Ice Sheet-Thermohaline Circulation Interactions in a Climate Model of Intermediate Complexity

A vertically integrated dynamic ice sheet model is coupled to the atmosphere-ocean-sea ice-land surface climate model recently developed by Wang and Mysak (2000). The background lateral (east-west) ice sheet discharge rate used by Gallee et al. (1992) is reduced and the planetary emissivity is increased (to parameterize the cooling effect of a decrease of the atmospheric CO₂ concentration), in order to build up substantial ice sheets during a glacial period and hence set the stage for ice sheet-thermohaline circulation (THC) interactions. The following iceberg calving scheme is then introduced: when the maximum model height of the North American ice sheet reaches a critical value (2400 m), a prescribed lateral discharged rate is imposed on top of the background discharge rate for a finite time. Per a small prescribed discharge rate, repeated small iceberg calving events occur, which lead to millennial-scale climate cycles with small amplitudes. These are a crude representation of Dansgaard-Oeschger oscillations. Over one such cycle, the zonally averaged January surface air temperature (SAT) drops about 1.5°C at 72.5°N. However, a large prescribed lateral discharge rate leads to the shut down of the THC. In this case, the January SAT drops about 5°C at 72.5°N, the sea ice extent advances equatorward from 57.5° to 47.5°N and the net ice accumulation rate at the grid of maximum ice sheet height is reduced from 0.24 to 0.15 m/y. Since data strongly suggest that a collapsed THC was not a steady state during the last glacial, we restore the THC by increasing the vertical diffusivity in the North Atlantic Ocean for a finite time. The resulting climate cycles associated with conveyor-on and conveyor-off phases have much larger amplitudes; furthermore, the strong iceberg calving events lead to a larger loss of ice sheet mass and hence the period of the oscillations is longer (several thousand years). This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

科氏力对河口分汊的影响

以长江口、黄河口、珠江口、闽江口等几个分汊河口为例,分析了科氏力在河口分汊中的作用。结果表明,涨落潮流路分歧主要通过形成涨落潮冲刷槽和中央缓流区浅滩而逐渐使河口产生分汊;水面横比降则以横向环流和横向切滩两种形式,或堆积或冲刷,导致河口分汊。     

南海季风区地域性大气环流的结构

作者使用 NCEP/ NCAR再分析资料 ,在热带 30°S～ 30°N纬带用谐波分析方法分离出超长波之后 ,再采用环流诊断方法 ,发现南海季风区存在地域性环流系统。文中给出冬、夏季风期该系统的三维空间结构和相应的热源分布 ,讨论了该地域性环流系统对南海季风气候及其异常的作用 ,并探讨夏季风爆发北部先于南部的一种可能的气候原因。     

2021年10月山西一次罕见持续性强降水过程物理机制分析

利用气象观测资料、NCEP/NCAR 1°×1°再分析资料以及GDAS资料,对2021年10月2-7日山西持续性强降水天气过程进行分析。结果表明：稳定的乌拉尔山低槽后部冷空气扩散,中纬度短波槽东移,与副热带高压外围西南暖湿气流持续交汇,同时高低空急流耦合形成强烈上升运动,低层切变线和地面辐合线稳定维持,及低层水汽不断输送并形成辐合,为持续性强降水的发生发展提供有利动力和水汽条件。此次强降水过程分为对流性降水和稳定性降水2个阶段,2阶段水汽输送通道的源地、路径、高度均有明显差异,但水汽输送贡献率均以对流层中低层山西南侧的水汽输送占主导地位。降水开始前,对流层中上层存在对称不稳定,大气可降水量明显跃增;对流性降水阶段,干空气不断入侵,对流不稳定快速建立与释放,对流层中低层水汽辐合区与强上升气流配合,导致山西出现强对流天气。地形的阻挡、抬升及地形收缩作用,对局地极端强降水具有增幅作用。     

干旱区凝结水研究进展

凝结水是维系干旱、半干旱地区主要食物链的水分来源之一,具有重要的生态意义。较详细地列举了目前国内外在干旱区测定凝结量及其持续时间所采用的研究方法,从凝结水的数量特征以及时间格局两方面阐述了不同地域凝结水的时空差异性,并从气象因素、凝结面的类型及其位置、周边植被对其作用等方面综合分析了影响凝结水发生的主要因素,探讨了干旱区凝结水的生态作用及其意义,展望了干旱区凝结水未来的研究趋势。提出在未来的干旱区凝结水研究中应加强与气象学、生态学等多学科的交叉,从能量平衡角度加强对凝结水量的研究;同时,改进和规范凝结水的测量方法,开展荒漠植被对凝结水的生理响应研究以及凝结水对极端干旱胁迫植物的作用研究。     

