Climatological distribution of lightning density observed by satellites in China and its circumjacent regions

The 0.5°×0.5°grid resolution distribution of lightning density in China and its circumjacent regions have been analyzed by using the satellite-borne OTD (Apr 1995-Mar 2000) and LIS (Dec 1997-Mar 2003) databases. It is shown that: (i) Firstly, the variability of the lightning density (LD) is particularly pronounced over the different subareas, 9 times greater over the south than the north side of Himalayas Mountains, 2.5 times greater over the eastern than the western area of China. While the maximum and minimum LD are respectively 31.4fl/km2/a (in Guangzhou region) and less than 0.2fl/km2/a (in the desert of western China). Secondly, the LD of China's continent regularly varies with latitude and distance off coast, which is consistent with annual mean precipitation in varying trend. In conclusion, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the China's three-step staircase topography and the latitude are three important factors affecting macro-scale characteristics of the LD distribution, (ii) The regional differences     

The effect of transient eddy on interannual meridional displacement of summer East Asian subtropical jet

Using ERA-40 reanalysis daily data for the period 1958-2002,this study investigated the effect of transient eddy(TE) on the interannual meridional displacement of summer East Asian subtropical jet(EASJ) by conducting a detailed dynamical diagnosis.The summer EASJ axis features a significant interannual coherent meridional displacement.Associated with such a meridional displacement,the TE vorticity forcing anomalies are characterized by a meridional dipole pattern asymmetric about the climatological EASJ axis.The TE vorticity forcing anomalies yield barotropic zonal wind tendencies with a phase meridionally leading the zonal wind anomalies,suggesting that they act to reinforce further meridional displacement of the EASJ and favor a positive feedback in the TE and time-mean flow interaction.However,The TE thermal forcing anomalies induce baroclinic zonal wind tendencies that reduce the vertical shear of zonal wind and atmospheric baroclinicity and eventually suppress the TE activity,favoring a negative feedback in the TE and time-mean flow interaction.Although the two types of TE forcing tend to have opposite feedback roles,the TE vorticity forcing appears to be dominant in the TE effect on the time-mean flow.     

Model Analysis of the Anthropogenic Aerosol Effect on Clouds over East Asia

A coupled meteorology and aerosol/chemistry model WRF-Chem(Weather Research and Forecast model coupled with Chemistry) was used to conduct a pair of simulations with present-day(PD) and preindustrial(PI) emissions over East Asia to examine the aerosol indirect effect on clouds.As a result of an increase in aerosols in January,the cloud droplet number increased by 650 cm-3 over the ocean and East China,400 cm-3 over Central and Southwest China,and less than 200 cm-3 over North China.The cloud liquid water path(LWP) increased by 40-60 g m-2 over the ocean and Southeast China and 30 g m-2 over Central China;the LWP increased less than 5 g m-2 or decreased by 5 g m-2 over North China.The effective radius(Re) decreased by more than 4 μm over Southwest,Central,and Southeast China and 2μm over North China.In July,variations in cloud properties were more uniform;the cloud droplet number increased by approximately 250-400 cm-3,the LWP increased by approximately 30-50 g m-2,and Re decreased by approximately 3 ?m over most regions of China.In response to cloud property changes from PI to PD,shortwave(SW) cloud radiative forcing strengthened by 30 W m-2 over the ocean and 10 W m-2 over Southeast China,and it weakened slightly by approximately 2-10 W m-2 over Central and Southwest China in January.In July,SW cloud radiative forcing strengthened by 15 W m-2 over Southeast and North China and weakened by 10 W m-2 over Central China.The different responses of SW cloud radiative forcing in different regions was related to cloud feedbacks and natural variability.     

Characteristics of cirrus clouds and its radiative properties based on lidar observation over Chung-Li, Taiwan

In this paper, characterization of cirrus clouds are made by using data from ground based polarization lidar and radiosonde measurements over Chung-Li (24.58°N, 121.10°E), Taiwan for a period of 1999–2006. During this period, the occurrence of cirrus clouds is about 37% of the total measurement nights over the lidar site. Analysis of the measurement gives the statistical characteristics about the macrophysical properties such as occurrence height, ambient temperature, and its geometrical thickness while the microphysical properties are interpreted in terms of extinction coefficient, optical depth, effective lidar ratio and depolarization ratio. The effective lidar ratio has been retrieved by using the simulation technique of backscattered lidar signals. The effect of multiple scattering has been taken into the account by a model calculation. Summer (Jun–Aug) shows the maximum appearances of cirrus due to its formation mechanism. It is shown that tropopause cirrus clouds may occur with a probability of about 24%. These clouds are usually optically thin and having laminar in structure with some cases resembling the characteristics similar to that of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). The radiative properties of the cirrus clouds are also discussed in detail by the empirical equations with results show a positive feedback on any climate change.     

Cloud radiative forcing in Asian monsoon region simulated by IPCC AR4 AMIP models

This study examines cloud radiative forcing (CRF) in the Asian monsoon region (0^o--50^oN,60^o--150^oE) simulated by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) AMIP models. During boreal winter, no model realistically reproduces the larger long-wave cloud radiative forcing (LWCF) over the Tibet Plateau (TP) and only a couple of models reasonably capture the larger short-wave CRF (SWCF) to the east of the TP. During boreal summer, there are larger biases for central location and intensity of simulated CRF in active convective regions. The CRF biases are closely related to the rainfall biases in the models. Quantitative analysis further indicates that the correlation between simulated CRF and observations are not high, and that the biases and diversity in SWCF are larger than that in LWCF. The annual cycle of simulated CRF over East Asia (0^o--50^oN, 100^o--145^oE) is also examined. Though many models capture the basic annual cycle in tropics, strong LWCF and SWCF to the east of the TP beginning in early spring are underestimated by most models. As a whole, GFDL-CM2.1, MPI-ECHAM5, UKMO-HadGAM1, and MIROC3.2 (medres) perform well for CRF simulation in the Asian monsoon region, and the multi-model ensemble (MME) has improved results over the individual simulations. It is suggested that strengthening the physical parameterizations involved over the TP, and improving cumulus convection processes and model experiment design are crucial to CRF simulation in the Asian monsoon region.     

