Possible causes for the persistence barrier of SSTA in the South China Sea and the vicinity of Indonesia

The persistence barrier refers to the lag correlation of sea surface temperature anomalies (SSTA) showing a rapid and significant decline in a specific season, regardless of the starting month. This implies that there is a decrease in forecast skill for SSTA in this specific season. This paper investigates the possible causes for the persistence barrier of SSTA in the South China Sea (SCS) and its adjacent regions from the perspective of interannual-interdecadal time scales. The results show that the persistence barrier of SSTA exists not only in the SCS, but also in the vicinity of Indonesia south of the equator. The SCS barrier occurs around October--November, while the occurrence of the barrier in the Indonesia region is around November--December. For these two regions, the occurrence of the persistence barrier is closely associated with the interdecadal variability of SSTA, as well as the interannual variability. The persistence barriers in the SCS and the Indonesia region do not exist alone if the interdecadal variability is not considered, because SSTA have a short memory of less than 4 months, regardless of the starting month. Moreover, the influence of the interdecadal variability of SSTA on the persistence barrier of SSTA in the SCS and the Indonesia region may be associated with SSTA in the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific, but is not closely associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. However, compared with the spring persistence barrier (SPB) of ENSO, the close relationship between the persistence barriers in the SCS and the Indonesia region and the interdecadal variability is unique, since the ENSO SPB is not significantly affected by such variability. In addition, although the persistence barriers in both the SCS and the Indonesia region are quite obvious in strong ENSO cases, the interdecadal variability of SSTA also plays a non-negligible role in this relationship.     

气候变暖背景下降水持续性与相态变化的研究综述

持续性降水和固态降水（或近地面气温为0℃左右的降水）都能导致洪涝和低温雨雪冰冻等灾害性的极端事件,对人民群众生命和财产安全以及社会经济发展也会造成严重危害。目前中外围绕降水量、极端降水事件变化等已开展了大量研究,但在降水持续性和相态变化的特征及其影响机理方面的研究仍显不足。因此,围绕降水持续性和相态变化的相关研究,对近20余年来取得的一些重要研究进展进行回顾。研究指出,在气候变暖背景下降水持续性和相态变化的特征在全球范围内表现出了区域上的不一致性。有关降水持续性变化方面,中国南方地区持续性降水过程及其产生的降水量呈现增多趋势,但北方地区呈现减少的趋势,而西南地区长持续性降水呈下降趋势。至于降水相态变化方面,中国南方地区持续性雨雪冰冻事件在气候变暖背景下总体呈减少趋势。这些变化除了与气候变暖有关外,可能还与大气遥相关模态、低频振荡及ENSO事件等引起的大气环流异常有关。今后应该更多开展气候变暖背景下降水持续性和相态变化的特征、可能机理以及其与气候变暖的可能联系方面的研究,以期通过相关研究深入理解中国降水持续性与相态变化的规律、成因及其与旱涝、低温雨雪灾害等的联系,进一步加深对气候变暖背景下中国天气、气候的影响及其机理的认识。      

The distribution of Kendall's tau for testing the significance of cross-correlation in persistent data

Abstract

Kendall's tau (τ) has been widely used as a distribution-free measure of cross-correlation between two variables. It has been previously shown that persistence in the two involved variables results in the inflation of the variance of τ. In this paper, the full null distribution of Kendall's τ for persistent data with multivariate Gaussian dependence is derived, and an approximation to the full distribution is proposed. The effect of the deviation from the multivariate Gaussian dependence model on the distribution of τ is also investigated. As a demonstration, the temporal consistency and field significance of the cross-correlation between the North Hemisphere (NH) temperature time series in the period 1850–1995 and a set of 784 NH tree-ring width (TRW) proxies in addition to 105 NH tree-ring maximum latewood density (MXD) proxies are studied. When persistence is ignored, the original Mann-Kendall test gives temporally inconsistent results between the early half (1850–1922) and the late half (1923–1995) of the record. These temporal inconsistencies are largely eliminated when persistence is accounted for, indicating the spuriousness of a large portion of the identified cross-correlations. Furthermore, the use of the modified test in combination with a field significance test that is robust to spatial correlation indicates the absence of field significant cross-correlation in both halves of the record. These results have serious implications for the use of tree-ring data as temperature proxies, and emphasize the importance of utilizing the correct distribution of Kendall's τ in order to avoid the overestimation of the significance of cross-correlation between data that exhibit significant persistence.

Citation Hamed, K. H. (2011) The distribution of Kendall's tau for testing the significance of cross-correlation in persistent data. Hydrol. Sci. J. 56(5), 841–853.     

Long-term rainfall trends and change points in hot and cold arid regions of India

This study examined trends and change points in 100-year annual and seasonal rainfall over hot and cold arid regions of India. Using k-means clustering, 32 stations were classified into two clusters: the coefficient of variation for annual and seasonal rainfall was relatively high for Cluster-II compared to Cluster-I. Short-term and long-term persistence was more dominant in Cluster-II (entirely arid) and Cluster-I (partly arid), respectively. Trend tests revealed prominent increasing trends in annual and wet season rainfall of Cluster-II. Dry season rainfall increased by 1.09 mm year^?1 in the cold arid region. The significant change points in annual and wet season rainfall mostly occurred in the period 1941–1955 (hot and cold), and in the dry season in the period 1973–1975 (hot arid) and in 1949 (cold arid). The findings are useful for managing a surplus or deficiency of rainwater in the Indian arid region.

