How are large western hemisphere warm pools formed?

During the boreal summer the Western Hemisphere warm pool (WHWP) stretches from the eastern North Pacific to the tropical North Atlantic and is a key feature of the climate of the Americas and Africa. In the summers following nine El Niño events during 1950–2000, there have been five instances of extraordinarily large warm pools averaging about twice the climatological annual size. These large warm pools have induced a strengthened divergent circulation aloft and have been associated with rainfall anomalies throughout the western hemisphere tropics and subtropics and with more frequent hurricanes. However, following four other El Niño events large warm pools did not develop, such that the mere existence of El Niño during the boreal winter does not provide the basis for predicting an anomalously large warm pool the following summer.In this paper, we find consistency with the hypothesis that large warm pools result from an anomalous divergent circulation forced by sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies in the Pacific, the so-called atmospheric bridge. We also find significant explanations for why large warm pools do not always develop. If the El Niño event ends early in the eastern Pacific, the Pacific warm anomaly lacks the persistence needed to force the atmospheric bridge and the Atlantic portion of the warm pool remains normal. If SST anomalies in the eastern Pacific do not last much beyond February of the following year, then the eastern North Pacific portion of the warm pool remains normal. The overall strength of the Pacific El Niño does not appear to be a critical factor. We also find that when conditions favor a developing atmospheric bridge and the winter atmosphere over the North Atlantic conforms to a negative North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) pattern (as in 1957–58 and 1968–69), the forcing is reinforced and the warm pool is stronger. On the other hand, if a positive NAO pattern develops the warm pool may remain normal even if other circumstances favor the atmospheric bridge, as in 1991–92. Finally, we could find little evidence that interactions internal to the tropical Atlantic are likely to mitigate for or against the formation of the largest warm pools, although they may affect smaller warm pool fluctuations or the warm pool persistence.     

Compression of the North Hemisphere derived from space geodesy

Introduction With the development of global tectonics and overall detections for global tectonics with multi-geophysical methods, ones can roundly study on the geological tectonics of sampling and magnetic stripe image, so as to summarize and interpret the geometrical and kinematical charac-teristics for the distribution of the ocean and the land, and spreading state of the global tectonics in a global scale. From a comprehensive view, the South and North hemispheres are clearly unsym-metrical…     

Comparison of Brewer spectrophotometer ultraviolet data from similar latitudes in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere

This paper presents UV data recorded over 12 months in 2000/2001 at a southern hemisphere (Toowoomba) and similar latitude northern hemisphere (BigBend and Everglades) sites using Brewer Spectrophotometers. The peak daily erythemally weighted UV (DUV) at the Toowoomba site was 8.8% and 25% higher compared to that at the BigBend and Everglades sites, respectively. The Everglades site exposures are lower than the BigBend site exposures in summer and spring. This may be due to the higher cloud cover for the Everglades site. The summer DUV values between Toowoomba and BigBend are similar. In spring, the average DUV value is the greatest at BigBend compared to the other two sites. Results indicate that variability between the measurement sites is due to varying cloud and ozone, and possibly due to aerosol and airmass differences of each region. Of these different site-specific local atmospheric conditions, cloud was the main contributor to the differences in UV between the sites.     

A comparative analysis of the NDVIg and NDVI3g in monitoring vegetation phenology changes in the Northern Hemisphere

Phenology is a sensitive and critical feature of vegetation and is a good indicator for climate change studies. The global inventory modelling and mapping studies (GIMMS) normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) has been the most widely used data source for monitoring of the vegetation dynamics over large geographical areas in the past two decades. With the release of the third version of the NDVI (GIMMS NDVI3g) recently, it is important to compare the NDVI3g data with those of the previous version (NDVIg) to link existing studies with future applications of the NDVI3g in monitoring vegetation phenology. In this study, the three most popular satellite start of vegetation growing season (SOS) extraction methods were used, and the differences between SOSg and SOS3g arising from the methods were explored. The amplitude and the peak values of the NDVI3g are higher than those of the NDVIg curve, which indicated that the SOS derived from the NDVIg (SOSg) was significantly later than that derived from the NDVI3g (SOS3g) based on all the methods, for the whole northern hemisphere. In addition, SOSg and SOS3g both showed an advancing trend during 1982–2006, but that trend was more significant with SOSg than with SOS3g in the results from all three methods. In summary, the difference between SOSg and SOS3g (in the multi-year mean SOS, SOS change slope and the turning point in the time series) varied among the methods and was partly related to latitude. For the multi-year mean SOS, the difference increased with latitude intervals in the low latitudes (0–30°N) and decreased in the mid- and high-latitude intervals. The GIMMS NDVI3g data-sets seemed more sensitive than the GIMMS NDVIg in detecting information about the ground, and the SOS3g data were better correlated both with the in situ observations and the SOS derived from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer NDVI. For the northern hemisphere, previous satellite measures (SOS derived from GIMMS NDVIg) may have overestimated the advancing trend of the SOS by an average of 0.032 d yr^–1.     

