Study on Cloud-Radiation Effect on Climate in Eastern Asia

In this paper, the decade data of meteorological satellite and surface meteorological observation of China have been analysed. The relationship between cloud and radiation has been studied. A set of empirical formulae of the ralationships between the albedo and cloud amount, the outgoing longwave radiation and cloud amount in Chinese different districts and different seasons has been deduced. They express simply the response of both planet reflectivity and earth-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation to the change of cloud amount. So that the sensitivity of net radiation of the earth-atmosphere system to the change of cloud amount and the ratio of cloud reflective effect to greenhouse effect can be estimated. In this paper, the radiative process of the earth-atmosphere system, cloud and radiative balance and its effect on climate have been synthetically studied.     

Climate change: a profile of US climate scientists’ perspectives

Climate scientists have played a significant role in investigating global climate change. In the USA, a debate has swirled about whether a consensus on climate change exists among reputable scientists and this has entered the policy process. In order to better understand the views of US climate scientists, we conducted an empirical survey of US climate scientists (N?=?468) in 2005, and compared the results with the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) physical science report and policy summaries. Our results reveal that survey respondents generally agree about the nature, causes, and consequences of climate change, and are in agreement with IPCC findings. We also found that there is strong support for a variety of policy initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.     

Recent Progress in the Impact of the Tibetan Plateau on Climate in China

Studies of the impacts of the Tibetan Plateau （TP） on climate in China in the last four years are reviewed. It is reported that temperature and precipitation over the TP have increased during recent decades. From satellite data analysis, it is demonstrated that most of the precipitation over the TP is from deep convection clouds. Moreover, the huge TP mechanical forcing and extraordinary elevated thermal forcing impose remarkable impacts upon local circulation and global climate. In winter and spring, stream flow is deflected by a large obstacle and appears as an asymmetric dipole, making East Asia much colder than mid Asia in winter and forming persistent rainfall in late winter and early spring over South China. In late spring, TP heating contributes to the establishment and intensification of the South Asian high and the abrupt seasonal transition of the surrounding circulations. In summer, TP heating in conjunction with the TP air pump cause the deviating stream field to resemble a cyclonic spiral, converging towards and rising over the TP. Therefore, the prominent Asian monsoon climate over East Asia and the dry climate over mid Asia in summer are forced by both TP local forcing and Eurasian continental forcing.
Due to the longer memory of snow and soil moisture, the TP thermal status both in summer and in late winter and spring can influence the variation of Eastern Asian summer rainfall. A combined index using both snow cover over the TP and the ENSO index in winter shows a better seasonal forecast.
On the other hand, strong sensible heating over the Tibetan Plateau in spring contributes significantly to anchor the earliest Asian monsoon being over the eastern Bay of Bengal （BOB） and the western Indochina peninsula. Qualitative prediction of the BOB monsoon onset was attempted by using the sign of meridional temperature gradient in March in the upper troposphere, or at 400 hPa over the TP. It is also demonstrated by a numerical experiment and theoretical study that the heating over the TP lea     

Current Progresses in Study of Impacts of the Tibetan Plateau on Asian Summer Climate

The current progresses in the study of impacts of the Tibetan Plateau on Asian summer climate in the last decade are reviewed. By analyzing evolution of the transitional zone between westerly to the north and easterly to the south (WEB), it is shown that due to the strong heating over the Tibetan Plateau in spring, the overturning in the prevailing wind direction from easterly in winter to westerly in summer occurs firstly over the eastern Bay of Bengal (BOB), accompanied with vigorous convective precipitation to its east. The area between eastern BOB and western Indo-China Peninsula thus becomes the area with the earliest onset of Asian monsoon, which may be referred as BOB monsoon in short. It is shown that the summertime circulations triggered by the thermal forcing of the Iranian Plateau and the Tibetan Plateau are embedded in phase with the continental-scale circulation forced by the diabatic heating over the Eurasian Continent. As a result, the East Asian summer monsoon is intensified and the drought climate over the western and central Asian areas is enhanced. Together with perturbations triggered by the Tibetan Plateau, the above scenarios and the associated heating have important influences on the climate patterns over Asia. Furthermore, the characteristics of the Tibetan mode of the summertime South Asian high are compared with those of Iranian mode. Results demonstrate that corresponding to each of the bimodality of the South Asian high, the rainfall anomaly distributions over Asia exhibit different patterns.     

