Atmospheric forcing of the eastern tropical Pacific: A review

The increase in marine, land surface, atmospheric and satellite data during recent decades has led to an improved understanding of the air–sea interaction processes in the eastern tropical Pacific. This is also thanks to extensive diagnoses from conceptual and coupled ocean–atmosphere numerical models. In this paper, mean fields of atmospheric variables, such as incoming solar radiation, sea level pressure, winds, wind stress curl, precipitation, evaporation, and surface energy fluxes, are derived from global atmospheric data sets in order to examine the dominant features of the low level atmospheric circulations of the region. The seasonal march of the atmospheric circulations is presented to depict the role of radiative forcing on atmospheric perturbations, especially those dominating the atmosphere at low levels.In the tropics, the trade winds constitute an important north–south energy and moisture exchange mechanism (as part of the low level branch of the Hadley circulation), that determines to a large extent the precipitation distribution in the region, i.e., that associated with the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Monsoonal circulations also play an important role in determining the warm season precipitation distribution over the eastern tropical Pacific through a large variety of air–sea–land interaction mechanisms. Westward traveling waves, tropical cyclones, low latitude cold air intrusions, and other synoptic and mesoscale perturbations associated with the ITCZ are also important elements that modulate the annual rainfall cycle. The low-level jets of the Gulf of California, the Intra-Americas Sea (Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea) and Chocó, Colombia are prominent features of the eastern tropical Pacific low-level circulations related to sub-regional and regional scale precipitation patterns. Observations show that the Intra-Americas Low-Level Jet intensity varies with El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phases, however its origin and role in the westward propagation and development of disturbances that may hit the eastern tropical Pacific, such as easterly waves and tropical cyclones, are still unclear. Changes in the intensity of the trade winds in the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico (associated with eastern tropical Pacific wind jets) exert an important control on precipitation by means of wind–topography interactions. Gaps in the mountains of southern Mexico and Central America allow strong wind jets to pass over the continent imprinting a unique signal in sea surface temperatures and ocean dynamics of the eastern tropical Pacific.The warm pools of the Americas constitute an important source of moisture for the North American Monsoon System. The northeastern tropical Pacific is a region of intense cyclogenetic activity, just west of the coast of Mesoamerica. Over the oceanic regions, large-scale properties of key variables such as precipitation, moisture, surface energy fluxes and wind stress curl are still uncertain, which inhibits a more comprehensive view of the region and stresses the importance of regional field experiments. Progress has been substantial in the understanding of the ocean and atmospheric dynamics of the eastern tropical Pacific, however, recent observational evidence such as that of a shallow meridional circulation cell in that region, in contrast to the classic concept of the Hadley-type deep meridional circulation, suggests that more in situ observations to validate theories are still necessary.This paper is part of a comprehensive review of the oceanography of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.     

Continental strike-slip rifts and their stratigraphic signature: application to the Bangong/Nujiang zone (Tibet) and the South Penninic zone (Alps)

Our literature studies show that the thermal regime along continental strike-slip rifts is inconspicuous and that they are "low-volcanicity rifts" at best. Along with that, young continental strike-slip rifts exhibit no signs of major thermally controlled doming. We suggest that the larger the strike-slip component of a rift is, the less likely major thermal doming is causally associated with the rift zone. Since vertical lithosphere movements are reflected in the stratigraphic record of a rifted area, different rift modes (strike-slip, dip-slip) may be distinguished by analyzing the relevant sequences. Two ancient and especially suitable strike-slip rift margins in Tethyan mountain belts, the Bangong/Nujiang zone of Tibet and the South Penninic zone of the Alps, were analyzed with regard to their uplift history. The results confirm recent regional rift models which indicate in both cases that rifting was dominated by strike-slip. The stratigraphic approach may provide significant clues as to the mode of paleorifting when structural data are unavailable.     

