Environmental stress and agricultural landownership in Africa

We examine how weather variability affects agricultural landownership rates in Africa, where at least half of the population depends on agriculture to earn a livelihood. In the absence of effective adaptation strategies, households that experience difficulties farming due to environmental stress might leave their land. With implications for demography – through migration – and political instability – when affected populations express grievances – changing landownership patterns could make existing development challenges on the continent even more difficult. We test our hypothesis that drier than average growing seasons will reduce landownership rates using Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS). Our DHS dataset includes interviews with 850,961 households in 35 African countries between 2005 and 2017. Compared to regions experiencing weather near the historical average, those with five consecutive dry growing seasons before the DHS experienced a 6.93% decline in the landownership rate. For every additional dry growing season during the five years before each survey, the landownership rate fell by 1.38%. A host of robustness checks support our general conclusion that drying conditions are associated with lower landownership rates.     

济南泉域地下水位动态及其对降水响应的交叉小波分析

利用1988—2009年济南泉域8个地下水位动态观测点不同时段观测资料及1998—2009年降水数据,采用连续小波变换、交叉小波变换方法对济南泉域地下水位动态的多时间尺度特征、相互关系及其对降水的响应进行了分析。结果表明:①济南泉域地下水位动态存在显著的0.82～1.16 a的主振荡周期,低频部分仅在部分年份存在1.95～3.09 a的振荡周期;②含水岩组富水性对地下水位动态存在影响,研究区主径流方向上弱富水性地段地下水位动态时滞较强富水性地段长,强富水性地段4个观测孔地下水位波动时序基本一致;③地下水位动态对降水的响应滞后明显,为73.06～134.42 d,总体表现为地下水径流路径越长,响应越滞后;④基于地下水位动态与基于降水—地下水位动态交叉小波变换得到的观测点对水位动态的滞后时间多数一致,同一径流路径上局部点对滞后时间之和与全局点对有很好的对应关系。交叉小波分析可定量评价泉域地下水位动态及其与降水的相关关系。     

Granule ripples in the Kumtagh Desert,China: Morphology,grain size and influencing factors

Granule ripples are found mainly in four regions of the Kumtagh Desert in China; they are characterized by an asymmetrical shape, with gentle lower slopes on both sides and abrupt crests. The ripples tend to be oriented perpendicular to the prevailing winds, except when they form near obstacles such as yardangs. The wavelengths (λ) range between 0·31 m and 26 m and heights (h) range from 0·015 m to 1 m. The relationship between wavelength and height can be described by a simple linear function, and the mean ripple index (λ/h) is about 20·4 for the study sites. The sediments are poorly sorted, with negative to very negative skewness at lee and stoss slopes and between‐ripple troughs, which confirms the ‘poured in’ and ‘shadow’ appearance described by previous researchers. The bimodal or trimodal distributions of grains (with modes of ?1·16φ, ?0·5φ and 3·16φ) and the enrichment of coarse particles at the ripple surface (with coarse granule contents ranging between 5·2% and 62·1%) indicate that the underlying layer is the original sediment source and that the granule ripples resist erosional processes. Although the impact of saltating particles and, consequently, the creep and reptation of coarse grains are responsible for granule ripple initiation at a micro‐scale, however, the characteristics of local sediments, wind regimes and topographical obstacles, as well as the feedbacks among bedform and airflow, more strongly affect the development and alignment of granule ripples at a macro‐scale.     

基于改进White方法的地下水蒸散发研究

在依赖地下水的植被广泛分布的干旱半干旱地区,蒸散发是地下水排泄的主要方式,因而准确计算地下水蒸散发量,对地下水资源评价具有重要意义。目前水量残差法、地下水极限埋深法和地下水水位日动态法可以用于计算地下水蒸散发量,由于地下水动态信息容易获取,长期以来得到广泛关注。分析了利用地下水动态信息的White方法在计算地下水净补给量方面的不足之处,提出了改进的White方法,即利用相邻两天地下水位上升段的平均斜率计算地下水的净补给量,并利用数值模拟方法对改进的White方法的计算精度进行了评价,表明改进后的方法较原始方法精度提高了16%。最后利用苏贝淖流域实测的地下水动态数据,采用改进的White方法计算了地下水蒸散发量。研究成果对干旱区水资源可持续开发利用具有一定的科学意义和应用价值。     

Analyses of the warm season rainfall climatology of the northeastern US using regional climate model simulations and radar rainfall fields