Climate change affecting temperature and aridity zones: a case study in Eastern Inner Mongolia, China from 1960–2008

Recent climate change is substantially affecting the spatial pattern of geographical zones, and the temporal and spatial inconsistency of climatic warming and drying patterns contributes to the complexity of the shifting of temperature and aridity zones. Eastern Inner Mongolia, China, located in the interface region of different biomes and ecogeographic zones, has experienced dramatic drying and warming over the past several decades. In this study, the annual accumulated temperature above 10 °C (AAT10) and the aridity index, two key indicators in geographical regionalization, are used to assess warming and drying processes and track the movements of temperature and aridity zones from 1960 to 2008. The results show a significant warming at the regional level from 1960 to 2008 with an AAT10 increase rate of 7.89 °C·d/year (p?<?0.001) in Eastern Inner Mongolia, while the drying trend was not significant during this period. Spatial heterogeneity of warming and drying distributions was also evident. Analysis of warming and drying via piecewise regression revealed two separate, specific trends between the first 31 years (1960–1990) and the subsequent 18 years (1991–2008). Generally, mild warming and very slight wetting occurred prior to 1990, while after 1991 both warming and drying were significant and enhanced. Continuous warming drove a northward shift of temperature zones from the 1960s to 2000s, while aridity zones displayed enhanced temporal and spatial variability. Climate change effects on temperature and aridity zones imply that the patterns of cropping systems, macro-ecosystems, and human land use modes are potentially undergoing migration and modification due to climate change.     

Mechanism of Diabatic Heating on Precipitation and the Track of a Tibetan Plateau Vortex over the Eastern Slope of the Tibetan Plateau

Existing studies contend that latent heating(LH) will replace sensible heating(SH) to become the dominant factor affecting the development of the Tibetan Plateau vortex(TPV) after it moves off the Tibetan Plateau(TP). However, in the process of the TPV moving off the TP requires that the airmass traverse the eastern slope of the Tibetan Plateau(ESTP)where the topography and diabatic heating(DH) conditions rapidly change. How LH gradually replaces SH to become the dominant factor in the developme...     

Simulation of Effects of Land Use Change on Climate in China by a Regional Climate Model

Climate effects of land use change in China as simulated by a regional climate model (RegCM2)are investigated. The model is nested in one-way mode within a global coupled atmosphere-ocean model(CSIRO R21L9 AOGCM). Two multi-year simulations, one with current land use and the other with potential vegetation cover, are conducted. Statistically significant changes of precipitation, surface air temperature, and daily maximum and daily minimum temperature are analyzed based on the difference between the two simulations. The simulated effects of land use change over China include a decrease of mean annual precipitation over Northwest China, a region with a prevalence of arid and semi-arid areas;an increase of mean annual surfaoe air temperature over some areas; and a decrease of temperature along coastal areas. Summer mean daily maximum temperature increases in many locations, while winter mean daily minimum temperature decreases in East China and increases in Northwest China. The upper soil moisture decreases significantly across China. The results indicate that the same land use change may cause different climate effects in different regions depending on the surrounding environment and climate characteristics.     

Climate change prediction: Erring on the side of least drama?

Over the past two decades, skeptics of the reality and significance of anthropogenic climate change have frequently accused climate scientists of “alarmism”: of over-interpreting or overreacting to evidence of human impacts on the climate system. However, the available evidence suggests that scientists have in fact been conservative in their projections of the impacts of climate change. In particular, we discuss recent studies showing that at least some of the key attributes of global warming from increased atmospheric greenhouse gases have been under-predicted, particularly in IPCC assessments of the physical science, by Working Group I. We also note the less frequent manifestation of over-prediction of key characteristics of climate in such assessments. We suggest, therefore, that scientists are biased not toward alarmism but rather the reverse: toward cautious estimates, where we define caution as erring on the side of less rather than more alarming predictions. We call this tendency “erring on the side of least drama (ESLD).” We explore some cases of ESLD at work, including predictions of Arctic ozone depletion and the possible disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet, and suggest some possible causes of this directional bias, including adherence to the scientific norms of restraint, objectivity, skepticism, rationality, dispassion, and moderation. We conclude with suggestions for further work to identify and explore ESLD.     

