Climate change and transportation in Northern Canada: an integrated impact assessment

The physical and economic impacts of climate warming in the Mackenzie River Valley, Northwest Territories, Canada are estimated using a combination of stochastic modelling, econometric-modelling and input-output analysis. The attempt was to illustrate the utility of using analytical models for long-term impact assessment as well as to estimate the potential impacts from projected climate warming in the region. A scenario approach, based on three global circulation models, was used, with an emphasis on modelling climate variability, river ice conditions and economic impacts. The transportation system was used as a central focus linking the physical and socio-economic components. Despite the significant warming projected for the region, results show the economic impacts from changes in transportation to be relatively minor, with the greatest changes being in the tertiary, or service, sector.     

Volcanoes and ENSO in millennium simulations: global impacts and regional reconstructions in East Asia

The impacts and cooperative effects of volcanic eruptions and ENSO (El Niño/Southern Oscillation) are analyzed in a millennium simulation for 800–2005 AD using the earth system model (ESM) ECHAM5/MPIOM/JSBACH subject to anthropogenic and natural forcings. The simulation comprises two ensembles, a first with weak (E1, five members) and a second with strong (E2, three members) variability total solar irradiance. In the analysis, the 21 most intense eruptions are selected in each ensemble member. Volcanoes with neutral ENSO states during two preceding winters cause a global cooling in the year after eruptions up to ?2.5°C. The nonsignificant positive values in the tropical Pacific Ocean indicate an El Niño-like warming. In the winter after an eruption, warming is mainly found in the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea in E2 warming extends to Siberia and central Asia. The recovery times for the volcano-induced cooling (average for 31 eruptions) vary globally between 1 and 12 years. There is no significant increase of El Niño events after volcanic eruptions in both ensembles. The simulated temperature and the drought indices are compared with corresponding reconstructions in East Asia. Volcanoes cause a dramatic cooling in west China (?2°C) and a drought in East China during the year after the eruption. The reconstructions show similar cooling patterns with smaller magnitudes and confirm the dryness in East China. Without volcanoes, El Niño events reduce summer precipitation in the North, while South China becomes wetter; La Niña events cause opposite effects. El Niño events in the winters after eruptions compensate the cooling caused by volcanoes in most regions of China (consistent with reconstructions), while La Niña events intensify the cooling (up to ?2.5°C). The simulated and reconstructed drought indices show tripole patterns which are altered by El Niño events. The simulated impact of the Tambora eruption in 1815, which caused the “year without summer” of 1816 in Europe and North America and led to coldness and famines in the Chinese province Yunnan, depends crucially on the ENSO state of the coupled model. A comparison with reconstructed El Niño events shows a moderate cool climate with wet (in the south) and extreme dry anomalies (in the north) persisting for several years.     

Hydroclimatic trends during 1950–2018 over global land

Global hydroclimatic changes from 1950 to 2018 are analyzed using updated data of land precipitation, streamflow, and an improved form of the Palmer Drought Severity Index. The historical changes are then compared with climate model-simulated response to external forcing to determine how much of the recent change is forced response. It is found that precipitation has increased from 1950 to 2018 over mid-high latitude Eurasia, most North America, Southeast South America, and Northwest Australia, while it has decreased over most Africa, eastern Australia, the Mediterranean region, the Middle East, and parts of East Asia, central South America, and the Pacific coasts of Canada. Streamflow records largely confirm these precipitation changes. The wetting trend over Northwest Australia and Southeast South America is most pronounced in austral summer while the drying over Africa and wetting trend over mid-high latitude Eurasia are seen in all seasons. Coupled with the drying caused by rising surface temperatures, these precipitation changes have greatly increased the risk of drought over Africa, southern Europe, East Asia, eastern Australia, Northwest Canada, and southern Brazil. Global land precipitation and continental freshwater discharge show large interannual and inter-decadal variations, with negative anomalies during El Niño and following major volcanic eruptions in 1963, 1982, and 1991; whereas their decadal variations are correlated with the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) with IPO’s warm phase associated with low land precipitation and continental discharge. The IPO and Atlantic multidecadal variability also dominate multidecadal variations in land aridity, accounting for 90 % of the multidecadal variance. CMIP5 multi-model ensemble mean shows decreased precipitation and runoff and increased risk of drought during 1950–2018 over Southwest North America, Central America, northern and central South America (including the Amazon), southern and West Africa, the Mediterranean region, and Southeast Asia; while the northern mid-high latitudes, Southeast South America, and Northwest Australia see increased precipitation and runoff. The consistent spatial patterns between the observed changes and the model-simulated response suggest that many of the observed drying and wetting trends since 1950 may have resulted at least partly from historical external forcing. However, the drying over Southeast Asia and wetting over Northwest Australia are absent in the 21st century projections.

