An Updated Coupled Model for Land-Atmosphere Interaction. Part Ⅰ: Simulations of Physical Processes

A new two-way land-atmosphere interaction model (R42_AVIM) is fulfilled by coupling the spectral at- mospheric model (SAMIL_R42L9) developed at the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmo- spheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sci- ences (LASG/IAP/CAS) with the land surface model, Atmosphere-Vegetation-Interaction-Model (AVIM). In this coupled model, physical and biological components of AVIM are both included. Climate base state and land surface physical fluxes simulated by R42_AVIM are analyzed and compared with the results of R42_SSIB [which is coupled by SAMIL_R42L9 and Simplified Simple Biosphere (SSIB) models]. The results show the performance of the new model is closer to the observations. It can basically guarantee that the land surface energy budget is balanced, and can simulate June-July-August (JJA) and December-January- February (DJF) land surface air temperature, sensible heat flux, latent heat flux, precipitation, sea level pressure and other variables reasonably well. Compared with R42_SSIB, there are obvious improvements in the JJA simulations of surface air temperature and surface fluxes. Thus, this land-atmosphere coupled model will offer a good experiment platform for land-atmosphere interaction research.     

T213L31全球模式云和对流参数化方案改进试验

针对中国业务中期数值预报模式T213对中雨量级以上的降水预报空报比较明显的问题,文中对此模式预报的降水进行了诊断分析。发现T213模式预报的总降水分布主要是由可分辨尺度降水决定的,且在降水偏多最明显的地区,可分辨尺度的降水即超过或达到了观测的总降水,表明降水空报的主要原因在于可分辨尺度降水偏多。可分辨尺度降水偏多的可能原因有：土壤湿度初始化、云变量的初始化和直接产生降水的云与对流参数化方案存在一定的缺陷。鉴于前两者是目前国际上的难点,文中针对第3个方面的可能原因进行了分析和相应的改进。包括在对流方案之前增加一次云方案的调用;对流参数化方案的闭合由“动力型”改为对流有效位能调整闭合;更复杂的对流触发机制;改进冰沉降和降水通量计算。改进的主要目的是使对流参数化方案更活跃,从而减少格点尺度对流的发生。采用改进的方案,进行了敏感性试验和2005年夏季的连续滚动同化预报试验,并与中国区域400个标准站的降水观测和GPCP的全球降水观测进行了比较。结果表明,改进的方案无论是对中国区域还是全球夏季平均的降水分布预报都好于业务,但四川省和赤道东太平洋降水偏多的问题依然存在。中国区域的降水统计检验还表明,除小雨外,其他量级在大部分时效上降水的TS评分增加,预报偏差降低。     

On the habitability of the OGLE-2006-BLG-109L planetary system

We investigate the dynamics of putative Earth-mass planets in the habitable zone (HZ) of the extrasolar planetary system OGLE-2006-BLG-109L, a close analogue of the Solar system. Our work is inspired by the work of Malhotra & Minton. Using the linear Laplace–Lagrange theory, they identified a strong secular resonance that may excite large eccentricity of orbits in the HZ. However, due to uncertain or unconstrained orbital parameters, the subsystem of Jupiters may be found in a dynamically active region of the phase space spanned by low-order mean-motion resonances. To generalize this secular model, we construct a semi-analytical averaging method in terms of the restricted problem. The secular orbits of large planets are approximated by numerically averaged osculating elements. They are used to calculate the mean orbits of terrestrial planets by means of a high-order analytic secular theory developed in our previous works. We found regions in the parameter space of the problem in which stable, quasi-circular orbits in the HZ are permitted. The excitation of eccentricity in the HZ strongly depends on the apsidal angle of jovian orbits. For some combinations of that angle, eccentricities and semimajor axes consistent with the observations, a terrestrial planet may survive in low eccentric orbits. We also study the effect of post-Newtonian gravity correction on the innermost secular resonance.     

Brittle Rock Failure in the Steg Lateral Adit of the Lötschberg Base Tunnel

Summary  During the crossing of brittle rock formations at the L?tschberg base tunnel, failure phenomena have been observed both at the tunnel face and at the walls. A detailed analysis has been undertaken to explain these behaviours, based on the recent developments of Canadian research on brittle failure mechanisms. At the tunnel walls, a very good agreement is found between the calculated and observed damage and between two prediction methods, i.e. a semi-empirical failure criterion and elastic calculations with the “brittle Hoek-Brown parameters.” Near the face, due to the 3D nature of the stress conditions, some limitations of these approaches have been highlighted, and the growth of wall failure has been analysed. This research allowed a better understanding of the brittle rock mass behaviour at the L?tschberg base tunnel and showed that brittle failure processes dominate the behaviour of deep, highly stressed excavations in massive to moderately jointed rock. It also illustrates where improvements to the adopted approaches are required.     

Regional extreme‐dry‐spell frequency analysis using the L‐moments method in the middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin,China

In this research, the regional extreme‐dry‐spell frequency in the middle reaches of the Yellow River Basin (YRB) is studied by the L‐moments method. The research area has been divided into three subregions (regions 1, 2 and 3), which have been identified as homogenous regions. The results of a goodness‐of‐fit test indicate that a generalized normal distribution is the optimal regional model for regions 1 and 2 whereas a generalized Pareto distribution is the optimal regional model for region 3. The return period analysis figures out that the maximum length‐of‐dry‐spell (MxDS) values increase from south to north in the southern part and increase from northeast to southwest in the northern part of the middle reaches of the YRB under different return periods. The increments of quantiles of dry spell under different return levels indicate that drought risk in region 1 is higher than that in regions 2 and 3. The analysis of the occurrence day of MxDS shows that MxDS mostly occurred during winter of 1998 and spring of 1999 in most stations during the considered period. By comparing summer MxDS events, it can be found that mean MxDS values have slightly increased in regions 1 and 2 during the last five decades. The maximum mean MxDS values appeared in the 2000s for regions 1 and 2 and in the 1990s for region 3. The atmospheric circulation shows that the positive anomaly centre in the west of North China, negative anomaly centre in the east of North China and the strong western Pacific subtropical high led to the decrease of precipitation in North China during the summer of 1997. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

地基主动式云自动观测设备外场比对试验

对2015年1—5月安装在中国气象局大气探测试验基地的Ka波段毫米波测云仪(HT101)和2种型号激光云高仪(CYY-2B、HY-CL51)进行比对试验。试验期间以L波段业务探空气球的入云和出云高度为云高标准,对测云仪从云体探测率、准确性、天气适应性等方面进行分析,结果表明:(1)毫米波测云仪的云体探测率最高;(2)以探空气球入云高度为标准,毫米波测云仪云底高度探测相对偏差最小;(3)毫米波测云仪有较强的云顶高探测能力;(4)毫米波测云仪天气适应性最强,在多层云、卷云、低能见度条件下HT101探测性能优于CYY-2B、HY-CL51。