Flux monitoring at 327 MHz during SL9-Jupiter collision

Jupiter flux at 327 MHz was monitored using the Ooty radio telescope from July 12th to July 29th during the collision of comet Shoemaker-Levi 9 with Jupiter. Flux was found to increase steadily from July 17th to July 26th by ∼ 2–5 Jy, after which it declined to its pre-event value. The comparison of 327 MHz observations with those at 840 MHz and 2240 MHz indicates that the enhancement was mainly due to the increased synchrotron emission and the contribution of thermal emission was very small at metric-decimetric frequencies. The enhancement in radio emission was found to be more at 840 MHz than at 327 or 2240 MHz. The steepening of the spectrum between 327 and 840 MHz as well as between 2240 and 840 MHz was also noted.     

基于极光光谱图像的氧辐射特征仿真推演

极光分光光谱仪成像所得重要辐射特征包括氧原子所激发的557.7、630.0、636.4 nm谱线,这些谱线和入射电离层的高能电子能通量、中高层大气粒子成分密度等都有着紧密联系.本文结合引发极光的电子碰撞反应物理机制构建氧辐射特征仿真模型,利用极光光谱图像557.7、630.0 nm谱线估计最接近真实成像情况下的入射电子能通量,实验结果表明仿真中基于假设光强比推演得到的氧辐射谱线像素预测值较真实值高估了1~1.29倍.     

Two Types of Flash Drought and Their Connections with Seasonal Drought

Flash drought is a rapidly intensifying drought with abnormally high temperature, which has greatly threatened crop yields and water supply, and aroused wide public concern in a warming climate. However, the preferable hydrometeorological conditions for flash drought and its association with conventional drought at longer time scales remain unclear. Here, we investigate two types of flash drought over China: one is high-temperature driven (Type I), while the other is water-deficit driven (Type II). Results show that the frequencies of the two types of flash drought averaged over China during the growing season are comparable. Type I flash drought tends to occur over southern China, where moisture supply is sufficient, while Type II is more likely to occur over semi-arid regions such as northern China. Both types of flash drought increase significantly (p0.01) during 1979-2010, with a doubled rise in Type I as compared with Type II. Composite analysis shows that high temperature quickly increases evapotranspiration (ET) and reduces soil moisture from two pentads before the onset of Type I flash drought. In contrast, there are larger soil moisture deficits two pentads before the onset of Type II flash drought, leading to a decrease in ET and increase in temperature. For flash drought associated with seasonal drought, there is a greater likelihood of occurrence during the onset and recovery phases of seasonal drought, suggesting perfect conditions for flash drought during transition periods. This study provides a basis for the early warning of flash drought by connecting multiscale drought phenomena.     

青藏高原土壤湿度的变化特征及其对中国东部降水影响的研究进展

青藏高原土壤湿度受积雪与冻土的共同影响,能够记忆长时间的陆面干湿过程,是气候变化的重要因子,对随后的中国东部降水有预测意义。由于高原观测站点稀少,土壤湿度观测资料匮乏,致使现有相关研究大多是基于再分析资料、模式资料和卫星遥感资料(统称替代资料)进行的,且所得结论既有差异,也存在不确定性。因此本文首先综述了各种土壤湿度替代资料的适用性对比研究,进而讨论了青藏高原地区土壤湿度的变化特征及其对我国东部气候的影响。现有研究表明:1)资料对比研究指出,现有的各种替代资料对高原土壤湿度存在明显的高估或低估现象,且评估结论受评估指标和插值方法不同的影响。相对而言,SSM/I和风云3B的土壤湿度产品与实际观测资料相关性较好。2)高原土壤湿度具有多时间尺度变化特征和空间非均匀性,在年变化上具有显著的融冻特征,年代际变化趋势和年际特征呈现显著的区域性差异。SSM/I资料表明春季高原主体土壤湿度的年代际变化趋势呈现为增加的特征,与高原的增暖相一致;年际变率存在东、西两个高值区,与其相关的潜热、感热通量能共同激发遥相关波列影响我国长江流域降水;同时高原土壤湿度在垂直方向上具有一致性,在空间分布上具有南部边缘最大、由东南向西北递减的特征。3)前人对高原土壤湿度影响中国东部降水的结论各有不同,其可能原因之一是采用的替代资料及其适用性不同,其二是模式试验中忽略土壤湿度的空间差异性而带来的误差等。相关问题需要进一步深入研究。     

