A Case Study on a Quasi-Stationary Meiyu Front Bringing About Continuous Rainstorms with Piecewise Potential Vorticity Inversion

A 4-day persistent rainstorm resulting in serious flooding disasters occurred in the north of Fujian Province under the influences of a quasi-stationary Meiyu front during 5-8 June 2006. With 1°× 1° latitude and longitude NCEP reanalysis data and the ground surface rainfall, using the potential vorticity （PV） analysis and PV inversion method, the evolution of main synoptic systems, and the corresponding PV and PV perturbation （or PV anomalies） and their relationship with heavy rainfall along the Meiyu front are analyzed in order to investigate the physical mechanism of the formation, development, and maintenance of the Meiyu front. Furthermore, the PV perturbations related to different physics are separated to investigate their different roles in the formation and development of the Meiyu front. The results show： the formation and persistence of the Meiyu front in a quasi-WE orientation are mainly due to the maintenance of the high-pressure systems in its south/north sides （the West Pacific subtropical high/ the high pressure band extending from the Korean Peninsula to east of North China）. The Meiyu front is closely associated with the PV in the lower troposphere. The location of the positive PV perturbation on the Meiyu front matches well with the main heavy rainfall area along the Meiyu front. The PV inversion reveals that the balanced winds satisfying the nonlinear balanced assumption represent to a large extent the real atmospheric flow and its evolution basically reflects the variation of stream flow associated with the Meiyu front. The unbalanced flow forms the convergence band of the Meiyu front and it mainly comes from the high-pressure system in the north side of the Meiyu front. The positive PV perturbation related to latent heat release in the middle-lower troposphere is one of the main factors influencing the formation and development of the Meiyu front. The positive vorticity band from the total balanced winds is in accordance with the Meiyu front band and the magnitude of the posit     

A Diagnostic and Numerical Study on a Rainstorm in South China Induced by a Northward-Propagating Tropical System

A strong cyclonic wind perturbation generated in the northern South China Sea （SCS） moved northward quickly and developed into a mesoscale vortex in southwest Guangdong Province, and then merged with a southward-moving shear line from mid latitudes in the period of 21-22 May 2006, during which three strong mesoscale convective systems （MCSs） formed and brought about torrential rain or even cloudburst in South China. With the 1° ×1° NCEP （National Centers for Environment Prediction） reanalysis data and the Weather and Research Forecast （WRF） mesoscale model, a numerical simulation, a potential vorticity inversion analysis, and some sensitivity experiments are carried out to reveal the formation mechanism of this rainfall event. In the meantime, conventional observations, satellite images, and the WRF model outputs are also utilized to perform a preliminary dynamic and thermodynamic diagnostic analysis of the rainstorm systems. It is found that the torrential rain occurred in favorable synoptic conditions such as warm and moist environment, low lifting condensation level, and high convective instability. The moisture transport by strong southerly winds associated with the rapid northward advance of the cyclonic wind perturbation over the northern SCS provided the warm and moist condition for the formation of the excessive rain. Under the dynamic steering of a southwesterly flow ahead of a north trough and that on the southwest side of the West Pacific subtropical high, the mesoscale vortex （or the cyclonic wind perturbation）, after its genesis, moved northward and brought about enormous rain in most parts of Guangdong Province through providing certain lifting forcing for the triggering of mesoscale convection. During the development of the mesoscale vortex, heavy rainfall was to a certain extent enhanced by the mesoscale topography of the Yunwu Mountain in Guangdong. The effect of the Yunwu Mountain is found to vary under different prevailing wind directions and intensities. The location o     

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.     

Consistency of observed winter precipitation trends in northern Europe with regional climate change projections

Often it is claimed that the recent changes in northern European climate are at least partly anthropogenic even though a human influence has not yet been successfully detected. Hence we investigate whether the recent changes are consistent with regional climate change projections. Therefore, trends in winter (DJF) mean precipitation in northern Europe are compared to human induced changes as predicted by a set of four regional climate model simulations. The patterns of recent trends and predicted changes match reasonably well as indicated by pattern correlation and the similarity is very likely not random. However, the model projections generally underestimate the recent change in winter precipitation. That is, the signal-to-noise ratio of the anthropogenic precipitation change is either rather low or the presently used simulations are significantly flawed in their ability to project changes into the future. European trends contain large signals related to the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), of which a major unknown part may be unrelated to the anthropogenic signal. Therefore, we also examine the consistency of recent and projected changes after subtracting the NAO signal in both the observations and in the projections. It turns out that even after the removal of the NAO signal, the pattern of trends in the observations is similar to those projected by the models. At the same time, the magnitude of the trends is considerably reduced and closer to the magnitude of the change in the projections.     