Sensitivity of sea ice to wind-stress and radiative forcing since 1500: a model study of the Little Ice Age and beyond

Three different reconstructed wind-stress fields which take into account variations of the North Atlantic Oscillation, one general circulation model wind-stress field, and three radiative forcings (volcanic activity, insolation changes and greenhouse gas changes) are used with the UVic Earth System Climate Model to simulate the surface air temperature, the sea-ice cover, and the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) since 1500, a period which includes the Little Ice Age (LIA). The simulated Northern Hemisphere surface air temperature, used for model validation, agrees well with several temperature reconstructions. The simulated sea-ice cover in each hemisphere responds quite differently to the forcings. In the Northern Hemisphere, the simulated sea-ice area and volume during the LIA are larger than the present-day area and volume. The wind-driven changes in sea-ice area are about twice as large as those due to thermodynamic (i.e., radiative) forcing. For the sea-ice volume, changes due to wind forcing and thermodynamics are of similar magnitude. Before 1850, the simulations suggest that volcanic activity was mainly responsible for the thermodynamically produced area and volume changes, while after 1900 the slow greenhouse gas increase was the main driver of the sea-ice changes. Changes in insolation have a small effect on the sea ice throughout the integration period. The export of the thicker sea ice during the LIA has no significant effect on the maximum strength of the AMOC. A more important process in altering the maximum strength of the AMOC and the sea-ice thickness is the wind-driven northward ocean heat transport. In the Southern Hemisphere, there are no visible long-term trends in the simulated sea-ice area or volume since 1500. The wind-driven changes are roughly four times larger than those due to radiative forcing. Prior to 1800, all the radiative forcings could have contributed to the thermodynamically driven changes in area and volume. In the 1800s the volcanic forcing was dominant, and during the first part of the 1900s both the insolation changes and the greenhouse gas forcing are responsible for thermodynamically produced changes. Finally, in the latter part of the 1900s the greenhouse gas forcing is the dominant factor in determining the sea-ice changes in the Southern Hemisphere.

中国黑碳气溶胶分布特征与辐射强迫的模拟研究

利用区域气候模式RegCM3模拟2000年我国黑碳气溶胶的分布特征和辐射强迫。结果表明,黑碳气溶胶主要分布在我国黄河以南、青藏高原以东的广大区域,柱含量由南向北递减;柱含量最大值在0.6mg／m^2以上,出现在中南、四川盆地、湖南、贵州、广西、广东西部和云南南部等地区;青藏高原南侧黑碳气溶胶次高值区的存在,反映了气溶胶的跨国界输送并影响区域气候的特点。黑碳气溶胶的大气顶辐射强迫介于0.1—0.8w／m^2之间,地表辐射强迫介于-0.1— -2.0W／m^2之间,两者分布特征与柱含量分布特征基本一致。同柱含量相似,黑碳气溶胶大气顸辐射强迫和地表辐射强迫也有明显的季节性变化,春季最大,秋、冬季次之,夏季最小。     

Influences of Two Convective Schemes on the Radiative Energy Budget in GAMIL1.0

The Grid-point Atmospheric Model of IAP LASG version 1.0 (GAMIL1.0) is used to investigate the impacts of different convective schemes on the radiative energy budget.The two convective schemes are Zhang and McFarlance (1995)/Hack (1994) (ZM) and Tiedtke (1989)/Nordeng (1994) (TN).Two simulations are performed:one with the ZM scheme (EX_ZM) and the other with the TN scheme (EX_TN).The results indicate that during the convective process,more water vapor consumption and temperature increment are found in the EX_ZM,especially in the lower model layer,its environment is therefore very dry.In contrast,there is a moister atmosphere in the EX_TN,which favors low cloud formation and large-scale condensation,and hence more low cloud fraction,higher cloud water mixing ratio,and deeper cloud extinction optical depth are simulated,reflecting more solar radiative flux in the EX_TN.This explains why the TN scheme underestimates the net shortwave radiative flux at the top of the atmosphere and at surface.In addition,convection influences longwave radiation,surface sensible and latent heat fluxes through changes in cloud emissivity and precipitation.     

Comparisons of Simulations of Soil Moisture Variations in the Yellow River Basin Driven by Various Atmospheric Forcing Data Sets

Based on station observations, The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reanalysis (ERA40), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) reanalysis and Princeton University's global meteorological forcing data set (Princeton), four atmospheric forcing fields were constructed for use in driving the Community Land Model version 3.5 (CLM3.5). Simulated soil moisture content throughout the period 1951-2000 in the Yellow River basin was vali...     

Direct Climatic Effect of Dust Aerosol in the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model Version 3 （CAM3）

Direct climate responses to dust shortwave and longwave radiative forcing (RF) are studied using the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model Version 3 (CAM3). The simulated RF at the top of the atmosphere (TOA) is-0.45 W m-2 in the solar spectrum and +0.09 W m-2 in the thermal spectrum on a global average. The magnitude of surface RF is larger than the TOA forcing, with global mean shortwave forcing of-1.76 W m-2 and longwave forcing of +0.31 W m-2 . As a result, dust aerosol causes the absorption of 1.1 W m-2 in t...