Micrometeorological Observations of a Microburst in Southern Finland

On the afternoon of 3 July 2004 in Hyytiälä (Juupajoki, Finland), convective cells produced a strong downburst causing forest damage. The SMEAR II field station, situated near the damage site, enabled a unique micrometeorological analysis of a microburst with differences above and inside the canopy. At the time of the event, a squall line associated with a cold front was crossing Hyytiälä with a reflectivity maximum in the middle of the squall line. A bow echo, rear-inflow notch, and probable mesovortex were observed in radar data. The bow echo moved west-north-west, and its apex travelled just north of Hyytiälä. The turbulence data were analysed at two locations above the forest canopy and at one location at sub-canopy. At 1412 EET (Eastern European Time, UTC+2), the horizontal and vertical wind speed increased and the wind veered, reflecting the arrival of a gust front. At the same time, the carbon dioxide concentration increased due to turbulent mixing, the temperature decreased due to cold air flow from aloft and aerosol particle concentration decreased due to rain scavenging. An increase in the number concentration of ultra-fine particles (< 10 nm) was detected, supporting the new particle formation either from cloud outflow or due to rain. Five minutes after the gust front (1417 EET), strong horizontal and downward vertical wind speed gusts occurred with maxima of 22 and 15 m s^?1, respectively, reflecting the microburst. The turbulence spectra before, during and after the event were consistent with traditional turbulence spectral theory.     

Aspects of the Fine-Scale Climatology Over Lake Tanganyika as Resolved by a Mesoscale Model

Summary  An hourly averaged climatology at 0.05 ° horizontal resolution over the Lake Tanganyika region was created by making simulations with a mesoscale model (HIRLAM) using a high resolution physiography to represent the surface. Initial and boundary values were interpolated from ECMWF analyses. Climatologies for a typical dry season month (July 1994) and wet season month (March 1994) were created by 7-day segmenting. Model results were validated by utilizing a special coastal observation network. A number of experiments were made with changes to the physiography (mountains/no mountains, lake/no lake). The results reveal local channelling and blocking effects of the near-surface southeasterly trade winds by the high mountain chains in the region of the East African rift. Furthermore, surface winds display regular diurnal cycles in many places, due to slope winds over hills and lake-land-type breezes near the coast. The diurnal coastal winds (defined by the observation network) are reasonably well simulated. Precipitation patterns display the semi-annual march of the ITCZ across the area, plus considerable topographic effects. There is high evaporation from lakes and wetlands during the windy dry season, while evaporation from the moist land surface dominates the rainy season. Received October 15, 1998/Revised September 2, 1999     

High resolution regional climate model simulations for Germany: Part II—projected climate changes

The projected climate change signals of a five-member high resolution ensemble, based on two global climate models (GCMs: ECHAM5 and CCCma3) and two regional climate models (RCMs: CLM and WRF) are analysed in this paper (Part II of a two part paper). In Part I the performance of the models for the control period are presented. The RCMs use a two nest procedure over Europe and Germany with a final spatial resolution of 7 km to downscale the GCM simulations for the present (1971–2000) and future A1B scenario (2021–2050) time periods. The ensemble was extended by earlier simulations with the RCM REMO (driven by ECHAM5, two realisations) at a slightly coarser resolution. The climate change signals are evaluated and tested for significance for mean values and the seasonal cycles of temperature and precipitation, as well as for the intensity distribution of precipitation and the numbers of dry days and dry periods. All GCMs project a significant warming over Europe on seasonal and annual scales and the projected warming of the GCMs is retained in both nests of the RCMs, however, with added small variations. The mean warming over Germany of all ensemble members for the fine nest is in the range of 0.8 and 1.3 K with an average of 1.1 K. For mean annual precipitation the climate change signal varies in the range of ?2 to 9 % over Germany within the ensemble. Changes in the number of wet days are projected in the range of ±4 % on the annual scale for the future time period. For the probability distribution of precipitation intensity, a decrease of lower intensities and an increase of moderate and higher intensities is projected by most ensemble members. For the mean values, the results indicate that the projected temperature change signal is caused mainly by the GCM and its initial condition (realisation), with little impact from the RCM. For precipitation, in addition, the RCM affects the climate change signal significantly.     