一次无地面冷空气触发的西南涡特大暴雨分析

利用NCEP 1°×1°的再分析资料对2007年7月17日重庆西部的特大暴雨天气过程的环流背景、主要影响系统--西南涡的演变进行诊断分析.结果表明:(1)在有利的大尺度环流背景配合下,产生此次过程的主要影响系统为西南涡和低空急流,副热带高压的西进北抬为水汽的输送提供了有利的条件;(2)最强降水时段出现在西南涡的最强盛期,垂直螺旋度的大值中心位置和强弱变化与低涡及强降雨的位置和强度有很好的对应关系;(3)在此次过程中虽然无地面冷空气的触发,但由于高层较强的冷平流形成的干冷盖和低层的暖湿气流与强烈的上升运动的极佳配合,使得强对流天气得以发生,高层的干侵入成为此次过程的触发动力;(4)西南低涡上空的不同高度上不同强度的干侵入效应,使得高层高位涡下传,而高层高位涡区的下传和中低层高位涡区的加强,导致西南低涡的气旋性环流加强,降水增强.     

郑州市两次不同背景下特大暴雨诊断分析

利用NCEP资料,根据降水实况分布及各物理量分层平面分布,每隔6 h对特大暴雨中心区所在经、纬向带各物理量场作经、纬向垂直剖面图,结合高空观测图对郑州市两次特大暴雨发生的大环流形势场、触发特大暴雨发生的各物理量场进行诊断分析。结果表明:1)连续性特大暴雨区出现在低空急流轴的前方,一方面是由于低空急流前方水平辐合较强,另一方面低空急流对暖湿空气的输送,使大气不稳定度加强;局地短时性特大暴雨过程主要是冷空气侵入使冷暖湿空气团在郑州上空交汇,其对流不稳定能量释放所致。2)辐合线对暖湿空气的抬升运动起到动力加强作用,是触发中尺度雨团的根源,也是特大暴雨产生的根源。3)连续性暴雨发生、发展时,高空的反气旋起主导作用;局地短时性暴雨发生时,中低空的气旋辐合起主导作用。4)短时性特大暴雨天气,前期有较强的不稳定层结;连续性暴雨天气刚发生时,其前期存在较强的不稳定层结,在暴雨连续发生过程中不一定有强不稳定层结。5)连续性暴雨需要较强的水汽输送带,局地短时性暴雨不要求有明显的水汽输送。     

基于雷击分类体系的雷电电位差效应分析

鉴于雷击分类目前缺乏完整的体系,根据雷击危害方式对雷击进行了综合研究,将间接雷击分为两大类,由此提出了"雷电电位差效应"。对雷电反击、雷电地电位上升、雷电旁侧闪络等效应进行了阐述,并单独对接触电压和跨步电压进行分析。介绍了雷电电位差效应的防护方法,对安全距离做了说明。研究了雷电电位差效应与人身伤害的关系。分析表明:雷电电位差效应主要包括雷电反击、雷电地电位上升、雷电旁侧闪络以及与人身伤害有关的接触电压和跨步电压;雷电电位差效应的防护方法主要包括躲避、等电位连接和保持足够的安全距离。     

Improvement of Vertical Diffusion Analytic Schemes Under Stable Atmospheric Conditions

Based on gradient transport theory or K-theory, turbulent transport in the atmosphere has long been parameterized using the eddy diffusivity. Due to its simplicity, this approach has often been applied in many numerical models but rarely tested with observations. Here, the widely used O’Brien cubic polynomial approach has been validated together with an exponential approach against eddy diffusivity profiles determined from measurements and from large-eddy simulation data in stable conditions. Verification is completed by analyzing the variability effects on pollutant concentrations of two different vertical diffusion (K(z)) schemes incorporated in an atmospheric chemical model. It is shown that the analytical, exponential solution agrees better with observations than the O’Brien profile and should be used henceforth in practical applications.     

Influence of Thermal Effects on the Wind Field Within the Urban Environment

Micrometeorological conditions in the vicinity of urban buildings strongly influence the requirements that are imposed on building heating and cooling. The goal of the present study, carried out within the Advance Tools for Rational Energy Use towards Sustainability (ATREUS) European research network, is the evaluation of the wind field around buildings with walls heated by solar radiation. Two computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes were validated against extensive wind-tunnel observations to assess the influence of thermal effects on model performance. The code selected from this validation was used to simulate the wind and temperature fields for a summer day in a specific region of the city of Lisbon. For this study, the meteorological data produced by a non-hydrostatic mesoscale atmospheric model (MM5) were used as boundary conditions for a CFD code, which was further applied to analyze the effects of local roughness elements and thermodynamic conditions on the air flow around buildings. The CFD modelling can also provide the inflow parameters for a Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, used to evaluate the building energy budgets and to predict performance of the air-conditioning system. The main finding of the present three-dimensional analyses is that thermal forcing associated with the heating of buildings can significantly modify local properties of the air flow.     

On the Derivation of Input Parameters for Urban Canopy Models from Urban Morphological Datasets

Two techniques are analysed to derive mean street width and mean building width from morphological data of real cities: one based on a two-dimensional simplified morphology, and the other based on a three-dimensional regular simplified morphology. For each simplified morphology (two-dimensional and three-dimensional), the sky-view factors (street-to-sky) are computed and compared with the sky-view factors derived from the real morphology for selected districts of three European and two North American cities. The two-dimensional simplified morphology reproduces the real sky-view factors better than the three-dimensional morphology. Since many urban canopy parameterizations represent the city using simplified morphologies, this can be useful information for the derivation of input parameters for urban canopy parameterizations from real morphological data.