On the significance of sensitivity changes in eppley pyranometers†: Research note

Abstract

Analysis of radiation data from Suffield, Alberta and Swift Current, Saskatchewan reveals discrepancies that are strongly linked to changes in the actual and assigned calibration factors of the pyranometers used at those locations.     

A decade of cloud‐to‐ground lightning in Canada: 1999–2008. Part 1: Flash density and occurrence

Abstract

Flash density and occurrence features for more than 23.5 million cloud‐to‐ground (CG) lightning flashes detected by the Canadian Lightning Detection Network (CLDN) from 1999 to 2008 are analyzed on 20 × 20 km equal area squares over Canada. This study was done to update an analysis performed in 2002 with just three years of data. Flashes were detected throughout the year, and distinct geographic differences in flash density and lightning occurrence were observed. The shape and locations of large scale patterns of lightning occurrence remained almost the same, although some details were different. Flash density maxima occurred at the same locations as found previously: the Swan Hills and Foothills of Alberta, southeastern Saskatchewan, southwestern Manitoba and southwestern Ontario. A region of greater lightning occurrence but relatively low flash density south of Nova Scotia occurred at the same location as reported previously. New areas of higher flash density occurred along the US border with northwestern Ontario and southern Quebec. These appear to be northward extensions of higher flash density seen in the previous study. The greatest average CG flash density was 2.8 flash km^?2 y^?1 in southwestern Ontario, where the greatest single‐year flash density (10.3 flash km^?2 y^?1) also occurred. Prominent flash density minima occurred east of the Continental Divide in Alberta and over the Niagara Escarpment in southern Ontario.

Lightning activity is seen to be highly influenced by the length of the season, proximity to cold water bodies and elevation. The diurnal heating and cooling cycle exerted the main control over lightning occurrence over most land areas; however, storm translation and transient dynamic features complicated the time pattern of lightning production. A large portion of the southern Prairie Provinces experienced more than 50% of flashes between 22:30 and 10:30 local solar time. The duration of lightning over a 20 × 20 km square at most locations in Canada is 5–10 h y^?1, although the duration exceeded 15 h y^?1 over extreme southwestern Ontario. Lightning occurred on 15–30 days each year, on average, over most of the interior of the country. The greatest number of days with lightning in a single year was 47 in the Alberta foothills and 50 in southwestern Ontario. Beginning and ending dates of the lightning season show that the season length decreases from north to south; however, there are considerable east‐west differences between regions. The season is nearly year‐round in the Pacific coastal region, southern Nova Scotia, southern Newfoundland and offshore.     

A Forecasting Model of Vector Similarity in Phase Space for Flood and Drought over the Huanghe-Huaihe-Haihe Plain in China

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A brief history of meteorological services in Canada part 3: 1939–1945

When the concerns of the Meteorological Division turned from peace to war in 1939–40 the Division was in the midst of a major expansion to meet the needs of Trans‐Canada Airlines. Civil air requirements for meteorological services continued to increase, and to these were‐added the meteorological needs of the Royal Canadian Air Force for operations and for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force for their ferrying activities over the Atlantic Ocean and to Alaska, and the much smaller needs of the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Army. By developing an analysis and forecasting system based on several forecast centres previously planned for civilian aviation, by setting up still more forecast centres for military purposes and by staffing nearly 100 “dependent” forecast offices at training and operational military stations, the wartime meteorological needs in Canada were largely met, although in northern Canada the United States assisted by establishing many observing stations and some forecast offices. To do this it was necessary for Canada's national service to recruit and train 350 new meteorologists and a large number of assistants during a period of extensive manpower scarcity. Services to the public were greatly curtailed and for a period both the broadcasting and publishing of weather information were prohibited. At the end of the war the Meteorological Division was faced with the major task of reorganizing in order to provide, to the public, services commensurate with the wartime advances in meteorological theory and practice.     

