Trends in frequency of precipitation extremes in the Yangtze River basin,China: 1960–2003 / Tendances d'évolution de la fréquence des précipitations extrêmes entre 1960 et 2003 dans le bassin versant du Fleuve Yangtze (Chine)

Abstract

The spatial distribution and trends in the frequency of precipitation extremes over the last 44 years (1960–2003), especially since 1990, have been analysed using daily precipitation data from 147 stations in the Yangtze River basin. The research results are as follows: (1) The 15 mm precipitation isohyet approximately divides the precipitation extremes (corresponding to the 95th percentile) of the stations in the middle and lower Yangtze reaches (higher) from those of the upper Yangtze reaches (lower). Also the starting time of the precipitation extremes in the middle and lower Yangtze reaches is earlier than of those in the upper Yangtze reaches. Precipitation extremes are concentrated mostly in June in the middle and lower Yangtze reaches, and July in the upper Yangtze reaches. (2) During the period 1960–2003, the first two decades had fewer precipitation extremes than the last two decades. There have been significant increasing trends and step changes in frequency of annual total precipitation extremes and precipitation extremes with a 1–5 day gap in the middle and lower Yangtze reaches. Precipitation extremes occur more frequently in shorter periods, separated by a few days. Precipitation extremes are also becoming more concentrated in the month with the highest frequency of extremes (June) in the middle and lower Yangtze reaches. In the upper Yangtze reaches, there is an upward tendency of extreme events in June. Increasing precipitation extremes in June for both the middle and lower, and the upper Yangtze reaches will increase the probability of flooding if the observed trends of the last 40 years continue into the future.     

Comparison of different methods describing the peak runoff contributing areas during floods

In the last few years, the scientific community has developed several hydrological models aimed at the simulation of hydrological processes acting at the basin scale. In this context, the portion of peak runoff contributing areas represents a critical variable for a correct estimate of surface runoff. Such areas are strongly influenced by the saturated portion of a river basin (influenced by antecedent conditions) but may also evolve during a specific rainfall event. In the recent years, we have developed 2 theoretically derived probability distributions that attempt to interpret these 2 processes adopting daily runoff and flood‐peak time series. The probability density functions (PDFs) obtained by these 2 schematisations were compared for humid river basins in southern Italy. Results highlighted that the PDFs of the peak runoff contributing areas can be interpreted by a gamma distribution and that the PDF of the relative saturated area provides a good interpretation of such process that can be used for flood prediction.     

Effects of storm direction and duration on infiltrating planar flow with partial coverage

Using kinematic wave equations analytical solutions are derived for flow resulting from a storm moving either up or down an infiltrating plane but not fully covering it. By comparing the flow resulting from this storm with that from a stationary storm of the same duration the influence of storm duration, direction and velocity is investigated. It is found that the direction of storm movement, duration and velocity of storms, as well as basin infiltration, have a pronounced effect on the discharge hydrograph. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changes in seasonality and timing of peak streamflow in snow and semi‐arid climates of the north‐central United States, 1910–2012

Changes in the seasonality and timing of annual peak streamflow in the north‐central USA are likely because of changes in precipitation and temperature regimes. A source of long‐term information about flood events across the study area is the U.S. Geological Survey peak streamflow database. However, one challenge of answering climate‐related questions with this dataset is that even in snowmelt‐dominated areas, it is a mixed population of snowmelt/spring rain generated peaks and summer/fall rain generated peaks. Therefore, a process was developed to divide the annual peaks into two populations, or seasons, snowmelt/spring, and summer/fall. The two series were then tested for the hypotheses that because of changes in precipitation regimes, the odds of summer/fall peaks have increased and, because of temperature changes, snowmelt/spring peaks happen earlier. Over climatologically and geographically similar regions in the north‐central USA, logistic regression was used to model the odds of getting a summer/fall peak. When controlling for antecedent wet and dry conditions and geographical differences, the odds of summer/fall peaks occurring have increased across the study area. With respect to timing within the seasons, trend analysis showed that in northern portions of the study region, snowmelt/spring peaks are occurring earlier. The timing of snowmelt/spring peaks in three regions in the northern part of the study area is earlier by 8.7– 14.3 days. These changes have implications for water interests, such as potential changes in lead‐time for flood forecasting or changes in the operation of flood‐control dams. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A multimodel assessment of the climate change effect on the drought severity–duration–frequency relationship

In this study, the patterns of past and future drought occurrences in the Seoul region were analysed using observed historical data from the Seoul weather station located in the Korean Peninsula and four different types of general circulation models (GCMs), namely, GFDL:CM2_1, CONS:ECHO‐G, MRI:CGCM2_3_2 and UKMO:HADGEM1. To analyse statistical properties such as drought frequency duration and return period, the Standardized Precipitation Index was used to derive the severity–duration–frequency (SDF) curve from the drought frequency analysis. In addition, a drought spell analysis was conducted to estimate the frequency and change of drought duration for each drought classification. The results of the analysis suggested a decrease in the frequency of mild droughts and an increase in the frequency of severe and extreme droughts in the future. Furthermore, the average duration of droughts is expected to increase. A comparison of the SDF relationship derived from the observed data with that derived via the GCMs indicated that the drought severity for each return period was reduced as drought duration increased and that the drought severity derived from the GCMs was severer than the severity obtained using the observed data for the same duration and return period. Furthermore, among the four types of GCMs used in this study, the MRI model predicted the most severe future drought for the Seoul region, and the SDF curve derived using the MRI model also resulted in the highest degree of drought severity compared with the other GCMs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impacts of upland open drains upon runoff generation: a numerical assessment of catchment‐scale impacts