We examine the warm season (April-September) rainfall climatology of the northeastern US through analyses of high-resolution radar rainfall fields from the Hydro-NEXRAD system and regional climate model simulations using the weather research and forecasting (WRF) model. Analyses center on the 5-year period from 2003 to 2007 and the study area includes the New York-New Jersey metropolitan region covered by radar rainfall fields from the Fort Dix, NJ WSR-88D. The objective of this study is to develop and test tools for examining rainfall climatology, with a special focus on heavy rainfall. An additional emphasis is on rainfall climatology in regions of complex terrain, like the northeastern US, which is characterized by land-water boundaries, large heterogeneity in land use and cover, and mountainous terrain in the western portion of the region. We develop a 5-year record of warm season radar rainfall fields for the study region using the Hydro-NEXRAD system. We perform regional downscaling simulations for the 5-year study period using the WRF model. Radar rainfall fields are used to characterize the interannual, seasonal and diurnal variation of rainfall over the study region and to examine spatial heterogeneity of rainfall. Regional climate model simulations are characterized by a wet bias in the rainfall fields, with the largest bias in the high-elevation regions of the model domain. We show that model simulations capture broad features of the interannual, seasonal, and diurnal variation of rainfall. Model simulations do not capture spatial gradients in radar rainfall fields around the New York metropolitan region and land-water boundaries to the east. The model climatology of convective available potential energy (CAPE) is used to interpret the regional distribution of warm season rainfall and the seasonal and diurnal variability of rainfall. We use hydrologic and meteorological observations from July 2007 to examine the interactions of land surface processes and rainfall from a regional perspective.     

宜春地区主要气象灾害分布规律及成因分析

利用1959-2008 年气象观测资料和1949-2008 年气象灾情资料,对发生在宜春地区的暴雨和洪涝、大风、冰雹、干旱、高温、低温和冷冻、雷电等7 类主要气象灾害的分布规律及成因进行了分类分析.结果表明,宜春地区每年都会出现不同程度的洪涝灾害,重度洪涝灾害为3-5 a 一遇.东部和西部各有1 个大风多发区;大风7-...     

贵州高等级公路气象特征及预报

根据近4a逐日气象资料以及交管部门近10a的交通事故统计数据,分析了影响贵州高等级公路交通安全运输的主要气象因子特征,揭示了贵州复杂地形条件下不同公路路段的气象条件差异较大,主要表现为:(1)各路段夜间雨日比白天雨日多30d左右;(2)降雨日、大雨日和暴雨日最多的路段均是镇胜路;(3)能见度条件最差的路段是玉凯路,其次是贵新路和镇胜路;(4)凝冻出现机率较大的路段是镇胜路、贵黄路和贵新路;降雪最多的路段是崇遵路;(5)高温天气最多的路段是玉凯路.另外,综合考虑了降雨、能见度、凝冻以及高温等天气条件对公路交通的影响程度,探讨了贵州高等级公路交通气象指数预报方法.     

风廓线雷达资料在一次强对流天气过程中的应用

通过分析2010年6月28日广州市南沙区强对流天气过程的风廓线雷达资料发现：风廓线雷达测得的温度廓线资料可以很直观地显示边界层逆温及高温区域随时间的变化;风廓线雷达产品（垂直速度和信号噪声比）能清楚地反映降水的开始、结束以及降水的强度;风廓线雷达可以很好的监测到低空急流的发生发展及水平风的垂直切变．对强对流天气的预报有...     

袁河流域强降水的天气背景与回波特征分析

为了更好地监测预警江西袁河流域强降水天气,使用江西雨量资料、欧洲中心格点（1°×1°）再分析资料和江西雷达回波等资料,对袁河流域5次大暴雨过程进行分析,结果表明：（1）袁河流域强降水天气形势场是925～700 hPa切变线、低层辐合高层辐散中心、西南气流达到12～18 m·s-1等因素影响;T-LnP图上整层水汽充沛,可降水量在75 mm以上;降水前低层累积不稳定能量CAPE（1000 J/Kg）和对流抑制能CIN（100 J/Kg）。（2）强降水回波的组合反射率CR在50 dBz左右,回波顶高在13 km左右,垂直积分液态水含量在12 kg·m2左右;40 dBz回波顶高在6～7 km,45 dBz回波顶高在6.5 km以下。（3）强降水和回波强度dBZ成正相关,随降水的增强,回波明显增强;当回波强度≤20 dBz时,雨强几乎不变;当回波强度在20～35 dBz之间,雨强随回波强度增加而缓慢加大;当回波强度在35～50 dBz之间,雨强随回波强度加大明显增加;而当回波强度≥50 dBz时,雨强反而趋于下降或维持。研究结果对袁河流域强降水的监测预警和预报服务有指导意义。     

新一代多普勒天气雷达强度定标研究

天气雷达回波强度的强弱直接影响预报员对降水强度的判断,在重大气象灾害天气过程中,回波强度偏差有可能导致漏报而产生无法挽回的损失,中国气象局提出“到2022年底全国新一代天气雷达反射率因子标准偏差平均值从4.5dB降低到3.5dB”的目标,就是为了提高雷达监测均一性,降低客观因子对预报质量的影响。本文对岳阳、长沙、湘潭、益阳雷达产品对比分析,利用数据平均偏差方法计算雷达回波强度的扩散特征,得出岳阳雷达回波强度较其他三部雷达均偏弱约4dB以上的结论,并采用“对点测量”方法对岳阳雷达进行重新标定,将平均偏差降低至2.5dB以内,降低了中尺度区域内不同雷达之间的平均偏差,有效增强了回波强度一致性,对提高雷达业务可用性具有十分现实的意义。