Ice Storm ’98 in Southcentral Canada and Northeastern United States: A Climatological Perspective

Summary Dubbed Ice Storm ’98, an extreme weather event characterized by two synoptic systems in succession dropped about 70–100 mm (in terms of water equivalent) of freezing precipitation over southeastern Ontario, southwestern Quebec and northeastern New York during a 6-day period from January 5 to 10 in 1998. Individually, the two synoptic systems were not dramatically more extreme in freezing precipitation than other major freezing rain events (4 since 1961) which occurred in the past over the affected area. Some regions in the target area, however, were impacted more by the second system. Based on an analysis of the 500 hPa vorticity field during the ’98 event, we suggest that the 1997/98 El Ni?o had a role in creating a flow environment conducive to the rapid formation of the second synoptic system. In contrast, other major freezing rain events in the last 30 years involved only one synoptic system per event lasting no more than 3 days, and producing 20–50 mm of precipitation. We have also found that, 3 out of 4 past major freezing rain events since 1958 were associated with the positive phase of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Consistent with this usual past association between the NAO and a major freezing rain event, Ice Storm ’98 also occurred when the phase of the NAO was positive. Analysis of these 3 past and the ’98 events also indicates an apparent connection between the positive phase of the NAO and the northern Quebec high pressure system, which is an essential synoptic feature of a major freezing rain occurrence over the southcentral region of Canada. As measured by their respective indices, the maximum positive NAO state leads the maximum northern Quebec high by about 2 days (5 days in the ’98 event). There is some suggestive evidence to indicate that the persistence of the northern Quebec high pressure system is connected to the persistence of the positive phase of the NAO. Received January 17, 2000     

Simulation of Desert-Scrub Growth: A Forcing to Warmer and More Pluvial Climate

Desert-fringe vegetation growing over bright, sandy soils reduces the surface albedo from above 0.4 to well below 0.3. Called desert-scrub, these shrubs form a predominantly vertical clumps protruding from the soil-level, thereby significantly increasing the coefficient of turbulent heat transfer from the surface. The impact on global and desert-belt climate of changes in these two surface characteristics was simulated by a multi-layer energy balance tnodel. Evaluated only as a forcing to a further climatic change (that is, without accounting for any possible feedbacks) the results are: if vegetation (such as apparently existed under the warmer climate of 6,000 BP ) grows over large areas in the arid, currently bare-soil regions, the annual Northern Hemisphere surface temperature increases by 0.7t (by 0.6'C in July ), the surface temperature over land in the 20-30°N zone increases by 0.9℃ in both the annual and the July means, and the land-ocean annual temperature contrast in this zone increases by 0.     

Responses of Vertical Structures in Convective and Stratiform Regions to Large-Scale Forcing during the Landfall of Severe Tropical Storm Bilis （2006）

The responses of vertical structures,in convective and stratiform regions,to the large-scale forcing during the landfall of tropical storm Bilis(2006) are investigated using the data from a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulation.An imposed large-scale forcing with upward motion in the mid and upper troposphere and downward motion in the lower troposphere on 15 July suppresses convective clouds,which leads to ～100% coverage of raining stratiform clouds over the entire model domain.The imposed forci...     

Ten Years of Science Based on the Canadian Precipitation Analysis: A CaPA System Overview and Literature Review†

Near real-time quantitative precipitation estimates are required for many applications including weather forecasting, flood forecasting, crop management, forest fire prevention, hydropower production, and dam safety. Since April 2011, such a product has been available from Environment and Climate Change Canada for a domain covering all North America. This product, known as the Regional Deterministic Precipitation Analysis, is generated using the Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPA) system. Although it was designed for near real-time use, an archive of pre-operational and operational products going back to 2002 is now available and has been used in numerous studies. This paper presents a review of the various scientific publications that have reported either using or evaluating CaPA products. We find that the product is used with success both for scientific studies and operational applications and compares well with other precipitation datasets. We summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the system as reported in the literature. We also provide users with information on how the system works, how it has changed over time, and how the archived and near real-time analyses can be accessed and used. We finally briefly report on recent and upcoming improvements to the product based, in part, on the results of this literature review.     