SPARC Local Workshop on “WCRP Grand Challenges and Regional Climate Change”

正1.Overview SPARC(Stratosphere-Troposphere Processes and their Role in Climate)is one of the core projects of the World Climate Research Program(WCRP),coordinating international efforts to address relevant issues in climate and climate prediction via better understanding of the stratosphere-troposphere system.SPARC is a broad umbrella body that     

Tibetan Air-Land Physical Process and Its Impact on Global Climate and Disastrous Weather in China Passed the Acceptance Check

Entrusted by the PRC Ministry of Science and Technology, China Meteorological Administration convened the project acceptance check meeting in Beijing on 14 May 2001. The check group confirmed that the observation and analysis concerning the plateau ABL and the corresponding findings are innovative and have attained the international advanced level. All the subprojects passed the acceptance check in April 2001, fulfilled satisfactorily various stipulated tasks and reached the check targets. All the members of the check group agreed that the project passed the acceptance     

Temporal and Spatial Variations in the Climate Controls of Vegetation Dynamics on the Tibetan Plateau during 1982–2011

The ecosystem of the Tibetan Plateau is highly susceptible to climate change. Currently, there is little discussion on the temporal changes in the link between climatic factors and vegetation dynamics in this region under the changing climate.By employing Normalized Difference Vegetation Index data, the Climatic Research Unit temperature and precipitation data,and the in-situ meteorological observations, we report the temporal and spatial variations in the relationships between the vegetation dynamics and climatic factors on the Plateau over the past three decades. The results show that from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, vegetation dynamics in the central and southeastern part of the Plateau appears to show a closer relationship with precipitation prior to the growing season than that of temperature. From the mid-1990s, the temperature rise seems to be the key climatic factor correlating vegetation growth in this region. The effects of increasing temperature on vegetation are spatially variable across the Plateau: it has negative impacts on vegetation activity in the southwestern and northeastern part of the Plateau, and positive impacts in the central and southeastern Plateau. In the context of global warming, the changing climate condition(increasing precipitation and significant rising temperature) might be the potential contributor to the shift in the climatic controls on vegetation dynamics in the central and southeastern Plateau.     

Relationship Between the Eastern Tibetan Plateau Rainfall and Subtropical High Shift in Summer

Based on the routine rainfall data on the Tibetan Plateau and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data,the rela- tionship between the eastern Tibetan Plateau rainfall and the southward/northward shift of West Pacific subtropical high in summer of 1993/1994 is studied.The results show that:the West Pacific subtropi- cal high is abnormally located to more southern latitude and the high ridge is mainly the quasi-biweekly southward/northward oscillation in its processes of northward shift from May to August in 1993;but it is ab- normally located to more northern latitude and the high ridge is obviously 30-60-day southward/northward oscillation in its processes of northward shift from May to August in 1994.At the same time,it is found that the changes of the eastern Tibetan Plateau rainfall active/break have the similar characteristics of the high ridge southward/northward oscillation.Therefore,the southward/northward shift of the West Pacific subtropical high in summer may be related to the changes of eastern Tibetan Plateau rainfall active/break.     

Atmosphere-Ocean Coupling Schemes in a One-Dimensional Climate Model

In this paper, the coupling schemes of atmosphere-ocean climate models are discussed with one-dimensional advection equations. The convergence and stability for synchronous and asynchronous schemes are demonstrated and compared.Conclusions inferred from the analysis are given below. The synchronous scheme as well as the asynchronous-implicit scheme in this model are stable for arbitrary integrating time intervals. The asynchronous explicit scheme is unstable under certain conditions, which depend upon advection velocities and heat exchange parameters in the atmosphere and oceans. With both synchronous and asynchronous stable schemes the discrete solutions converge to their unique exact ones. Advections in the atmosphere and ocean accelerate the rate of convergence of the asynchronous-implicit scheme. It is suggusted that the asynchronous-implicit coupling scheme is a stable and efficient method for most climatic simulations.     

Climate change research and analysis in India: an integrated assessment of a South–North divide

For more than a decade climate change has been the focus of much research and analysis. Despite the global implications of the problem, the overwhelming majority of the researchers involved worldwide in studying the problem and its possible solutions are from industrialized countries, and participation of lesser-industrialized countries has been limited. While the wide-ranging implications of this South–North divide are sometimes recognized, there is little analysis on the reasons for this divide, why it continues to exist, and what steps might be required to narrow it. Towards this end, this paper analyzes how climate change research and analysis is performed in India, a major lesser-industrialized country. Based on detailed interviews, it explores the factors that play a role in shaping the capability of India to perform, and respond to, climate-change analyses. Drawing on the Indian case study, the paper examines developing-country participation in the international climate science and assessment enterprise. This allows some reflection on the potential pitfalls for international discussions on climate change and what the international community and countries of the South can do to overcome them in order to address this conspicuous South–North divide.     

