Precessional forcing of tropical vegetation carbon storage

Since the Mid Pleistocene Revolution, which occurred about one million years ago, global temperatures have fluctuated with a quasi‐periodicity of ca. 100 ka. The pattern of past change in the extent of woodlands, and therefore by inference vegetation carbon storage, has been demonstrated to have a strong positive link with this global temperature change at high and mid latitudes. However, understanding of climate systems and ecosystem function indicates that the pattern of woodland change at low latitudes may follow a fundamentally different pattern. We present output from the intermediate complexity model GENIE‐1, comprising a single transient simulation over the last 800 ka and a 174‐member ensemble of 130 ka transient simulations over the last glacial cycle. These simulations suggest that while vegetation carbon storage in mid–high northern latitudes robustly follows the characteristic ca. 100 ka cycle, this signal is not a robust feature of tropical vegetation, which is subject to stronger direct forcing by the precessional (21 ka) orbital cycle (albeit with a highly uncertain response). We conclude that the correlation of palaeoenvironmental records from low latitudes with global temperature change must be done with caution. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An examination of snow redistribution over smooth land‐fast sea ice

An understanding of temporal evolution of snow on sea ice at different spatial scales is essential for improvement of snow parameterization in sea ice models. One of the problems we face, however, is that long‐term climate data are routinely available for land and not for sea ice. In this paper, we examine the temporal evolution of snow over smooth land‐fast first‐year sea ice using observational and modelled data. Changes in probability density functions indicate that depositional and drifting events control the evolution of snow distribution. Geostatistical analysis suggests that snowdrifts increased over the study period, and the orientation was related to the meteorological conditions. At the microscale, the temporal evolution of the snowdrifts was a product of infilling in the valleys between drifts. Results using two shore‐based climate reporting stations (Paulatuk and Tuktoyuktuk, NWT) suggest that on‐ice air temperature and relative humidity can be estimated using air temperature recorded at either station. Wind speed, direction and precipitation on ice cannot be accurately estimated using meteorological data from either station. The temporal evolution of snow distribution over smooth land‐fast sea ice was modelled using SnowModel and four different forcing regimes. The results from these model runs indicate a lack of agreement between observed distribution and model outputs. The reasons for these results are lack of meteorological measurements prior to the end of January, lack of spatially adequate surface topography and discrepancies between meteorological variables on land and ice. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

一种准确通用的台风路径预报模式

应用天气学理论,对台风云图的晴空区轴线制约台风移动的规律进行物理解释。根据台风云团与晴空区之间存在的干、湿梯度力和推动台风前进的惯性力的互相关系,建立台风移向预报方程和轨迹预报方程,分析论证了台风移向变化的物理过程,把影响台风移动的复杂因子转化为单一的预报因子。     

A real-time, event-triggered storm surge forecasting system for the state of North Carolina

A new real-time, event-triggered storm surge prediction system has been developed for the State of North Carolina to assist emergency managers, policy-makers and other government officials with evacuation planning, decision-making and resource deployment during tropical storm landfall and flood inundation events. The North Carolina Forecast System (NCFS) was designed and built to provide a rapid response assessment of hurricane threat, accomplished by driving a high-resolution, two-dimensional, depth-integrated version of the ADCIRC (Advanced Circulation) coastal ocean model with winds from a synthetic asymmetric gradient wind vortex. These parametric winds, calculated at exact finite-element mesh node locations and directly coupled to the ocean model at every time step, are generated from National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast advisories the moment they are inserted into the real-time weather data stream, maximizing the number of hours of forecast utility. Tidal harmonic constituents are prescribed at the open water boundaries and applied as tidal potentials in the interior of the ocean model domain. A directional surface roughness parameterization that modulates the wind speed at a given location based on the types of land cover encountered upwind, a forest canopy sheltering effect, and a spatially varying distribution of Manning’s–n friction coefficient used for computing the bottom/channel bed friction are also included in the storm surge model. Comparisons of the simulated wind speeds and phases against their real meteorological counterparts, of model elevations against actual sea surface elevations measured by NOAA tide gauges along the NC coast, and of simulated depth-averaged current velocities against Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) data, indicate that this new system produces remarkably realistic predictions of winds and storm surge.     