A Methodological Study on Using Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) Model Outputs to Drive a One-Dimensional Cloud Model简

A new method for driving a One-Dimensional Stratiform Cold （1DSC） cloud model with Weather Research and Fore casting （WRF） model outputs was developed by conducting numerical experiments for a typical large-scale stratiform rainfall event that took place on 4-5 July 2004 in Changchun, China. Sensitivity test results suggested that, with hydrometeor pro files extracted from the WRF outputs as the initial input, and with continuous updating of soundings and vertical velocities （including downdraft） derived from the WRF model, the new WRF-driven 1DSC modeling system （WRF-1DSC） was able to successfully reproduce both the generation and dissipation processes of the precipitation event. The simulated rainfall intensity showed a time-lag behind that observed, which could have been caused by simulation errors of soundings, vertical velocities and hydrometeor profiles in the WRF output. Taking into consideration the simulated and observed movement path of the precipitation system, a nearby grid point was found to possess more accurate environmental fields in terms of their similarity to those observed in Changchun Station. Using profiles from this nearby grid point, WRF-1DSC was able to repro duce a realistic precipitation pattern. This study demonstrates that 1D cloud-seeding models do indeed have the potential to predict realistic precipitation patterns when properly driven by accurate atmospheric profiles derived from a regional short range forecasting system, This opens a novel and important approach to developing an ensemble-based rain enhancement prediction and operation system under a probabilistic framework concept.     

A Review of Research on Tropical Air–Sea Interaction,ENSO Dynamics,and ENSO Prediction in China

Remarkable progress has been made in observations, theories, and simulations of the ocean–atmosphere system,laying a solid foundation for the improvement of short-term climate prediction, among which Chinese scientists have made important contributions. This paper reviews Chinese research on tropical air–sea interaction, ENSO dynamics,and ENSO prediction in the past 70 years. Review of the tropical air–sea interaction mainly focuses on four aspects:characteristics of the tropical Pacific climate system and ENSO; main modes of tropical Indian Ocean SSTs and their interactions with the tropical Pacific; main modes of tropical Atlantic SSTs and inter-basin interactions; and influences of the mid–high-latitude air–sea system on ENSO. Review of the ENSO dynamics involves seven aspects: fundamental theories of ENSO; diagnosis and simulation of ENSO; the two types of ENSO; mechanisms of ENSO initiation; the interactions between ENSO and other phenomena; external forcings and teleconnections; and climate change and the ENSO response. The ENSO prediction part briefly summarizes the dynamical–statistical methods used in ENSO prediction, as well as the operational ENSO prediction systems and their applications. Lastly, we discuss some of the issues in these areas that are in need of further study.     

Research Project Entitled “The Dynamics and Physical Processes in The Weather and Climate System“ --Part Ⅰ: A Brief Introduction

1. Introduction Human activities including social and economic de-velopments, are closely related to the change of theweather and climate system. Since the beginning oftime, weather and climate, which are the general termsfor the entire range of phenom…     

Research Project Entitled "The Dynamics and Physical Processes in The Weather and Climate System" --Part Ⅰ: A Brief Introduction

In the beginning of the 21st century, the Tenth Five-Year Priority Research Projects of the Earth Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) were initiated. After nearly a two-year long process to prepare, the first version of six Priority Research Projects of Earth Sciences was published in October 2001 by NSFC, viz., Local Response to Global Changes, Life Process and Environment,Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System, Continental Dynamics, Regional Sustainable Development, Solar-Terrestrial Environment and Space Weather. The process involved more than 200 renowned Chinese scientists and many departments and agencies in China. The six Priority Research Projects guide the research effort of the earth sciences for the NSFC from year 2001 to 2005.This paper provides a brief introduction to the Third Priority Research Project of the Department of Earth Sciences of NSFC-Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System (DPWOS).     