     

Potential Atmospheric Transport Pathways for Mercury Measured in the Canadian High Arctic

Large-scale transport pathways for atmospheric gaseous mercury emitted from surrounding source regions to reach the Alert sampling site located at the Northwest Territories of Canada between August 1992 and August 1993 were investigated. The 12-month atmospheric mercury data set comprises blank-corrected total gaseous mercury (TGM) concentrations collected on gold-coated sand traps during one-week long sampling intervals. For TGM concentrations above the 12-month mean TGM level, the analysis reveals regions in Eastern Europe (close to East Germany and Poland), areas on Northeastern America in Canada (Northwest Territories), and central Siberia of the former U.S.S.R. Identification of the physical locations of the emission sources was limited by the temporal resolution of weekly averaged data; however, major atmospheric pathways of mercury transport to the Arctic were successfully resolved. The objective of this note is to demonstrate that the potential source contribution function could be applied to resolve the sources and recover transport pathways of atmospheric mercury over a large scale.     

The impact of long-term regional air mass patterns on nutrient precipitation chemistry and nutrient deposition within a United States grassland ecosystem

Changes in the frequency of precipitation as a result of a changing climate, as well as anthropogenic induced deposition of nitrogen (N), both have the potential to alter grassland productivity and diversity. Central U.S. weather patterns are dominated by three major air mass trajectories including regional sources from the Gulf of Mexico (marine tropical, Mt), the Pacific Northwest (mild pacific, mP), and the Desert Southwest (continental tropical, Ct). In this work, the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model was used to determine trends in the proportion of precipitation events from these air mass sources from 1983 to 2006 relative to Konza Prairie Biological Station (KPBS), KS. The annual volume-weighted mean (VWM) concentrations and wet deposition of a variety of precipitation dissolved solutes were linked to source regions north or south of KPBS. The proportion of precipitation events from Mt significantly increased, while the proportion of events from Ct and mP decreased significantly over the study period. The annual VWM concentrations of most solutes were typically higher from precipitation sourced to the north of KPBS. However, wet deposition of four ecologically relevant solutes (NH₄⁺, NO₃^?, H⁺_, and SO₄^?2) was higher from events from the southern region, likely due to higher precipitation amounts. The proportion of reduced N increased significantly over the study period but was not affected by source region despite the higher use of fertilizers for agriculture in the northern source region. Given the location of this site relative to three dominant air mass paths, future shifts in these patterns will likely impact wet nutrient deposition.     

An Assessment of Surface and Atmospheric Conditions Associated with the Extreme 2014 Wildfire Season in Canada’s Northwest Territories

Weather and climate are major factors influencing worldwide wildfire activity. This study assesses surface and atmospheric conditions associated with the 2014 extreme wildfires in the Northwest Territories (NWT) of Canada. Hot and dry conditions led to the NWT experiencing the most severe wildfire season in its recorded history. The season included a record number of cloud-to-ground lightning flashes and set a record for area burned. Lightning was the dominant ignition source and accounted for about 95% of the wildfires. Prolonged periods of smoke led to dramatic reductions in visibility, frequent road closures, and reduced air quality resulting in numerous health alerts. Temporal and spatial patterns of lightning characteristics in 2014, derived from Canadian Lightning Detection Network data, were different from those in other years with, for example, far more positive flashes from 0600 to 1200?utc (midnight to 6:00 am local time). The highest fraction of positive cloud-to-ground flashes (43.1%) occurred in the smoke-dominated North Slave region, which was more than in the Dehcho, South Slave, or Sahtu regions. Mid-tropospheric atmospheric circulation over a large region that included the NWT was classified into the six most common summer patterns. Results showed that ridging and ridge displacements occurred more frequently during 2014 although lightning was associated with all circulation patterns. This study has advanced the understanding of the roles of weather, lightning, and mid-tropospheric circulation patterns associated with extreme wildfires in northwestern Canada.     