Particle size distribution and dissolution properties of metals in cyclone fly ash

The particles in the examined cyclone fly ash were all smaller than 0.25 mm. in diameter, and particles smaller than 0.075 mm. in diameter accounted for 88.4 % of the ash weight. This result indicates that cyclone fly ash consists of particles with a small diameter. The metals in the cyclone fly ash were enriched in small particles. The highest concentrations for zinc, copper, lead, cadmium and molybdenum in the cyclone fly ash were found in the smallest particle size fraction (< 0.075 mm.) and for Barium, chromium, nickel, Vanadium and Cobalt in the second to smallest particle size fraction (0.075-0.125 mm.). From an environmental and toxicological standpoint, the smallest particles are of the greatest concern when ash is handed at landfill disposal sites (transport and disposal especially in stormy weather conditions), and some studies have reported risks to workers from prolonged exposure to ash. The results of the comparison of various dissolution methods for metals showed that the digestion procedures with nitric acid alone (USEPA 3051) or with a mixture of nitric acid + hydrogen peroxide (USEPA 3050B) slightly underestimated the metal concentrations in the cyclone fly ash. Although the use of hydrofluoric acid is often necessary for the determination of a number of elements associated with siliceous minerals, its use can result in loss of trace elements during dissolution.     

Climate and Water: From Climate Models to Water Resources Management and Vice Versa

This article reviews the recent developments in the functional chain from climate models to climate scenarios, through hydrology all the way to water resources management, design and policy making. Although climate models, such as Global Circulation Models (GCMs) continue to evolve, their outputs remain crude and often even inappropriate to watershed-scale hydrological analyses. The bridging techniques are evolving, though. Many families of regionalization technologies are under progress in parallel. Perhaps the most important advances are in the field of regional weather patterns, such as ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation), NAO (North Atlantic Oscillation) and many more. The gap from hydrology to water resources development is by far not that wide. The traditional and contemporary practices are well in place. In climate change studies, the bottleneck is not in this link itself but in the climatic input. The tendency seems to be towards integrated water resources assessments, where climate is only one among many changes that are expected to occur, such as demography, land cover and land use, economy, technologies, and so forth. In such a pragmatic setting a risk–analytic interpretation of those scenarios is often called for. The above-outlined continuum from climate to water is a topic where the physically based modelers, the empiricists and the pragmatists should not get restricted to their own way of thinking. The issues should develop hand in hand. Perhaps the greatest challenge is to incorporate and respect the pragmatic policy-related component to the two other branches. For this purpose, it is helpful to reverse the direction of thinking from time to time to start—instead of climate models—from practical needs and think how the climate scenarios and models help really in the difficult task of designing better water structures, outline better policies and formulate better operational rules in the water field.     

Regional climate modelling over complex terrain: an evaluation study of COSMO-CLM hindcast model runs for the Greater Alpine Region

In this study the results of the regional climate model COSMO-CLM (CCLM) covering the Greater Alpine Region (GAR, 4°–19°W and 43°–49°N) were evaluated against observational data. The simulation was carried out as a hindcast run driven by ERA-40 reanalysis data for the period 1961–2000. The spatial resolution of the model data presented is approx. 10 km per grid point. For the evaluation purposes a variety of observational datasets were used: CRU TS 2.1, E-OBS, GPCC4 and HISTALP. Simple statistics such as mean biases, correlations, trends and annual cycles of temperature and precipitation for different sub-regions were applied to verify the model performance. Furthermore, the altitude dependence of these statistical measures has been taken into account. Compared to the CRU and E-OBS datasets CCLM shows an annual mean cold bias of ?0.6 and ?0.7 °C, respectively. Seasonal precipitation sums are generally overestimated by +8 to +23 % depending on the observational dataset with large variations in space and season. Bias and correlation show a dependency on altitude especially in the winter and summer seasons. Temperature trends in CCLM contradict the signals from observations, showing negative trends in summer and autumn which are in contrast to CRU and E-OBS.     