Research Project Entitled "The Dynamics and Physical Processes in The Weather and Climate System" --Part Ⅰ: A Brief Introduction

In the beginning of the 21st century, the Tenth Five-Year Priority Research Projects of the Earth Sciences of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) were initiated. After nearly a two-year long process to prepare, the first version of six Priority Research Projects of Earth Sciences was published in October 2001 by NSFC, viz., Local Response to Global Changes, Life Process and Environment,Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System, Continental Dynamics, Regional Sustainable Development, Solar-Terrestrial Environment and Space Weather. The process involved more than 200 renowned Chinese scientists and many departments and agencies in China. The six Priority Research Projects guide the research effort of the earth sciences for the NSFC from year 2001 to 2005.This paper provides a brief introduction to the Third Priority Research Project of the Department of Earth Sciences of NSFC-Dynamics and Physical Processes in the Weather and Climate System (DPWOS).     

Atmospheric Rivers and Mei-yu Rainfall in China:A Case Study of Summer 2020※

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) are long, narrow, and transient filaments of strong horizontal water vapor transport that can lead to extreme precipitation. To investigate the relationship between ARs and mei-yu rainfall in China, the mei-yu season of 2020 in the Yangtze-Huaihe River basin is taken as an example. An adjusted AR-detection algorithm is applied on integrated water vapor transport (IVT) of the ERA5 reanalysis. The JRA-55 reanalysis and the data from Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) are also utilized to study the impacts of ARs on mei-yu rainfall in 2020. The results reveal that ARs in East Asia have an average length of 5400 km, a width of 600 km, a length/width ratio of 9.3, and a northeastward orientation of 30°. ARs are modulated by the western North Pacific subtropical high. The IVT core is located at the south side of low pressure systems, moving eastward with a speed of 10° d^?1. For the cross sections of ARs in the Yangtze-Huaihe River basin, 75% of the total flux is concentrated below 4 km with low-level jets near AR cores. Moreover, ARs occur mainly in the mei-yu period with a frequency of 20%–60%. The intensity of AR-related precipitation is 6–12 times that of AR-unrelated precipitation, and AR-related precipitation contributes about 50%–80% to total mei-yu precipitation. As shown in this case study of summer 2020, ARs are an essential part of the mei-yu system and have great impacts on mei-yu rainfall. Thus, ARs should receive more attention in research and weather forecast practices.     

Well-being and environmental change in the arctic: a synthesis of selected research from Canada’s International Polar Year program

The social and cultural dimensions of arctic environmental change were explored through Canada??s International Polar Year (IPY) research program. Drawing on concepts of vulnerability, resilience and human security, we discuss preliminary results of 15 IPY research projects (of 52) which dealt with the effects and responses of northern communities to issues of ecological variability, natural resource development and climate change. This paper attempts to determine whether the preliminary results of these projects have contributed to the IPY program goal of building knowledge about well-being in the arctic. The projects were diverse in focus and approach but together offer a valuable pan-northern perspective on many themes including land and resource use, food security, poverty and best practices of northern engagement. Case study research using self-reported measures suggests individual views of their own well-being differ from regional and territorial standardized statistics on quality of life. A large body of work was developed around changes in land and resource use. A decline in land and resource use in some areas and consequent concerns for food security, are directly linked to the effects of climate change, particularly in coastal areas where melting sea ice, erratic weather events and changes in the stability of landscapes (e.g., erosion, slumping) are leading to increased risks for land users. Natural resource development, while creating some new economic opportunities, may be compounding rather than offsetting such stresses of environmental change for vulnerable populations. While the IPY program has contributed to our understanding of some aspects of well-being in the arctic, many other issues of social, economic, cultural and political significance, including those unrelated to environmental change, remain poorly understood.