Numerical simulation of the climate effect of high-altitude lakes on the Tibetan Plateau

Lakes regulate the water and heat exchange between the ground and the atmosphere on different temporal and spatial scales. However, studies of the lake effect in the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau(TP) rarely have been performed until recently, and little attention has been paid to modelling of frozen lakes. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model(WRF v. 3.6.1) is employed to conduct three numerical experiments in the Ngoring Lake Basin(the original experiment, an experiment with a tuned model, and a no-lake experiment) to investigate the influences of parameter optimization on the lake simulation and of the high-altitude lake on the regional climate. After the lake depth, the roughness lengths, and initial surface temperature are corrected in the model, the simulation of the air temperature is distinctly improved. In the experiment using a tuned model, the simulated sensible-heat flux(H) is clearly improved, especially during periods of ice melting(from late spring to early summer) and freezing(late fall). The improvement of latent-heat flux(LE) is mainly manifested by the sharp increase in the correlation coefficient between simulation and observation, whereas the improvement in the average value is small. The optimization of initial surface temperature shows the most prominent effect in the first year and distinctly weakens after a freezing period. After the lakes become grassland in the model, the daytime temperature clearly increases during the freezing and melting periods; but the nocturnal cooling appears in other stages, especially from September to October. The annual mean H increases by 6.4 times in the regions of the Ngoring Lake and the Gyaring Lake, and the LE declines by 56.2%. The sum of H and LE increases from 71.2 W/m2(with lake) to 84.6 W/m2(no lake). For the entire simulation region, the sum of H and LE also increases slightly. After the lakes are removed, the air temperature increases significantly from June to September over the area corresponding to the two lakes, and an abnormal convergence field appears; at the same time, the precipitation clearly increases over the two lakes and surrounding areas.     

Freeze-thaw processes of active-layer soils in the Nanweng'he River National Natural Reserve in the Da Xing'anling Mountains,northern Northeast China

The active-layer soils overlying the permafrost are the most thermodynamically active zone of rock or soil and play important roles in the earth-atmosphere energy system. The processes of thawing and freezing and their associated complex hydrothermal coupling can significantly affect variation in mean annual temperatures and the formation of ground ice in permafrost regions. Using soil-temperature and-moisture data obtained from the active layer between September 2011 and October 2014 in the permafrost region of the Nanweng'he River in the Da Xing'anling Mountains, the freeze-thaw characteristics of the permafrost were studied. Based on analysis of ground-temperature variation and hydrothermal transport characteristics, the thawing and freezing processes of the active layer were divided into three stages:(1) autumn-winter freezing,(2) winter freeze-up, and(3) spring-summer thawing. Variations in the soil temperature and moisture were analyzed during each stage of the freeze-thaw process, and the effects of the soil moisture and ground vegetation on the freeze-thaw are discussed in this paper. The study's results show that thawing in the active layer was unidirectional, while the ground freezing was bidirectional(upward from the bottom of the active layer and downward from the ground surface).During the annual freeze-thaw cycle, the migration of soil moisture had different characteristics at different stages. In general, during a freezing-thawing cycle, the soil-water molecules migrate downward, i.e., soil moisture transports from the entire active layer to the upper limit of the permafrost. In the meantime, freeze-thaw in the active layer can be significantly affected by the soil-moisture content and vegetation.     