南大洋混合层的时空变化特征

过去对南大洋的研究受限于长期观测的缺乏,而现在地转海洋学实时观测阵(Arrayfor Real-timeGeostrophicOceanography,Argo)项目自开始以来持续提供了高质量的温度盐度观测,使系统地研究南大洋海洋上层结构成为可能。本研究使用2000—2018年的Argo浮标观测数据,分析了南大洋混合层深度(Mixed Layer Depth, MLD)的时空分布特征。结果表明:南大洋混合层存在明显的季节变化,冬春两季MLD在副南极锋面北侧达到最高值并呈带状分布,夏秋两季由于海表加热导致混合层变浅,季节变化幅度达到400m以上;在年际尺度上,MLD受南半球环状模(Southern HemisphereAnnularMode,SAM)调制,呈现纬向不对称空间分布特征,这与前人结果一致;本文指出在所研究时段,南大洋混合层在90°E以东,180°以西有加深趋势,而在60°W以西,180°以东有变浅趋势,显示出偶极子分布特征,并且这种趋势特征主要是风场的作用。     

南极涛动异常及其对冬春季北半球大气环流影响的数值模拟试验

利用IAP9L-AGCM模式考察了模式中与南极涛动异常相关的海温敏感区,发现南半球高纬海温异常能够强迫出南极涛动异常,而赤道东太平洋海温异常与太平洋南美型密切相关.研究了南极涛动异常对冬春季北半球大气环流及亚洲北部气温的影响,结果表明,南极涛动加强,能够引起北半球高纬环流异常和欧亚西风加强,以及亚洲北部地表气温和850 hPa气温显著增温.数值模拟支持了已有的诊断结果,也证实了冬春季节南极涛动异常下两半球高纬间的经向遥相关存在.     

Radar observations of prevailing winds and waves in the Southern Hemisphere mesosphere and lower thermosphere

HF radar stations (utilizing the spaced-antenna partial-reflection technique) located at Adelaide (35°S, 138°E) and Mawson Station (67°S, 63°E) have observed horizontal mesospheric winds continuously since mid-1984. Observations in the period 1984–87 are compared with the Northern Hemisphere [latitude conjugate] stations of Kyoto (35°N, 136°E) and Poker Flat (65°N, 147°W), and with satellite-derived circulation models. Particular reference is made to the equinoctial changeovers in zonal flow and to the temporal and altitude variations in the planetary wave activity at Mawson and Adelaide.     

1993年北半球环流特征及其对我国天气气候的影响

１９９３年北半球主要环流特征表现为：５００ｈＰａ副产持续加强西伸，位置偏南；亚洲中纬度春，夏经向环流发展，东亚太平洋遥相关型稳定；西藏高原５００ｈＰａ位势高度持续偏高，印缅槽持续偏弱；１００ｈＰａ位势高度场低纬持续偏高，中，高纬持续偏低，夏季南亚高压位置异常偏高。热带海洋出现明显异常，一次新的厄尔尼诺现象发生。热带海洋和北半球大气环流的异常对我国天气气候产生明显影响。     

北半球阻塞高压的维持Ⅱ:瞬变扰动强迫和平均流位涡平流的形成

着重探讨大西洋阻高和东亚阻高个例中瞬变扰动位涡（涡度）输送强迫和太平洋阻高中平均流位涡平流的形成机理。结果表明，扰动在阻高西南部西风分流区因形变而产生的扰动拟能向更小尺度串级过程，并不是扰动位涡输送强迫形成的必要机理。扰－流相互作用在阻高西（北）部非分流气流中也十分显著。数值试验表明，这一相互作用也可能是扰动强迫作用形成的机理。而青藏高原和附近海陆对比的强迫作用则可能是太平洋阻高中平均流的位涡平流形成的重要因素。对比分析表明，阻高维持机制的地域性差别可能与其上游（如青藏高原地区、落基山脉）地形和热源强迫作用不同有关。