华中地区夏季区域性极端日降水事件变化特征及环流异常

利用1961—2010年夏季(6—8月)华中区域239个中国国家级气象台站逐日降水观测资料及NCEP/NCAR再分析资料集,对华中地区夏季区域性极端日降水事件及环流异常进行了分析,结果表明:华中地区夏季区域性极端日降水量的99百分位阈值为23.585 mm/d,20世纪80年代中期以后的极端日降水事件明显偏多,且6月下旬至7月中旬为华中地区极端降水多发期。极端日降水事件由具有从低层到高层呈斜压结构的异常环流控制,其南侧的水汽通过孟加拉湾与中国南海地区的异常反气旋外围呈阶梯状输送至华中地区。位于青藏高原东北侧的波作用量通量向华中地区的辐合有利于华中地区上空波动扰动的产生和维持,同时极端日降水事件的发生亦与华中地区的大气净加热及华中周边大范围区域中的净冷却形成的加热场梯度有关。这些结果表明华中地区夏季区域性极端日降水事件有显著的年际和年代际变化,且极端事件的发生与华中地区气旋性环流异常、青藏高原东北侧地形强迫、以及华中地区与周边非绝热加热梯度异常关系密切。     

Volcanos and El Niño: signal separation in Northern Hemisphere winter

The frequent coincidence of volcanic forcing with El Niño events disables the clear assignment of climate anomalies to either volcanic or El Niño forcing. In order to select the signals, a set of four different perpetual January GCM experiments was performed (control, volcano case, El Niño case and combined volcano/El Niño case) and studied with advanced statistical methods for the Northern Hemisphere winter. The results were compared with observations. The signals for the different forcings are discussed for three variables (temperature, zonal wind and geopotential height) and five levels (surface, 850 hPa, 500 hPa, 200 hPa and 50 hPa). The global El Niño signal can be selected more clearly in the troposphere than in the stratosphere. In contrast, the global volcano signal is strongest in the stratospheric temperature field. The amplitude of the perturbation for the volcano case is largest in the Atlantic region. The observed effect of local cooling due to the volcanic reduction of shortwave radiation over large land areas (like Asia) in subtropical regions, the observed advective warming over Eurasia and the advective cooling over Greenland are well simulated in the model. The radiative cooling near the surface is important for the volcano signal in the subtropics, but it is weak in high latitudes during winter. A statistically significant tropospheric signal of El Niño forcing occurs in the subtropics and in the midlatitudes of the North Pacific. The local anomalies in the El Niño forcing region in the tropics, and the warming over North America in middle and high latitudes are simulated as observed. The combined signal is different from a simple linear combination of the separate signals. It leads to a climate perturbation stronger than for forcing with El Niño or stratospheric aerosol alone and to a somewhat modified pattern.     

Indo-western Pacific ocean capacitor and coherent climate anomalies in post-ENSO summer: A review

ENSO induces coherent climate anomalies over the Indo-western Pacific, but these anomalies outlast SST anomalies of the equatorial Pacific by a season, with major effects on the Asian summer monsoon. This review provides historical accounts of major milestones and synthesizes recent advances in the endeavor to understand summer variability over the Indo-Northwest Pacific region. Specifically, a large-scale anomalous anticyclone(AAC) is a recurrent pattern in post-El Ni ?no summers, spanning the tropical Northwest Pacific and North Indian oceans. Regarding the ocean memory that anchors the summer AAC, competing hypotheses emphasize either SST cooling in the easterly trade wind regime of the Northwest Pacific or SST warming in the westerly monsoon regime of the North Indian Ocean. Our synthesis reveals a coupled ocean–atmosphere mode that builds on both mechanisms in a two-stage evolution. In spring, when the northeast trades prevail, the AAC and Northwest Pacific cooling are coupled via wind–evaporation–SST feedback. The Northwest Pacific cooling persists to trigger a summer feedback that arises from the interaction of the AAC and North Indian Ocean warming, enabled by the westerly monsoon wind regime. This Indo-western Pacific ocean capacitor(IPOC) effect explains why El Ni ?no stages its last act over the monsoonal Indo-Northwest Pacific and casts the Indian Ocean warming and AAC in leading roles. The IPOC displays interdecadal modulations by the ENSO variance cycle, significantly correlated with ENSO at the turn of the 20 th century and after the 1970 s, but not in between. Outstanding issues, including future climate projections, are also discussed.     