EDITOR A. Castellarin; ASSOCIATE EDITOR S. Kanae     

环境污染中三维捕食_被捕食系统生存和绝灭的阈值

研究了一类受环境污染的3种群系统,得到了三维捕食_被捕食系统持续生存与绝灭的阈值,并由此对系统的正平衡点的稳定性进行了分析。     

月平均位势高度场异常持续性初步分析

使用NCEP/NCAR的500hPa月平均位势高度场球函数展开系统资料，分析了北、南半球1、7月具有较大年际异常方差贡献的5种低阶球函数（全波数n=0-4)分量振幅异常的持续性，以及它们与热带太平洋海表温度年际异常的关系。结果表明：振幅异常的持续性随n增大迅速减小，明显的持续性只存在于少数低n值超长波分量；均匀球函数分量振幅异常的持续性显著，且存在季节、半球际差异；北、南半球均匀球函数分量（n=0)振幅异常呈准同步变化，它们与热带太平洋SSTA在ENSO尺度上准同步；南半球n=2的带型球函数分量振幅异常也具有较强的持续性，且其变化与热带太平洋SSTA在年代际尺度上准同步。     

A new measure for assessing the efficiency of hydrological data-driven forecasting models

Abstract

There is a lack of consistency and generality in assessing the performance of hydrological data-driven forecasting models, and this paper presents a new measure for evaluating that performance. Despite the fact that the objectives of hydrological data-driven forecasting models differ from those of the conventional hydrological simulation models, criteria designed to evaluate the latter models have been used until now to assess the performance of the former. Thus, the objectives of this paper are, firstly, to examine the limitations in applying conventional methods for evaluating the data-driven forecasting model performance, and, secondly, to present new performance evaluation methods that can be used to evaluate hydrological data-driven forecasting models with consistency and objectivity. The relative correlation coefficient (RCC) is used to estimate the forecasting efficiency relative to the naïve model (unchanged situation) in data-driven forecasting. A case study with 12 artificial data sets was performed to assess the evaluation measures of Persistence Index (PI), Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of efficiency (NSC) and RCC. In particular, for six of the data sets with strong persistence and autocorrelation coefficients of 0.966–0.713 at correlation coefficients of 0.977–0.989, the PIs varied markedly from 0.368 to 0.930 and the NSCs were almost constant in the range 0.943–0.972, irrespective of the autocorrelation coefficients and correlation coefficients. However, the RCCs represented an increase of forecasting efficiency from 2.1% to 37.8% according to the persistence. The study results show that RCC is more useful than conventional evaluation methods as the latter do not provide a metric rating of model improvement relative to naïve models in data-driven forecasting.

Editor D. Koutsoyiannis, Associate editor D. Yang

Citation Hwang, S.H., Ham, D.H., and Kim, J.H., 2012. A new measure for assessing the efficiency of hydrological data-driven forecasting models. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 57 (7), 1257–1274.     

广西持续性低温雨雪冰冻过程特征和气候成因分析

应用广西境内国家气象站逐日降水量、气温资料,定义了区域持续性低温雨雪冰冻过程。利用NCEP/NCAR逐日再分析等资料,使用合成分析等方法,研究了广西持续性低温雨雪冰冻过程的特征和气候成因。结果表明:(1)广西持续性低温雨雪冰冻过程在1980s之前平均出现次数为4次·10a^-1,过程平均日数为40d·10a^-1,而在1990s之后平均出现次数为2次·10a^-1,过程平均日数为23.7d·10a^-1。(2)持续性低温雨雪冰冻过程期间,亚洲大陆中低纬度地区冬季气温整体偏冷,500hPa位势高度距平场在亚洲50oN以北地区为正距平,以南为负距平,有大型稳定的长波斜脊横槽活动,华南上空由低层向高层有暖平流。     

中国极端降水事件的区域性和持续性研究

利用中国542个站1960-2003年逐日降水资料,分析中国极端降水事件的区域性和持续性,研究发现:滇西藏东一带极端降水的持续性较好,但该地区极端降水的区域性较差;长江以南地区夏季极端降水的区域性与持续性均较好,容易导致区域性洪涝灾害的发生;东南沿海冬季极端降水的区域性与持续性均较好,易形成成片且持续时间在3d或3d以上的极端(较强)降水事件;黄河中下游秋季极端降水的区域性与持续性均较好,该地区秋季发生洪涝的可能性较大;除新疆以外,东北、华北以及西北等大部分北方地区极端降水的持续性以及区域性均较差。     

甜水海钻孔有机碳R／S分析及其反映的气候环境变化持续性

通过对进行了等时处理的甜水海钻孔有机碳含量所做的Ｒ／Ｓ分析,发现其存在明显的Ｈｕｒｓｔ现象,Ｈｕｒｓｔ楷数Ｈ为０．７４,分数维Ｄ＝２－Ｈ＝１．２６,这与太平洋深海岩芯的氧同位素分析结果非常接近。Ｈｕｒｓｔ指数Ｈ＝０．７４〉０．５,表明甜水海地区气候环境演化存在的持续性（ｐｅｒｓｉｓｔｅｎｃｅ）。甜水海地区地处青藏高原腹地,这种气候环境演化的持续特征可能是晚新生代以来青藏高原持续构造抬升活动影响的结