China’s Recent Progresses in Polar Climate Change and Its Interactions with the Global Climate System

During the recent four decades since 1980,a series of modern climate satellites were launched,allowing for the measurement and record-keeping of multiple climate parameters,especially over the polar regions where traditional observations are difficult to obtain.China has been actively engaging in polar expeditions.Many observations were conducted during this period,accompanied by improved Earth climate models,leading to a series of insightful understandings concerning Arctic and Antarctic climate changes.Here,we review the recent progress China has made concerning Arctic and Antarctic climate change research over the past decade.The Arctic temperature increase is much higher than the global-mean warming rate,associated with a rapid decline in sea ice,a phenomenon called the Arctic Amplification.The Antarctic climate changes showed a zonally asymmetric pattern over the past four decades,with most of the fastest changes occurring over West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.The Arctic and Antarctic climate changes were driven by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and ozone loss,while tropical-polar teleconnections play important roles in driving the regional climate changes and extreme events over the polar regions.Polar climate changes may also feedback to the entire Earth climate system.The adjustment of the circulation in both the troposphere and the stratosphere contributed to the interactions between the polar climate changes and lower latitudes.Climate change has also driven rapid Arctic and Southern ocean acidification.Chinese researchers have made a series of advances in understanding these processes,as reviewed in this paper.

Experimental Investigation on the Plasma Torch Used for Scramjet Ignition Enhancement

A high frequency arc discharge plasma torch was specially designed for ignition enhancement in scramjet combustor. At first, the process of plasma injection into quiescent air was investigated experimentally through CCD camera and schlieren technology. Then, the energy property characterization of active particle distribution was measured by emission spectrometry. Several kinds of working gas under different injection pressures were compared. Finally, the typical supersonic flow-field structure with plasma cross-injection was obtained. The results show that plasma jet energy is concentrated near the jet axis, which has the maximum attenuation in the downstream as far as 2 cm from the outlet. The working gas and injection pressure have great effect on emission spectrometry and the process of jet expansion. The case with N2 under higher injection pressure shows better performance of energy exchanging process when comparing with air and argon. From the emission spectroscopy, we can see that plasma from nitrogen consists of nitrogen and oxygen atom mainly, whose intensity decreases with increasing distance from the nozzle, while it increases with the increase of pressure. When plasma was vertically injected into supersonic flow-field, bow shock wave and mixing layer structure were formed with thicken mixing layer, which helps enhance the mixing process between active particle and incoming air.

北冰洋海洋酸化和碳循环的研究进展

海洋响应大气CO_2升高,引起海水pH和碳酸钙饱和度下降,这一过程称为海洋酸化.海洋酸化可能会对海洋生物和生态系统造成严重危害.在过去的20年中,全球气候变化引起北冰洋发生一系列快速变化,包括:海表温度上升、海冰快速后退、太平洋入流水增多、北冰洋和大气环流异常、淡水储量增加、初级生产力变异等.全球气候变化所诱发的北极快速变化预计将放大北冰洋海洋酸化,通过CO_2吸收和碳输送,北冰洋在响应气候变化较其他大洋更快速和显著.本文以北冰洋近岸碳吸收和碳封存研究,海盆区域表层海水p CO_2变异机理研究,20年来西北冰洋的酸化水体扩张现象为主线,综述了北冰洋快速融冰背景下的区域碳循环研究进展,并分析了其酸化水体增长与过去20年的环境和气候变化之间的联系.

Conodont Biostratigraphy across the Permian-Triassic Boundary at the Xinmin Section,Guizhou,South China

A continuous sedimentation at the Xinmin Section, Anshun, Guihzou Province, with the Upper Permian Talung Formation dominated by bedded siliceous rocks, and the Lower Triassic Luolou Formation consisting mudstones and marls as well as siliceous mudstones at its basal part indicates that it represents a deeper-water basinal facies across the Permian-Triassic boundary. Based on a systematic conodont biostratigraphic work, nine conodont species belong to two genera have been identified in this study. It enable us to establish five conodont zones at this section, in ascending order, they are： Clarkina changxingensis Zone（beds 1-3-4-2）, Clarkina yini Zone（beds 4-3-5-1-1）, Clarkina meishanensis Zone（beds 5-1-2-5-2）, Hindeodus changxingensis Zone（beds 5-3-1-5-3-2） and Hindeodus parvus Zone（beds 5-3-3-5-3-4）, respectively. According to the first occurrence of Hindeodus parvus in bed 5-3-3, the Permian-Triassic boundary is placed at the base of bed 5-3-3. This conodont zonation of the Xinmin Section provides precise biostratigraphic framework for further investigations on the geological events across the Permian-Triassic boundary at this section. In addition, the new conodont data also reveals that several siliceous beds occurred at the basal Triassic. It provides an exception of Early Triassic Chert Gap.