STOCHASTIC SIMULATION OF TROPICAL CYCLONE TRACKS IN THE NORTHWEST PACIFIC REGION WITH CLASSIFICATION MODEL

Accurate simulation of tropical cyclone tracks is a prerequisite for tropical cyclone risk assessment. Against the spatial characteristics of tropical cyclone tracks in the Northwest Pacific region, stochastic simulation method based on classification model is used to simulate tropical cyclone tracks in this region. Such simulation includes the classification method, the genesis model, the traveling model, and the lysis model. Tropical cyclone tracks in the Northwest Pacific region are classified into five categories on the basis of its movement characteristics and steering positions. In the genesis model, Gaussian kernel probability density functions with the biased cross validation method are used to simulate the annual occurrence number and genesis positions. The traveling model is established on the basis of the mean and mean square error of the historical 6 h latitude and longitude displacements. The termination probability is used as the discrimination standard in the lysis model. Then, this stochastic simulation method of tropical cyclone tracks is applied and qualitatively evaluated with different diagnostics. Results show that the tropical cyclone tracks in Northwest Pacific can be satisfactorily simulated with this classification model.     

近40年中国高空温度变化的初步分析

为了了解高空气温的长期变化趋势,利用中国28个高空探空站1961—2000年间地面至高空10hPa的温度资料进行了统计分析,结果表明:从地面到高空200hPa最冷在1月,最热在7月;但是在最冷的100hPa层以上,其气温年变化位相相反,即1月最热,8月最冷;50hPa层以上温度的年变化不大。近40余年来,年平均气温变化趋势自地面至700hPa,绝大部分地区温度上升,尤其是地面增温最为显著,而西南地区有降温趋势;对流层上层至50hPa的平流层的温度在降低,尤其是50hPa降温最为显著。北半球的较强火山喷发对中国32°N以南的低纬与32°N以北的中高纬地区高空温度的影响不同。火山喷发后,低纬地区平流层第1~26个月温度均有不同程度增温,其中在第7~8个月增温最明显;在对流层以下,第6~11个月、第16~27个月出现2次明显降温时段,第1次降温最明显。中高纬地区平流层在第1~16个月、第20~29个月出现2段增温,第1段增温时间跨度长、强度大,第17~19个月出现了降温。在对流层以下第2~5个月、第14~18个月、第21~30个月出现3次明显降温时段,第3次降温持续时间长,整体降温强度较大。     

Summer convection and lightning over the Mackenzie river basin and their Impacts during 1994 and 1995

Abstract

Lightning activity over the Mackenzie basin has been examined for the summers of 1994 and 1995. In recent years, the lightning network operating in the Northwest Territories has detected an average of 118 K strikes per season. Positive lightning strikes (defined as lightning discharges lowering positive charge to the earth) typically comprise 12% of the total. The lightning activity during 1994 was approximately 20% below normal, while in 1995, it was 53% below normal. However, the fraction of positive lightning strikes was 25.6% during 1995. The lightning was linked to synoptic conditions favouring severe storm development, especially those tied to the diurnal cycle. As a consequence of the lightning, as well as the very dry surface conditions, record forest areas were burned. In the Northwest Territories alone, forest fires burned 3 Mha in 1994 and 2.8 Mha in 1995.     

西北地区春、夏季降水的水汽输送特征

运用1960—1997年内NCEP/NCAR的格点为2.5°×2.5°多个再分析气象要素资料以及西北地区95个加密测站降水资料,通过相关分析、合成分析等诊断方法对影响西北地区春、夏季降水的整层大气的水汽水平输送特征、各层水汽垂直输送特征以及西北地区春、夏季各个边界区域水汽输送特征进行了系列研究,揭示了西北地区季节性降水的水汽源以及水汽源三维输送路径特征;同时阐述了西北地区季节性降水与同期空中水汽含量显著性相关的原因。并用西北地区干、湿年份相关气象要素场对本文的一些分析结果进行了验证。     

When the pendulum doesn’t find its center: Environmental narratives,strategies, and forest policy change in the US Pacific Northwest