The Effect of Bioturbation Activity of the Ark Clam Scapharca subcrenata on the Fluxes of Nutrient Exchange at the Sediment–Water Interface

Filter-feeding shellfish are common benthos and significantly affect the biogeochemical cycle in the shallow coastal ecosystems.Ark clam Scapharca subcrenata is one of the widely cultured bivalve species in many coastal areas owing to its tremendous economic value.However,there is little information regarding the effects of the bioturbation of S.subcrenata on the fluxes of nutrient exchange in the sediment-water interface(SWI).In this regard,S.subcrenata was sampled during October 2016 to determine the effects of its bioturbation activity on the nutrient exchange flux of the SWI.The results showed that the biological activity of S.subcrenata could increase the diffusion depth and the rate of the nutrients exchange in the sediments.The bioturbation of S.subcrenata could allow the nutrients to permeate into the surface sediments at 6-10cm and increase the release rate of nutrients at the SWI.The releasing fluxes of DIN and PO43−-P in the culture area were found to be around three times higher than that in the non-cultured region.The culture of S.subcrenata has been proved to be an important contributor to nutrient exchange across the SWI in the farming area of Haizhou Bay.Nutrients exchange in the SWI contributes a part of 86%DIN,71%PO43−-P and 18%SiO32−-Si for the aquaculture farm.     

Tree-ring analysis of teak (Tectona grandis L.F.) in central India and its relationship with rainfall and moisture index

Tree-ring-width index chronologies of teak (Tectona grandis L.F.) from three sites in central India have been studied for their dendroclimatic potential. The existence of good correlation among the three site chronologies indicates the influence of common forcing factor to the tree growth of the region. Tree growth and climate relationship based on correlation analysis revealed the important contribution of moisture index and rainfall rather than the direct influence of the temperature on tree growth during different seasons. Significant positive relationship of moisture index and rainfall during the monsoon months as well as on the annual scale with tree-ring width variations over the region indicates the important role of moisture availability at the root zone. The results suggest that the teak tree-ring chronologies can be used as high resolution proxy for past precipitation and moisture level in the environment.     

Considering combined or separated roughness and vegetation effects in soil moisture retrievals

For more than six years, the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) mission has provided multi angular and full-polarization brightness temperature (TB) measurements at L-band. Geophysical products such as soil moisture (SM) and vegetation optical depth at nadir (τ_nad) are retrieved by an operational algorithm using TB observations at different angles of incidence and polarizations. However, the quality of the retrievals depends on several surface effects, such as vegetation, soil roughness and texture, etc. In the microwave forward emission model used in the retrievals (L-band Microwave Emission Model, L-MEB), soil roughness is modelled with a semi-empirical equation using four main parameters (Q_r, H_r, N_rp, with p = H or V polarizations). At present, these parameters are calibrated with data provided by airborne studies and in situ measurements made at a local scale that is not necessarily representative of the large SMOS footprints (43 km on average) at global scale. In this study, we evaluate the impact of the calibrated values of N_rp and H_r on the SM and τ_nad retrievals based on SMOS TB measurements (SMOS Level 3 product) over the Soil Climate Analysis Network (SCAN) network located in North America over five years (2011–2015). In this study, Q_r was set equal to zero and we assumed that N_rH = N_rV. The retrievals were performed by varying N_rp from −1 to 2 by steps of 1 and H_r from 0 to 0.6 by steps of 0.1. At satellite scale, the results show that combining vegetation and roughness effects in a single parameter provides the best results in terms of soil moisture retrievals, as evaluated against the in situ SM data. Even though our retrieval approach was very simplified, as we did not account for pixel heterogeneity, the accuracy we obtained in the SM retrievals was almost systematically better than those of the Level 3 product. Improved results were also obtained in terms of optical depth retrievals. These new results may have key consequences in terms of calibration of roughness effects within the algorithms of the SMOS (ESA) and the SMAP (NASA) space missions.     

土壤水分观测历史数据集奇异值分析与校正

针对中国247个农业气象土壤水分观测站点1981 2010年逐旬土壤重量含水量、逐年田间持水量、凋萎湿度和土壤容重,考虑地区气候特点和土壤质地,依据土壤水分极值和水文常数关系理论,制定了土壤水分观测历史数据集质量控制方法,对土壤水分数据奇异值进行分析与校正。结果表明:土壤水分观测历史资料中,奇异值问题可以归结为人工录入误差、多地段水文常数混用误差和年际变化异常;土壤重量含水量数据异常问题归结为小于风干土含水量和大于理论饱和含水量的极端情况。通过对历史数据集质量控制后,可以对土壤水分观测数据进行有效推广应用,为针对土壤水分的研究提供重要科学基础。