Review of numerical methods for nonhydrostatic weather prediction models

Summary ?Currently available computer power allows to run operational numerical weather prediction models at resolutions higher than 10 km. The aim of such high resolution modeling is the prediction of local weather, including orographically induced winds and local precipitation patterns. In this range the hydrostatic approximation is no longer valid and nonhydrostatic models have to be used instead. For several decades these models have been developed for research purposes only, but operational application is now reality. In this paper, the numerical methods used in current nonhydrostatic forecast models will be reviewed and some promising techniques in this field will be discussed. Special attention is given to aspects such as the choice of the vertical coordinate, the efficiency of algebraic solvers for semi-implicit time discretizations, and accurate and non-oscillatory advection schemes. Received July 6, 2001; revision October 12, 2001     

Parameterization of Ozone Photolysis Frequency in the Lower Troposphere Using Data from Photodiode Array Detector Spectrometers

Spectroradiometers using photodiode array detectors (PDAs) are increasingly applied for airborne and ground-based atmospheric measurements of spectral actinic flux densities due to their high time resolution (less than one second). However they have limited sensitivity of ultraviolet (UV) radiation for wavelengths less than about 305 nm. This results in uncertainties of ozone photolysis frequencies derived from spectral actinic flux density measurements using PDA spectrometers. To overcome this limitation a parameterization method is introduced which extrapolates the data towards the wavelength range of limited sensitivity of the PDA spectrometers (less than about 305 nm). The parameterization is based on radiative transfer simulations and is valid for measurements in the lower troposphere. The components of the suggested parameterization are the lower threshold wavelength of the PDA spectrometer, the slant ozone column (ratio of the total ozone column and the cosine of the solar zenith angle), and the ambient temperature. Tests of the parameterization with simulated actinic flux density spectra have revealed an uncertainty of the derived ozone photolysis frequency of ±5%. Field comparisons of the parameterization results with independent measurements of the ozone photolysis frequency were within ±10% for solar zenith angles less than 70^∘. Finally the parameterization was applied to airborne measurements to emphasize the advantage of high time resolution of PDA spectrometers to study ozone photolysis frequency fields in inhomogeneous cloud condtitions.     

COSMO-CLM2: a new version of the COSMO-CLM model coupled to the Community Land Model

This study presents an evaluation of a new biosphere-atmosphere Regional Climate Model. COSMO-CLM² results from the coupling between the non-hydrostatic atmospheric model COSMO-CLM version 4.0 and the Community Land Model version 3.5 (CLM3.5). In this coupling, CLM3.5 replaces a simpler land surface parameterization (TERRA_ML) used in the standard COSMO-CLM. Compared to TERRA_ML, CLM3.5 comprises a more complete representation of land surface processes including hydrology, biogeophysics, biogeochemistry and vegetation dynamics. Historical climate simulations over Europe with COSMO-CLM and with the new COSMO-CLM² are evaluated against various data products. The simulated climate is found to be substantially affected by the coupling with CLM3.5, particularly in summer. Radiation fluxes as well as turbulent fluxes at the surface are found to be more realistically represented in COSMO-CLM². This subsequently leads to improvements of several aspects of the simulated climate (cloud cover, surface temperature and precipitation). We show that a better partitioning of turbulent fluxes is the central factor allowing for the better performances of COSMO-CLM² over COSMO-CLM. Despite these improvements, some model deficiencies still remain, most notably a substantial underestimation of surface net shortwave radiation. Overall, these results highlight the importance of land surface processes in shaping the European climate and the benefit of using an advanced land surface model for regional climate simulations.     

A Common Reference Material for Cadmium Isotope Studies – NIST SRM 3108

Research into natural mass‐dependent stable isotope fractionation of cadmium has rapidly expanded in the past few years. Methodologies are diverse with MC‐ICP‐MS favoured by all but one laboratory, which uses thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (TIMS). To quantify the isotope fractionation and correct for instrumental mass bias, double‐spike techniques, sample‐calibrator bracketing or element doping has been used. However, easy comparison between data sets has been hampered by the multitude of in‐house Cd solutions used as zero‐delta reference in different laboratories. The lack of a suitable isotopic reference material for Cd is detrimental for progress in the long term. We have conducted a comprehensive round‐robin assay of NIST SRM 3108 and the Cd isotope offsets to commonly used in‐house reference materials. Here, we advocate NIST SRM 3108 both as an isotope standard and the isotopic reference point for Cd and encourage its use as ‘zero‐delta’ in future studies. The purity of NIST SRM 3108 was evaluated regarding isobaric and polyatomic molecular interferences, and the levels of Zn, Pd and Sn found were not significant. The isotope ratio ¹¹⁴Cd/¹¹⁰Cd for NIST SRM 3108 lies within ～ 10 ppm Da^?1 of best estimates for the Bulk Silicate Earth and is validated for all measurement technologies currently in use.