Since the 1980s, the US Pacific Northwest has been shattered by a major environmental policy conflict related to the management of Federal forests. These “timber wars” were similar to forest environmental policy conflicts in several other countries, but were particularly polarized. They resulted in a significant change in Federal forest policy from timber production orientation to biodiversity conservation. The change occurred suddenly and had significant economic and social consequences within the region and beyond, but was embedded in long-term societal and institutional trends.In this paper, I adopt an interpretive approach in order to, first, understand contemporary interpretations of the 1993 policy change and, second, to reconstruct the contemporary discursive ‘landscape’ of the Pacific Northwest including the major resource management paradigms and narratives that guide policy making in this region today. Empirically, my interpretation is mostly built on 37 qualitative interviews with policy stakeholders that were conducted in the summer of 2011.Based on this evidence, the paper argues that there are four narratives circulating amongst policy stakeholders that represent different conceptualizations of the 1993 policy change. Yet, all narratives highlight the importance of environmental strategy making that mobilized the socio-institutional setting in order to prepare and finally achieve the change.Current forest policy in the region is characterized by a policy stalemate resulting from the confluence of diverse institutional, context-related factors and the inability of stakeholders to create enough contradictions or crisis by combining these factors in order to promote change-enabling narratives. Four resource management paradigms compete in the region and, within these, narratives and counter narratives on physical and social events are developed. Current forest policy is dominated by an ecosystem management paradigm, but forest management practices aim to reconcile demands arising from the different paradigms to a certain degree, for instance via the concept of “ecological restoration”. Yet, given that the material base that feeds such compromises is finite, a new crisis in Pacific Northwest forest policy in the future is likely.In conclusion, this paper offers an interpretation of Pacific Northwest forest policy (change) as a process in which social and physical events are ‘discursively mobilized’ by means of narratives that are produced against the background of major natural resources paradigms. This includes the art of ‘discourse agents’ in constructing problematizations and intervention logics to either defend the current policy state or to increase the likelihood of change.     

Persistence of light surface winds in Canada

The persistence of light surface winds (less than or equal to 3 m s^?1 or 7 mi h^?1) is one meteorological factor in air pollution potential. Surface wind data were obtained from 111 Canadian synoptic and aviation weather stations for the period 1957–66. Generally speaking, persistent light winds occur most frequently in British Columbia, the Yukon and northern Alberta. In the ten provinces of Canada, the frequency of occurrence of light winds is a minimum in the spring and a maximum in the winter. In the Yukon and the Northwest Territories it is a minimum in the summer and a maximum in the winter. The seasonal variation is least in the mountain valleys and greatest elsewhere. The spatial and seasonal variations in persistent light winds suggest that, in the mountain valleys, topography is the major factor, while in other regions synoptic weather patterns are relatively important.     

近五十年中国西北地区夏季降水场变化特征及影响因素分析

利用中国气象局信息中心提供的西北地区1951～2005年夏季月平均资料集和1958～2002年ERA40资料, 分析近五十年来西北地区夏季降水场的主要变化特征, 及与之相关的大尺度水汽输送和环流场变化, 讨论大尺度环流指数如涛动、 极涡、 赤道太平洋Niño3.4区海温与西北地区夏季降水的相关性。结果表明, 近五十年西北西部尤其是南疆的降水增多, 与西伯利亚 (50°N～60°N, 40°E～70°E) 上空位势高度增加和伊朗高原 (35°N～42.5°N, 60°E～75°E) 上空位势高度减少有很大关系。1987年后, 西北西侧水汽辐合也是该区降水增多的一个重要因素。西北东部降水受海温影响大。此外, 北大西洋涛动、 极涡面积可以反映近几十年来西北降水西增东减的年际波动。极涡面积大小与西北降水第一模态相关性尤其突出, 可以作为考察西北降水变化的一个重要指标。     

关于用台站资料估算西北干旱区夏季感热通量的热力参数化比较

气象台站观测的气象要素可能受城市化等因子的影响而与野外试验站的观测存在一定的差异,这影响野外试验获取的热力参数直接应用于西北干旱区台站感热通量的估算。本文选取了一些常用的热力参数化方案(包括Z10、B82、Z98、Y08和Z12等方案),通过敦煌站夏季估算的感热通量与野外观测的比较以及对整个西北干旱区夏季感热通量的估算,评价了这些热力参数化对动量粗糙度的敏感性和在西北干旱区的适用性。结果显示,热力输送系数取定值的方案计算西北干旱区的感热通量可能存在较大不确定;台站的动量粗糙度可能受城市化等因子的影响,但在感热通量计算时建议取台站下垫面的动量粗糙度;Y08方案估算的感热通量相对比较合理,可以用来研究西北干旱区的夏季地表感热输送特征。     