The Second Tibetan Plateau Atmospheric Experiment(1994-2000)——Tibetan Air-Land Physical Process and Its Impact on Global Climate and Disastrous Weather in China

TheimpactofTibetanPlateauonthegeneralcirculationinEastAsiaandeventhewholeglobeisverysignificant.ItismoredifficulttocarryoutobservationalstudyontheatmosphericphysicalparametersinthenearsurfaceandboundarylayersonTibetanPlateauthaninanyotherarea,whichassignsveryimportantmeaningtoTIPEX(TibetanPlateauAtmosphericExperiment).DuringMaytoAugust1998.thefieldexperimentofTIPEXwaslaunchedonTibetanPlateauatthreerepresentativebasesincludingDamxung,QamdoandGene.Anadvancedcompositemonitoringsystemwa…     

Catching air? Climate change policy in Russia,Ukraine and Kazakhstan

Abstract

Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have each participated actively in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conferences of the Parties, and each is developing domestic rules and institutions to address UN obligations under the treaties. Russia and Ukraine are each Annex I/Annex B countries. Kazakhstan will become Annex I upon ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, but has not yet established itself as Annex B. Each state has evolved a distinct set of policies and priorities in the domestic and the international arena. Drawing largely on interviews in each country, this article presents brief histories of the evolution of climate policy, focusing on each state's behavior in the international arena, the sources of domestic policy leadership, and the forces that led to change in each national approach. Current policies and practices are evaluated with an eye towards learning from the successes and failures in each state.     

A Possible Impact of Cooling over the Tibetan Plateau on the Mid-Holocene East Asian Monsoon Climate

By using a 9-level global atmospheric general circulation model developed at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP9L-AGCM) under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the authors investigated the response of the East Asian monsoon climate to changes both in orbital forcing and the snow and glaciers over the Tibetan Plateau at the mid-Holocene, about 6000 calendar years before the present (6 kyr BP). With the Earth’s orbital parameters appropriate for the mid-Holocene, the IAP9L-AGCM computed warmer and wetter conditions in boreal summer than for the present day. Under the precondition of continental snow and glacier cover existing over part of the Tibetan Plateau at the mid-Holocene, the authors examined the regional climate response to the Tibetan Plateau cooling. The simulations indicated that climate changes in South Asia and parts of central Asia as well as in East Asia are sensitive to the Tibetan Plateau cooling at the mid-Holocene, showing a significant decrease in precipitation in northern India, northern China and southern Mongolia and an increase in Southeast Asia during boreal summer. The latter seems to correspond to the weakening, southeastward shift of the Asian summer monsoon system resulting from reduced heat contrast between the Eurasian continent and the Pacific and Indian Oceans when a cooling over the Tibetan Plateau was imposed. The simulation results suggest that the snow and glacier environment over the Tibetan Plateau is an important factor for mid-Holocene climate change in the areas highly influenced by the Asian monsoon.     

The Effect of Super Volcanic Eruptions on Ozone Depletion in a Chemistry–Climate Model

With the gradual yet unequivocal phasing out of ozone depleting substances(ODSs), the environmental crisis caused by the discovery of an ozone hole over the Antarctic has lessened in severity and a promising recovery of the ozone layer is predicted in this century. However, strong volcanic activity can also cause ozone depletion that might be severe enough to threaten the existence of life on Earth. In this study, a transport model and a coupled chemistry–climate model were used to simulate the impacts of super volcanoes on ozone depletion. The volcanic eruptions in the experiments were the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption and a 100 × Pinatubo size eruption. The results show that the percentage of global mean total column ozone depletion in the 2050 RCP8.5 100 × Pinatubo scenario is approximately 6% compared to two years before the eruption and 6.4% in tropics. An identical simulation, 100 × Pinatubo eruption only with natural source ODSs, produces an ozone depletion of 2.5% compared to two years before the eruption, and with 4.4% loss in the tropics. Based on the model results,the reduced ODSs and stratospheric cooling lighten the ozone depletion after super volcanic eruption.