印度人为吉尼斯纪录发烧

参加选举却不希望获得任何选票,这世界上大概就数印度人里希了。原来,里希是想以"全世界最失败的政治家"申报吉尼斯纪录。上个月,里希在市政选举中最终获得30张选票,令他颇感失望。70岁的里希本名哈尔·普拉卡什,迄今已获7项吉尼斯世界纪录认证,是印度有名的"吉尼斯老爹"。他自称是吉尼斯纪录狂热分子,"我应该有22项纪录的。"     

英国巴斯掠影

巴斯位于英格兰西南部,距离伦敦约100英里,属于埃文郡东部的科兹沃,这里有英国人最钟情的乡间风光,巴斯就是一个被田园包围着的古典优雅的小城,这里没有都市的匆忙嘈杂,走在车辆稀疏的街道上可以享受难得的城市轻松与悠闲。之所以称巴斯为"小城",是因为巴斯的人口仅十万,也没有高楼大厦。尽管巴斯城池不大,但却有英国最高贵的街道和曲线最优美的建筑,被誉为英国最美丽典雅的城市,它的典雅来自乔治亚时期的房屋建筑风格;它的美丽来自于风光绮丽的乡村风光。     

植物园：物种的诺亚方舟，人类的心灵港湾

植物园是植物暂时的诺亚方舟,使植物能够在其中回复元气,并回到自然之中;而这个城市中最优雅的植物聚集地也可作为现代生活的缓冲剂,使长久远离自然的城市人获得片刻的心灵安宁。     

最近500年来福建玉华洞石笋氧同位素记录及气候意义

基于福建将乐玉华洞一支石笋(YH1)4个230Th年龄和370个氧同位素数据,并利用具有年层时标的湖北清江和尚洞石笋氧同位素记录的校正,重建了AD 1530以来1~3 a分辨率的石笋氧同位素序列。与当地现代器测气象资料对比发现,最近60 a来玉华洞石笋δ18O与当地夏半年降水量相关性最为显著(R=-0.35,n=55),而受温度的影响较弱,玉华洞石笋氧同位素较好的指示了当地夏半年降水量变化的信息。最近100 a来,福建玉华洞石笋的氧同位素组成具有逐渐变重的趋势,与其他地区高分辨率石笋δ18O具有相同的变化趋势,而且也与季风指数指示的季风减弱趋势相一致,进一步证实季风区石笋δ18O反映了东亚季风大尺度环流特征;在小冰期中后期(AD 1530~1850),玉华洞石笋δ18O在平均值-5.9‰高频振荡,存在一系列的数十年际尺度的季风增强和减弱事件,与亚洲—太平洋涛动(Asian Pacific Oscillation,APO)指数密切相关,说明玉华洞石笋δ18O所指示的降水信息受APO变化的影响。     

地图上消失的名字(八) 苏美尔,最初的文明

苏美尔,一个美丽的名字。在历史上,这类动听而又陌生名字往往属于一个失落的文明,苏美尔正是如此。作为一个地名,它已经在地图上消失了数千年。今天我们之所以不断提起它,完全是因为对文明起源的探寻。文明的起源,是一个历久弥新的话题。古代中国的华夷观告诉我们,华夏文明就是世界文明的起源和中心。后来,通过"开眼看世界",我们知道世界上有好几个文明古国,中国只是其中之一,而且还是里面起源最晚的一个。更令人纠结的是,中国真正有     

越老越有范儿,踏访十里南京路

大名鼎鼎的和平饭店在南京路靠近外滩的这一头,也是今天徒步的起点. 作为当年的"远东第一楼",和平饭店巨今仍是整个外滩建筑群和南京东路上最耀眼的一颗明珠.花岗岩外立面、大理石地面、雕花屋顶、古铜镂花吊灯……被完整保留下来的欧式风格和"和平元素",让人一瞬间仿佛坐上时光机回到了20世纪30年代的大上海.彼时,蒋介石和宋美龄在这里完婚,英国剧作家Coward爵士的《私人生活》在这里写成.     

A Study on Water Vapor Transport and Budget of Heavy Rain in Northeast China

The characteristics of moisture transport and budget of widespread heavy rain and local heavy rain events in Northeast China are studied using the NCEP--NCAR reanalysis 6-hourly and daily data and daily precipitation data of 200 stations in Northeast China from 1961--2005. The results demonstrate that during periods with widespread heavy rain in Northeast China, the Asian monsoon is very active and the monsoonal northward moisture transport is strengthened significantly. The widespread heavy rainfall obtains enhanced water vapor supply from large regions where the water vapor mainly originates from the Asian monsoon areas, which include the East Asian subtropical monsoon area, the South China Sea, and the southeast and southwest tropical monsoon regions. There are several branches of monsoonal moisture current converging on East China and its coastal areas, where they are strengthened and then continue northward into Northeast China. Thus, the enhanced northward monsoonal moisture transport is the key to the widespread heavy rain in Northeast China. In contrast, local heavy rainfall in Northeast China derives water vapor from limited areas, transported by the westerlies. Local evaporation also plays an important role in the water vapor supply and local recycling process of moisture. In short, the widespread heavy rains of Northeast China are mainly caused by water vapor advection brought by the Asian monsoon, whereas local heavy rainfall is mainly caused by the convergence of the westerly wind field.     

An Assessment on the Performance of IPCC AR4 Climate Models in Simulating Interdecadal Variations of the East Asian Summer Monsoon

Observations from several data centers together with a categorization method are used to evaluate the IPCC AR4 （Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Fourth Assessment Report） climate models＇ performance in simulating the interdecadal variations of summer precipitation and monsoon circulation in East Asia. Out of 19 models under examination, 9 models can relatively well reproduce the 1979-1999 mean June-July-August （JJA） precipitation in East Asia, but only 3 models （Category-1 models） can capture the interdecadal variation of precipitation in East Asia. These 3 models are： GFDL-CM2.0, MIROC3.2 （hires）, and MIROC3.2 （medres）, among which the GFDL-CM2.0 gives the best performance. The reason for the poor performance of most models in simulating the East Asian summer monsoon interdecadal variation lies in that the key dynamic and thermal-dynamic mechanisms behind the East Asian monsoon change are missed by the models, e.g., the large-scale tropospheric cooling and drying over East Asia. In contrast, the Category-1 models relatively well reproduce the variations in vertical velocity and water vapor over East Asia and thus show a better agreement with observations in simulating the pattern of ＂wet south and dry north＂ in China in the past 20 years.
It is assessed that a single model＇s performance in simulating a particular variable has great impacts on the ensemble results. More realistic outputs can be obtained when the multi-model ensemble is carried out using a suite of well-performing models for a specific variable, rather than using all available models. This indicates that although a multi-model ensemble is in general better than a single model, the best ensemble mean cannot be achieved without looking into each member model＇s performance.     

参加亚洲大洋洲地球科学协会（AOGS2009）科学大会总结

1会议概况 应亚洲大洋洲地球科学协会（AOGS： Asia Oceania Geosciences Society）Society）邀请,中国气象科学研究院灾害天气国家重点实验室周海光参加了由AOGS主办的AOGS 2009科学大会（AOGS 6th Annual Meeting）。