Extratropical large-scale air-sea interaction in a coupled and uncoupled ocean-atmosphere model

Spatial patterns of mid-latitude large-scale ocean-atmosphere interaction on monthly to seasonal time scales have been observed to exhibit a similar structure in both the North Pacific and North Atlantic basins. These patterns have been interpreted as a generic oceanic response to surface wind anomalies, whereby the anomalous winds give rise to corresponding anomalous regions of surface heat flux and consequent oceanic cooling. This mechanistic concept is investigated in this study using numerical models of a global atmosphere and a mid-latitude ocean basin (nominally the Atlantic). The models were run in both coupled and uncoupled mode. Model output was used to generate multi-year time series of monthly mean fields. Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and singular value decomposition (SVD) analyses were then used to obtain the principal patterns of variability in heat flux, air temperature, wind speed, and sea surface temperature (SST), and to determine the relationships among these variables. SVD analysis indicates that the turbulent heat flux from the ocean to the atmosphere is primarily controlled by the surface scalar wind speed, and to a lesser extent by air temperature and SST. The principal patterns of air-sea interaction are closely analogous to those found in observational data. In the atmosphere, the pattern consists of a simultaneous strengthening (or weakening) of the mid-latitude westerlies and the easterly trades. In the ocean there is cooling (warming) under the anomalously strong (weak) westerlies and trade winds, with a weaker warming (cooling) in the region separating the westerly and easterly wind regimes. These patterns occur in both coupled and uncoupled models and the primary influence of the coupling is in localizing the interaction patterns. The oceanic patterns can be explained by the principal patterns of surface heat flux and the attendant warming or cooling of the ocean mixed layer.     

Temperature reconstruction from tree-ring maximum latewood density of Qinghai spruce in middle Hexi Corridor, China

Seven different tree-ring parameters (tree-ring width, earlywood width, latewood width, maximum density, minimum density, mean earlywood density, and mean latewood density) were obtained from Qinghai spruce (Picea crassifolia) at one chronology site in the Hexi Corridor, China. The chronologies were analyzed individually and then compared with each other. Growth–climate response analyses showed that the tree-ring width and maximum latewood density (MXD) are mainly influenced by warm season temperature variability. Based on the relationships derived from the climate response analysis, the MXD chronology was used to reconstruct the May–August maximum temperature for the period 1775–2008 A.D., and it explained the 38.1% of the total temperature variance. It shows cooling in the late 1700s to early 1800s and warming in the twentieth century. Spatial climate correlation analyses with gridded land surface data revealed that our warm season temperature reconstruction contains a strong large-scale temperature signal for north China. Comparison with regional and Northern Hemisphere reconstructions revealed similar low-frequency change to longer-term variability. Several cold years coincide with major volcanic eruptions.     

条件非线性最优扰动在可预报性问题研究中的应用

本文总结了近年来条件非线性最优扰动方法的应用研究的主要进展.主要包括四个方面:(1)将条件非线性最优扰动(CNOP)方法拓展到既考虑初始扰动又考虑模式参数扰动,形成了拓展的CNOP方法.拓展的CNOP方法不仅能够应用于研究分别由初始误差和模式参数误差导致的可预报性问题,而且能够用于探讨初始误差和模式参数误差同时存在的情形;(2)将拓展的CNOP方法分别应用于ENSO和黑潮可预报性研究,考察了初始误差和模式参数误差对其可预报性的影响,揭示了初始误差在导致ENSO和黑潮大弯曲路径预报不确定性中的重要作用;(3)考察了阻塞事件发生的最优前期征兆(OPR)以及导致其预报不确定性的最优增长初始误差(OGR),揭示了OPR和OGR空间模态及其演变机制的相似性及其局地性特征;(4)研究了台风预报的目标观测问题,用CNOP方法确定了台风预报的目标观测敏感区,通过观测系统模拟试验(OSSEs)和/或观测系统试验(OSEs),表明了CNOP敏感区在改进台风预报中的有效性.具体地,台风OGR的主要误差分布在某一特定区域,空间分布具有明显的局地性特征,在台风OGR的局地性区域增加观测,有效改进了台风的预报技巧,该区域代表了台风预报的初值敏感区.事实上,上述El Ni(n)o事件、黑潮路径变异以及阻塞事件的OGR的空间分布也具有明显的局地性特征,这些事件的OGR刻画的局地性区域可能也代表了初值敏感区.