 1940 and 1960. The change of about 1900 is the largest one, which occurs in step with the variation of global oceanic climate pointed out by Fletcher, et al. (1982).The main characteristics of the transformation from one regime to another is an alternation of meridio-nality of monsoon current. The transformation occurs most strongly in the western Pacific convergence zone, where monsoon has strong interaction with the trade wind systems.The variability of monsoon rainfall over India and East China also exhibits some large signals which are synchronous with those of wind field over the ocean: the monsoon rainfall increases (decreases) during the “meridional monsoon period” (zonal monsoon period) over the ocean.It should be noted that the apparent decreasing of plum rains in East China since 1958 which is well known in China would be linked mainly with the sudden increasing of U-component of SW monsoon over the South China Sea.Finally a kind of seesaw between Indian monsoon and East China monsoon with somewhat time-lag is discussed.     

对流层温度场的气候特征分析

该文使用了欧洲中心1958-2001年的全球对流层月平均高度场和温度场资料,按3种不同方案对全球对流层月平均温度场进行了分析。首先分析不同方案间气候半(全)球平均,发现前2种方案比较接近。接着又比较了前2种方案半球逐年1、7月的变化曲线,再次说明方案2的可取性。所以,在此基础上用第2种方案重点分析了全球月平均温度场的季节变化及南北半球的差异。最后,用后2种方案反算出厚度场,分析它们之间的差异,依此说明第2种方案的优点。     

望谟县40年气温变化的气候分析

利用望谟县1961～2000年共40年的气温资料进行分析，其结果为：进入80年代以来20年的平均气温较80年代以前20年的平均气温升高了0．13℃、最冷月平均气温升高了0．65℃，气候变暖明显。与全球气候变暖的趋势相吻合。     

Large biases and inconsistent climate change signals in ENSEMBLES regional projections

In this paper we analyze some caveats found in the state-of-the-art ENSEMBLES regional projections dataset focusing on precipitation over Spain, and highlight the need of a task-oriented validation of the GCM-driven control runs. In particular, we compare the performance of the GCM-driven control runs (20C3M scenario) with the ERA40-driven ones (“perfect” boundary conditions) in a common period (1961–2000). Large deviations between the results indicate a large uncertainty/bias for the particular RCM-GCM combinations and, hence, a small confidence for the corresponding transient simulations due to the potential nonlinear amplification of biases. Specifically, we found large biases for some RCM-GCM combinations attributable to RCM in-house problems with the particular GCM coupling. These biases are shown to distort the corresponding climate change signal, or “delta”, in the last decades of the 21st century, considering the A1B scenario. Moreover, we analyze how to best combine the available RCMs to obtain more reliable projections.     

Coupled modes of large-scale climatic variables and regional precipitation in the western Mediterranean in autumn

The variability of autumn precipitation in the western Mediterranean and its relationship to the large-scale atmospheric variability during the period 1948 to 1989 is assessed. A singular value decomposition analysis is used to establish modes of coupled variability between regional precipitation and geopotential height (Z300), zonal (U-wind) and meridional (V-wind) wind components at the 300 hPa level. The Z300/precipitation coupling, which accounts for 52% of the total squared covariance, is strong during the autumn. The first Z300 coupled mode, in its positive phase, is characterised by a dipole structure with negative anomalies over Scandinavia and positive anomalies over the Iberian Peninsula in the Z300 and negative precipitation anomalies in the western Mediterranean. In its negative phase, a coupled pattern is found showing a high-over-low block and positive precipitation anomalies over the Mediterranean area. The coupling depicted by the second mode is weaker than that found in the first mode. The second coupled mode (21% of the total squared covariance) is characterised by negative anomalies in the eastern North Atlantic and positive ones over North Africa and the central Mediterranean in the Z300 and negative anomalies in the regional precipitation. Consistent with the results of the two first modes mentioned, the coupled patterns of either U-wind/precipitation or V-wind/precipitation are found to be coherent with those for Z300/precipitation. Composite maps were obtained to give a representation of the average circulation associated with coherent precipitation variability in the western Mediterranean. The regional impacts of both modes are investigated and the large-scale dynamic patterns presented are important modes of variability. Taking into account data for the whole of the twentieth century, results show that the first singular mode is responsible for the decadal trends and long term changes in precipitation. The late 1970s and 1980s is shown as the drier period and the late 1950s and early 1960s as the wettest years of the century.     

平衡态和瞬变气候对人类活动强迫的响应

海陆气耦合模式,是用来定量描述过去气候变化的成因和预报未来气候变化的唯一数学工具。由于大气反馈过程的差异,特别是云辐射反馈的差异,这些模式对外强迫的平衡态响应有相当大的差异。然而,参加政府间气候变化专门委员会（Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change,IPCC）第4次评估报告（Assessment Report,AR4）的所有耦合模式,对20世纪气候的模拟结果均非常相似。本文研究了这种相似性的产生原因及启示。结果表明,若大气反馈越大,则气候对外强迫的响应时滞越长、与深海的热交换越多、模式中海洋涌升流的影响越大。这3种同样重要的物理机制共同作用,降低了瞬变气候变化对模式差异的敏感性;然而,在较长的时间尺度上,模式间大气反馈过程差异将在多个方面显现出来