Organic matter of the North Atlantic

The areas that we studied in the North Atlantic (53 and 60°N) and in the Labrador Sea in the summer were characterized by a wide variability of the concentrations of dissolved and particulate organic matter and its elemental composition both in the surface and in the deep waters. The concentrations of dissolved and particulate C_org varied within 69–360 μM and 0.7–25.6 μM, respectively; the N_org and P_org contents varied within 1.4–22.2 μM and 0.02–0.86 μM, respectively. The maximal concentrations were registered in the photic layer and in the zones of mixing between the waters of different genesis. The particulate matter contribution to the total organic matter (OM) content varied from 0.5 to 15.4%. The waters of the photic layer contained more particulate C_org than those of the near-bottom layer. The values of the C/N molar ratios from the surface to the bottom over the entire aquatic area surveyed varied 5-to 6-fold; at that, the values of the C/P molar ratios varied more than tenfold. In the most productive waters, the values of the C/N ratios were close to the Redfield ratios (6–10). The values of the C/P molar ratios varied from 160 in the photic layer to 4831 in the deep waters. The pronounced non-uniformity in the spatial distribution of the OM and its elemental composition is caused not only by the penetration of the waters of different origins but also by the changes in the microplankton metabolism under mixing of these waters.     

Flow and transport modeling in the sea-breeze. Part I: A modifiedE — ∈ model with a non-equilibrium level 2.5 closure

In order to overcome shortcomings of the conventionalE — model and to develop a more general model applicable to the variety of atmospheric conditions observed, for example, during a land-sea breeze cycle, a modifiedE — model is proposed. The model is a simplified form of an algebraic stress model including wall proximity effects of Gibson and Launder (1978). The proposed model is similar to the popular Mellor and Yamada (1982) level 2.5 model but does not employ a local equilibrium assumption in the algebraic equations for Reynolds stresses. The resulting model shows a wider realization region under unstable conditions than the Mellor and Yamada model.The modified model is compared herein to observations, higher order closure simulations and large eddy simulations under neutral, stable and convective conditions. Various dissipation rate equations were employed and compared to understand their performance with the modified model. The modifiedE — model reproduced the observed behavior well under all conditions except near the base of an elevated inversion layer under convective conditions. The ability of the model to describe flow dynamics under a wide range of atmospheric stabilities suggests that the model can be used to describe the complicated diurnal behavior of the land-sea breeze circulation.     

Analysis and modelling of rainfall fields at different resolutions in southern Italy

Abstract

The spatial and temporal variability of the scaling properties and correlation structure of a data set of rainfall time series, aggregated over different temporal resolutions, and observed in 70 raingauges across the Basilicata and Calabria regions of southern Italy, is investigated. Two types of random cascade model, namely canonical and microcanonical models, were used for each raingauge and selected season. For both models, different hypotheses concerning dependency of parameters on time scale and rainfall height can be adopted. In particular, a new approach is proposed which consists of several combinations of models with a different scale dependence of parameters for different temporal resolutions. The goal is to improve the modelling of the main features of rainfall time series, especially for cases where the variability of rainfall changes irregularly with temporal aggregation. The results obtained with the new methodology showed good agreement with the observed data, in particular, for the summer months. In fact, during this season, rainfall heights aggregated at fine temporal resolutions (from 5 to 20 min) are more similar (relative to the winter season) to the values cumulated on 1 or 3 h (due to convective phenomena) and, consequently, the process of rainfall breakdown is nearly stationary for a range of finer temporal resolutions.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis; Associate editor A. Montanari     

唐代治乱分期与气候变化的关系*

将唐代定量划分为治世与乱世5个时期,探讨了唐代治乱分期与气候变化的关系。治世、乱世的划分标准参考一套系统的战争数据集,并用单因素方差分析的方法验证各项数据指标在治世与乱世间的差异性,从而说明唐代治世、乱世分期的合理性。治世、乱世分期结果如下: 公元618—626年为乱世,公元627—742年为治世,公元743—784年为乱世,公元785—859年为治世,公元860—907年为乱世。方差分析的结果显示,除了总边境战争外,气候变化、总战争、反叛战争、进攻型边境战争、防御型边境战争、农业丰歉等级和人口增长率在治世与乱世之间均表现出显著差异。用战争定量体现唐代社会治世、乱世变化,探讨气候变化与社会治、乱的关系即是探讨气候变化与战争的关系,乱世的主要战争类型是反叛战争和防御型边境战争,治世的主要战争类型是进攻型边境战争。相关分析结果表明,唐代温度降低、降水减少的时期,农业收成减少导致资源供给不足,更容易发生反叛战争;温度暖期、降水充沛的时期,农业产量提高,刺激了快速增长的人口,在技术改善能力有限、土地资源一定的情况下,更易发生以对外扩张为目的的边境战争,因此气候变化是影响唐代社会治乱变化的重要原因之一。     

