Tropical intraseasonal rainfall variability in the CFSR

While large-scale circulation fields from atmospheric reanalyses have been widely used to study the tropical intraseasonal variability, rainfall variations from the reanalyses are less focused. Because of the sparseness of in situ observations available in the tropics and strong coupling between convection and large-scale circulation, the accuracy of tropical rainfall from the reanalyses not only measures the quality of reanalysis rainfall but is also to some extent indicative of the accuracy of the circulations fields. This study analyzes tropical intraseasonal rainfall variability in the recently completed NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) and its comparison with the widely used NCEP/NCAR reanalysis (R1) and NCEP/DOE reanalysis (R2). The R1 produces too weak rainfall variability while the R2 generates too strong westward propagation. Compared with the R1 and R2, the CFSR produces greatly improved tropical intraseasonal rainfall variability with the dominance of eastward propagation and more realistic amplitude. An analysis of the relationship between rainfall and large-scale fields using composites based on Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) events shows that, in all three NCEP reanalyses, the moisture convergence leading the rainfall maximum is near the surface in the western Pacific but is above 925?hPa in the eastern Indian Ocean. However, the CFSR produces the strongest large-scale convergence and the rainfall from CFSR lags the column integrated precipitable water by 1 or 2?days while R1 and R2 rainfall tends to lead the respective precipitable water. Diabatic heating related to the MJO variability in the CFSR is analyzed and compared with that derived from large-scale fields. It is found that the amplitude of CFSR-produced total heating anomalies is smaller than that of the derived. Rainfall variability from the other two recently produced reanalyses, the ECMWF Re-Analysis Interim (ERAI), and the Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA), is also analyzed. It is shown that both the ERAI and MERRA generate stronger rainfall spectra than the R1 and more realistic dominance of eastward propagating variance than R2. The intraseasonal variability in the MERRA is stronger than that in the ERAI but weaker than that in the CFSR and CMORPH.     

Spectral dependence on the correction factor of erythemal UV for cloud,aerosol, total ozone,and surface properties: A modeling study

Radiative transfer model simulations were used to investigate the erythemal ultraviolet(EUV) correction factors by separating the UV-A and UV-B spectral ranges. The correction factor was defined as the ratio of EUV caused by changing the amounts and characteristics of the extinction and scattering materials. The EUV correction factors(CFEUV) for UV-A[CFEUV(A)] and UV-B [CFEUV(B)] were affected by changes in the total ozone, optical depths of aerosol and cloud, and the solar zenith angle. The differences between CFEUV(A) and CFEUV(B) were also estimated as a function of solar zenith angle, the optical depths of aerosol and cloud, and total ozone. The differences between CFEUV(A) and CFEUV(B) ranged from-5.0% to 25.0% for aerosols, and from-9.5% to 2.0% for clouds in all simulations for different solar zenith angles and optical depths of aerosol and cloud. The rate of decline of CFEUV per unit optical depth between UV-A and UV-B differed by up to 20% for the same aerosol and cloud conditions. For total ozone, the variation in CFEUV(A) was negligible compared with that in CFEUV(B) because of the effective spectral range of the ozone absorption band. In addition, the sensitivity of the CFEUVs due to changes in surface conditions(i.e., surface albedo and surface altitude) was also estimated by using the model in this study. For changes in surface albedo, the sensitivity of the CFEUVs was 2.9%–4.1% per 0.1 albedo change,depending on the amount of aerosols or clouds. For changes in surface altitude, the sensitivity of CFEUV(B) was twice that of CFEUV(A), because the Rayleigh optical depth increased significantly at shorter wavelengths.     

A preliminary study of natural environmental change and its impact on early Late Paleolithic people in the northeast central Korean Peninsula during Marine Istope Stage 3 (40–30k cal a bp)

We comprehensively analyzed sediments obtained from an archeological excavation. A trench sediment profile of Maedun Cave (MC), South Korea, was analyzed geoarchaeologically. Multi-proxy analyses (palynomorphs, grain size, magnetic susceptibility, animal bones and artifacts) reflected the vegetation, hydroclimate and lives of prehistoric people at Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (ca. 40–30k cal a bp ) in the early Late Paleolithic. The palynoflora consisted of pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs. Under the air-circulation system in the cave, anemophilous pollen flowed in during the day, whereas waterborne pollen and spores, and freshwater algae, were transported by flooding during the summer monsoon rainy season. Mixed conifer and deciduous broad-leaved forest with an understory of pteridophytes flourished around the north-east central Korean Peninsula during MIS 3. Freshwater algae and grass pollen records may reflect precipitation intensity. It is assumed that they had flowed in during flooding caused by high precipitation during the enhanced East Asian summer monsoon, corresponding to Dansgaard–Oeschger (D/O) events 5 and 8 of δ¹⁸O GISP2 and Hulu Cave. The prehistoric people hunted herbivorous animals in the area around MC and sheltered inside it seasonally. They also used the grains of oats growing near the dwelling as a source of food.