鄂尔多斯高原地下水流系统的多层结构循环模式—来自深孔中PACKER系统分层水头测定的证据

地下水流系统和循环模式分析是研究地下水形成机理的基础,对正确认识和评价地下水资源具有重要意义。鄂尔多斯高原在含水系统和众多地下水排泄区的控制下,形成了多个不同规模、不同循环深度、相互独立的地下水流系统。PACKER系统分层试验测定的不同深度水头的数据证明,鄂尔多斯高原地下水流系统存在托斯多层水流模式,区域性水流系统一般包含浅循环、中间循环和深循环3个循环系统。浅循环系统的发育深度在200m以内,深循环系统的发育深度大于400m。     

大理州2005年初夏干旱成因探析

大理州2005年初夏出现了严重干旱气象事件.从500pHa高空环流特征、500pHa距平场特征、西太平洋副高特征量及北太平洋中低纬海温距平场、OLR距平场对这次干旱的成因进行了分析,分析结果表明：2005年初夏（4月1日～6月10日）降水异常偏少气温明显偏高是发生干旱的主要原因,高空大气环流异常、西太平洋副高持续偏强偏西、冷空气活动偏北是导致干旱的直接原因;孟加拉湾南部4月OLR场呈明显正距平,抑制低值系统的发展和东北移影响云南,是影响2005年大理初夏干旱重要原因;北太平洋中低纬海温特征与大理州初夏干旱有一定的遥相关性.     

Tectonically driven fluid flow and associated low-grade metamorphism during the Alpine compression in the eastern Iberian Chain (Spain)

Fluid inclusions and clay mineralogy of the Permo-Triassic rocks from the Espina and Espadà Ranges (SE Iberian Chain, Spain) have been investigated to establish their relationship with hydrothermal fluid circulation during the Alpine Orogeny. Primary fluid inclusions in quartz-filled tension gashes in Permo-Triassic sandstones reveal maximum temperatures around 230 °C and very constant salinities of 8.5% wt. eq. NaCl. Secondary fluid inclusions found in quartz from the Santonian Ba–Cu–Hg deposits show similar compositional and thermodynamic characteristics, denoting an Alpine recrystallization. Clay mineral composition of Permo-Triassic mudrocks is characterized by pyrophyillite, indicating low-grade metamorphic conditions. Field observations and experimental data suggest that the crystallization of quartz in tension gashes, the formation of secondary fluid inclusions and the development of the metamorphism are contemporaneous and related to fluid circulation during the Alpine compression. Fluid flow took place along the Hercynian fault system that was reactivated during the Mesozoic rift stage and inverted during the Alpine deformation.     

Rodent paleofaunas as indicators of climatic change in Europe during the last 125,000 years

This paper presents a quantitative reconstruction of the European late Pleistocene paleoclimate based on 72 rodent assemblages of five sequences from France, Germany and Bulgaria, covering the last interglacial-glacial cycle. They show a pattern of severe changes in temperature, with reduced precipitation during the coldest periods. A tentative correlation between the isotopic and palynological records and the paleotemperature changes is shown. These changes are consistent with variations in atmospheric circulation patterns in response to an expanding-retracting Fennoscandian ice-sheet. They can be attributed to the enhancement-weakening of the Scandinavian-Polar anticyclone and its associated dry winds, the south-north shifting of the North Atlantic Polar Front, and the varying supply of moist air from the Atlantic. Qualitative paleoenvironmental analysis shows broadleaved-deciduous forests in France and Bulgaria during most of the studied period. Taiga and tundra appeared in eastern France during the lower Würm. The German sequence indicates the presence of coniferous forests. These results are broadly consistent with other paleobiological records (mammalian, avian and insect faunas, isotopic record in dental tissue, palynology). The main discrepancies with the paleoclimate inferred from the palynological record are found during the coldest periods and are probably due to the interaction between vegetation, climate, and atmospheric CO₂ levels.     

Abrupt climate change: An alternative view

Hypotheses and inferences concerning the nature of abrupt climate change, exemplified by the Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events, are reviewed. There is little concrete evidence that these events are more than a regional Greenland phenomenon. The partial coherence of ice core δ¹⁸O and CH₄ is a possible exception. Claims, however, of D-O presence in most remote locations cannot be distinguished from the hypothesis that many regions are just exhibiting temporal variability in climate proxies with approximately similar frequency content. Further suggestions that D-O events in Greenland are generated by shifts in the North Atlantic ocean circulation seem highly implausible, given the weak contribution of the high latitude ocean to the meridional flux of heat. A more likely scenario is that changes in the ocean circulation are a consequence of wind shifts. The disappearance of D-O events in the Holocene coincides with the disappearance also of the Laurentide and Fennoscandian ice sheets. It is thus suggested that D-O events are a consequence of interactions of the windfield with the continental ice sheets and that better understanding of the wind field in the glacial periods is the highest priority. Wind fields are capable of great volatility and very rapid global-scale teleconnections, and they are efficient generators of oceanic circulation changes and (more speculatively) of multiple states relative to great ice sheets. Connection of D-O events to the possibility of modern abrupt climate change rests on a very weak chain of assumptions.