Coral assemblages and reef growth in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (Western Pacific Ocean)

Reef development varies considerably around the high, raised‐limestone islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). Here we examine the modern assemblages at 30 sites for coral composition, colony density, colony size, and fidelity. We defined four reef types and hypothesize the presence of environmentally driven ecological stasis, whereby the environment continuously selects for coral species membership, defines colony sizes, and over time creates the noted reef types. Our results show that constructional spur‐and‐groove reefs supported significantly larger coral‐colony sizes and higher coral species richness compared with high‐relief interstitial framework, low‐relief incipient, and non‐constructional coral assemblages. Non‐constructional reefs supported much smaller coral colony sizes, despite similar population densities, and were consistently found in association with high wave exposure. The distinct coral assemblages found on interstitial framework and low‐relief incipient reefs were not affiliated with any wave exposure regime, but were located adjacent to large watersheds and on islands with unique geological history. These assemblages were nested within the spur‐and‐groove species pool. Overall, modern coral cover was well predicted by bathymetric slope and watershed size, while species richness was additively influenced by two proxies of pollution, suggesting the latter is better suited for establishing management targets. In contrast with previous studies that suggested modern assemblages were biologically controlled in the CNMI, we show reef assemblages and reef development are highly influenced by long‐term environmental forcing.     

塔里木盆地东北缘一次强对流天气过程中的阵风锋特征研究

利用地面自动站逐小时观测、多普勒天气雷达及WRF模式高分辨率数值模拟,分析2016年7月塔里木盆地东北缘一次强对流天气过程中的阵风锋特征。结果表明,阵风锋前沿较强的辐合抬升运动不断触发多个对流单体,其中大部分单体与其后方的对流系统合并且进一步发展,使得强对流天气不断发展和维持。在对流系统快速发展阶段,阵风锋前沿水平风的垂直切变造成湿位涡的斜压分量显著增强,从而增强局地的条件对称不稳定,为对流系统的发展和维持提供了重要的不稳定能量。不稳定能量释放需要的锋生强迫作用主要是由阵风锋前方的辐合辐散项和倾斜项决定,而阵风锋前沿附近的水平形变项及其上方的非绝热加热项提供相对较弱的贡献。     

Paleoclimate studies and natural-resource management in the Murray-Darling Basin I: past,present and future climates

This paper provides an incisive review of paleoclimate science and its relevance to natural-resource management within the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). The drought of 1997–2010 focussed scientific, public and media attention on intrinsic climate variability and the confounding effect of human activity, especially in terms of water-resource management. Many policy and research reviews make statements about future planning with little consideration of climate change and without useful actionable knowledge. In order to understand future climate changes, modellers need, and demand, better paleoclimate data to constrain their model projections. Here, we present an insight into a number of existing long-term paleoclimate studies relevant to the MDB. Past records of climate, in response to orbital forcing (glacial–interglacial cycles) are found within, and immediately outside, the MDB. High-resolution temperature records, spanning the last 10⁵ years, exist from floodplains and cave speleothems, as well as evidence from lakes and their associated lunettes. More recently, historical climate records show major changes in relation to El Niño–Southern Oscillation cycles and decadal shifts in rainfall regimes. A considerable body of research currently exists on the past climates of southeastern Australia but, this has not been collated and validated over large spatial scales. It is clear that a number of knowledge gaps still exist, and there is a pressing need for the establishment of new paleoclimatic research within the MDB catchment and within adjacent, sensitive catchments if past climate science is to fulfil its potential to provide policy-relevant information to natural-resource management into the future.     

Can Eddy Forcing be Responsible for the Spatial Structure of the Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode?

In order to study the origin of the spatial structure of the Northern Hemisphere Annular Mode (NAM),a linear stochastic model is constructed empirically from the output of a GCM run.Optimal stochastic forcing in terms of the maximum variance contribution,which may be potentially related to the maintenance of the NAM,is investigated.Theoretical analysis on the dominant non-modal response to the stochastic forcing shows that this dominance is jointly decided by the properties of forcing and the non-modal grow...     

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENT OF THE INFLUENCES OF HEAT AND WIND STRESS ON THE EQUATORIAL OCEAN CIRCULATION*

A time-dependent linear model on the equatorial beta plane is developed in this paper.Its vertical structure consists of two active layers with equal density and temperature above the thermocline and a quasi-stationary layer with constant density below the thermocline.The results of nurnericat experiments show that the direct influence of heat on the equatorial ocean is much smaller than that of wind stress.Nevertheless,through the tropical ocean-atmosphere interaction,the change of wind stress resulting from the thermal forcing may set a determinant effect on the equilibrium and anomalous development of the ocean-almosphere circulation.     

NUMERICAL EXPERIMENT OF THE INFLUENCES OF HEAT AND WIND STRESS ON THE EQUATORIAL OCEAN CIRCULATION

A time-dependent linear model on the equatorial beta plane is developed in this paper.Its verticalstructure consists of two active layers with equal density and temperature above the thermocline and aquasi-stationary layer with constant density below the thermocline.The results of nurnericat experiments show that the direct influence of heat on the equatorial ocean ismuch smaller than that of wind stress.Nevertheless,through the tropical ocean-atmosphere interaction,the change of wind stress resulting from the thermal forcing may set a determinant effect on the equilibriumand anomalous development of the ocean-almosphere circulation.