Shallow upland drains, grips, have been hypothesized as responsible for increased downstream flow magnitudes. Observations provide counterfactual evidence, often relating to the difficulty of inferring conclusions from statistical correlation and paired catchment comparisons, and the complexity of designing field experiments to test grip impacts at the catchment scale. Drainage should provide drier antecedent moisture conditions, providing more storage at the start of an event; however, grips have higher flow velocities than overland flow, thus potentially delivering flow more rapidly to the drainage network. We develop and apply a model for assessing the impacts of grips on flow hydrographs. The model was calibrated on the gripped case, and then the gripped case was compared with the intact case by removing all grips. This comparison showed that even given parameter uncertainty, the intact case had significantly higher flood peaks and lower baseflows, mirroring field observations of the hydrological response of intact peat. The simulations suggest that this is because delivery effects may not translate into catchment‐scale impacts for three reasons. First, in our case, the proportions of flow path lengths that were hillslope were not changed significantly by gripping. Second, the structure of the grip network as compared with the structure of the drainage basin mitigated against grip‐related increases in the concentration of runoff in the drainage network, although it did marginally reduce the mean timing of that concentration at the catchment outlet. Third, the effect of the latter upon downstream flow magnitudes can only be assessed by reference to the peak timing of other tributary basins, emphasizing that drain effects are both relative and scale dependent. However, given the importance of hillslope flow paths, we show that if upland drainage causes significant changes in surface roughness on hillslopes, then critical and important feedbacks may impact upon the speed of hydrological response. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

卫星导航接收机中锁频环的两种实现方式

对卫星导航接收机中的锁频环进行了研究，主要涉及锁频环的鉴别器算法、环路调节的两种方式，并对这两种实现方式作了仿真。     

基于多源数据的北疆一次持续性浓雾天气过程的演变特征

利用常规高空地面、机场跑道自动观测系统(AWOS)、微波辐射计及FY4A新一代静止气象卫星等资料对2019年12月9～13日发生于北疆沿天山一带的一次持续性浓雾天气进行观测特征及演变分析，结果表明：（1）此次大雾天气过程是发生在500 hPa高空脊区控制，低层不断有暖平流东伸，地面位于蒙古冷高压后部均压场的大尺度环流背景下。（2）大雾发生前，地面明显升温有利于地表融雪、水汽蒸发，这为浓雾的形成和维持提供有利的水汽条件。浓雾维持期间，地面风速维持1 m.s-1左右的弱风场，温度露点差≤2℃，空气接近饱和，准噶尔盆地低洼地形均为浓雾维持提供有力环境条件。浓雾消散期间，风速增大，急剧降温，快速增湿，有利于雾滴凝结为米雪，使得浓雾消散。（3）Brunt-Vaisala（布伦特-维萨拉）指数能较好的反映浓雾期间边界层稳定度，并能提炼出相关稳定度阈值。浓雾期间相对湿度≥85%高度层主要集中在100米以下的贴地层，持续深厚的湿度层为浓雾形成和持续提供较好水汽条件，大雾期间强逆温层顶主要维持在600 m高度，当逆温层顶高度抬升时，有利于雾滴粒子、水汽粒子向上扩散，能见度好转。（4）FY4A卫星的多通道可见光及红外通道差图像能较好的监视白天及夜间大雾的形成、维持及生消变化，对于业务中短时临近预报有较好的帮助。     

Numerical calculation of dispersion relation for linear internal waves

With the horizontal Coriolis terms included in motion equations and the influence of compressibility of seawater on Brunt-Visl frequency considered, a numerical method of calculating the dispersion relation for linear internal waves, which is an improvement of Cai and Gan (1995), and hence Fliegel and Hunkins (1975), had been set up. For different models (Pacific model, Atlantic model and Arctic model), simulations using the three different methods were compared and the following conclusions were reached:(1) the influence of horizontal Coriolis terms on dispersion relation cannot be neglected and is connected with the direction of the wave celerity, the latitude, and the modes of the wave;(2) the effect of compressibility of seawater in stratification is not an important factor for the dispersion relation of linear internal wave, at least for those three models. With the improved method, the wavefunction curves for the Pacific model had also been built.     

Physically‐based modelling of double‐peak discharge responses at Slapton Wood catchment

Heavy winter rainfall produces double‐peak hydrographs at the Slapton Wood catchment, Devon, UK. The first peak is saturation‐excess overland flow in the hillslope hollows and the second (i.e. the delayed peak) is subsurface stormflow. The physically‐based spatially‐distributed model SHETRAN is used to try to improve the understanding of the processes that cause the double peaks. A three‐stage (multi‐scale) approach to calibration is used: (1) water balance validation for vertical one‐dimensional flow at arable, grassland and woodland plots; (2) two‐dimensional flow for cross‐sections cutting across the stream valley; and (3) three‐dimensional flow in the full catchment. The main data are for rainfall, stream discharge, evaporation, soil water potential and phreatic surface level. At each scale there was successful comparison with measured responses, using as far as possible parameter values from measurements. There was some calibration but all calibrated values at one scale were used at a larger scale. A large proportion of the subsurface runoff enters the stream from three dry valleys (hillslope hollows), and previous studies have suggested convergence of the water in the three large hollows as being the major mechanism for the production of the delayed peaks. The SHETRAN modelling suggests that the hillslopes that drain directly into the stream are also involved in producing the delayed discharges. The model shows how in the summer most of the catchment is hydraulically disconnected from the stream. In the autumn the catchment eventually ‘wets up’ and shallow subsurface flows are produced, with water deflected laterally along the soil‐bedrock interface producing the delayed peak in the stream hydrograph. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.