Using existing data to estimate aquifer properties, Great Lakes Region, USA

To determine specific storage and porosity, areally limited and time-consuming aquifer tests are frequently done. Hydrogeologic studies often do not have the resources to collect such data and rely on existing data sources for aquifer properties. An alternative tool for determining these aquifer properties is the analysis of earth tides. The objective of this study was to determine whether existing water-level and barometric-pressure data could be used to determine aquifer properties, such as porosity and specific storage, on a regional scale. In this study, national databases from the Great Lakes Region were queried for continuous records of groundwater-level and barometric-pressure data. Records from 37 selected wells were then analyzed for barometric efficiency and earth-tide responses. Specific-storage (S(s) ) and porosity values were determined, and the quality of the results were assessed with a measure of the "goodness of fit" (percent variance) of reconstruction of the response. Records from wells completed in several aquifer systems were analyzed with varying degrees of success. Aquifer S(s) values ranging from 5.9 × 10(-8) to 3.8 × 10(-6) /m were derived, with percent variance of reconstruction ranging from 1% to 78%. Comparisons with aquifer and laboratory testing of S(s) and porosity are favorable if the percent variance of reconstruction is above about 30%. Although the earth-tide-analysis method is not suitable for every situation, the S(s) and porosity of aquifers can, in many places, be estimated with existing water-level and barometric-pressure data or with data that are relatively inexpensive to collect.     

Exposure history of the Torino meteorite

Abstract— We determined He, Ne, Ar, ¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al, ³⁶Cl, and ¹⁴C concentrations, as well as cosmic-ray track densities and halogen concentrations in different specimens of the H6 chondrite Torino, in order to constrain its exposure history to cosmic radiation. The Torino meteoroid had a radius of ～20 cm and travelled in interplanetary space for 2.5–10 Ma. Earlier, Torino was part of a larger body. The smallest possible precursor had a radius of 55 cm and a journey through space longer than ～65 Ma. If the first-stage exposure took place in a body with a radius of >3 m or in the parent asteroid, then it lasted nearly 300 Ma. The example of Torino shows that it is easy to underestimate first-stage exposure ages when constructing two-stage histories.     

A degradation approach to accelerate simulations to steady-state in a 3-D tracer transport model of the global ocean

 We have developed a new method to accelerate tracer simulations to steady-state in a 3-D global ocean model, run off-line. Using this technique, our simulations for natural ¹⁴C ran 17 times faster when compared to those made with the standard non-accelerated approach. For maximum acceleration we wish to initialize the model with tracer fields that are as close as possible to the final equilibrium solution. Our initial tracer fields were derived by judiciously constructing a much faster, lower-resolution (degraded), off-line model from advective and turbulent fields predicted from the parent on-line model, an ocean general circulation model (OGCM). No on-line version of the degraded model exists; it is based entirely on results from the parent OGCM. Degradation was made horizontally over sets of four adjacent grid-cell squares for each vertical layer of the parent model. However, final resolution did not suffer because as a second step, after allowing the degraded model to reach equilibrium, we used its tracer output to re-initialize the parent model (at the original resolution). After re-initialization, the parent model must then be integrated only to a few hundred years before reaching equilibrium. To validate our degradation-integration technique (DEGINT), we compared ¹⁴C results from runs with and without this approach. Differences are less than 10‰ throughout 98.5% of the ocean volume. Predicted natural ¹⁴C appears reasonable over most of the ocean. In the Atlantic, modeled Δ¹⁴C indicates that as observed, the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) fills the deep North Atlantic, and Antartic Intermediate Water (AAIW) infiltrates northward; conversely, simulated Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) does not penetrate northward beyond the equator as it should. In the Pacific, in surface eastern equatorial waters, the model produces a north–south assymetry similar to that observed; other global ocean models do not, because their resolution is inadequate to resolve equatorial dynamics properly, particularly the intense equatorial undercurrent. The model’s oldest water in the deep Pacific (at −239‰) is close to that observed (−248‰), but is too deep. Surface waters in the Southern Ocean are too rich in natural ¹⁴C due to inadequacies in the OGCM’s thermohaline forcing. Received: 18 March 1997 / Accepted: 27 July 1997