A STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF MICROPHYSICAL PROCESSES ON TYPHOON NIDA(2016) USING A NEW DOUBLE-MOMENT MICROPHYSICS SCHEME IN THE WEATHER RESEARCH AND FORECASTING MODEL

The basic structure and cloud features of Typhoon Nida(2016) are simulated using a new microphysics scheme(Liuma) within the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model. Typhoon characteristics simulated with the Liuma microphysics scheme are compared with observations and those simulated with a commonly-used microphysics scheme(WSM6). Results show that using different microphysics schemes does not significantly alter the track of the typhoon but does significantly affect the intensity and the cloud structure of the typhoon. Results also show that the vertical distribution of cloud hydrometeors and the horizontal distribution of peripheral rainband are affected by the microphysics scheme. The mixing ratios of rain water and graupel correlate highly with the vertical velocity component and equivalent potential temperature at the typhoon eye-wall region. According to the simulation with WSM 6 scheme,it is likely that the very low typhoon central pressure results from the positive feedback between hydrometeors and typhoon intensity. As the ice-phase hydrometeors are mostly graupel in the Liuma microphysics scheme, further improvement in this aspect is required.

Revisiting the Mg isotopic systematics of siliciclastic components of sediments and sedimentary rocks:A new geochemical proxy of continental weathering in Earth's history

The Mg isotopic compositions of siliciclastic components(δ^(26)Mg_(sili))of sediments and sedimentary rocks have been commonly used to constrain the intensity of continental weathering,based on observations of,(1)an upward enrichment of26Mg in modern weathering profiles,(2)preferential uptake of26Mg in soil clays,and(3)general positive correlations between weathering intensities andδ^(26)Mg_(sili)values.However,not all weathering profiles display an upward increase ofδ^(26)Mg_(sili),and not all soil clays enrich in26Mg,complicating the interpretations ofδ^(26)Mg_(sili)data of sediments and sedimentary rocks.To further explore the controls ofδ^(26)Mg_(sili)of sediments and sedimentary rocks,here we measuredδ^(26)Mg_(sili),mineralogical compositions and major element compositions of deep sea sediments from South China Sea(SCS)and carbonate rock samples from two late Paleozoic sections in South China.Carbonate samples show decreasing trends of both normalized Mg concentration(Mgnorm)andδ^(26)Mg_(sili)values with the increase of weathering intensity,while SCS sediments samples do not show any correlation between Mgnormorδ^(26)Mg_(sili)values and weathering intensity.A three-stages weathering model is developed to explain the observed Mgnorm andδ^(26)Mg_(sili)data.In the new model,weathering can be divided into three stages,(1)the preliminary weathering stage characterized by dissolution of primary minerals and formation of secondary clay minerals in saprolite,(2)the transitional stage with massive vermiculite and chlorite formation on the bottom of soil,and(3)the advanced stage showing dissolution of vermiculite and chlorite in the top of soil.The new model explains anδ^(26)Mg_(sili)increase and Mgnormdecrease with an increase weathering intensity in preliminary weathering stage and decrease of Mgnormandδ^(26)Mg_(sili)with increase weathering intensity in advanced weathering stage.The revised weathering model warrants the application of Mg isotope in the study of continental weathering in deep time.

Simulations of Microphysics and Precipitation in a Stratiform Cloud Case over Northern China:Comparison of Two Microphysics Schemes

Using the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model with two different microphysics schemes,the Predicted Particle Properties(P3)and the Morrison double-moment parameterizations,we simulated a stratiform rainfall event on 20–21 April 2010.The simulation output was compared with precipitation and aircraft observations.The aircraft-observed moderate-rimed dendrites and plates indicated that riming contributed significantly to ice particle growth at the mature precipitation stage.Observations of dendrite aggregation and capped columns suggested that aggregation coexisted with deposition or riming and played an important role in producing many large particles.The domain-averaged values of the 24-h surface precipitation accumulation from the two schemes were quite close to each other.However,differences existed in the temporal and spatial evolutions of the precipitation distribution.An analysis of the surface precipitation temporal evolution indicated faster precipitation in Morrison,while P3 indicated slower rainfall by shifting the precipitation pattern eastward toward what was observed.The differences in precipitation values between the two schemes were related to the cloud water content distribution and fall speeds of rimed particles.P3 simulated the stratiform precipitation event better as it captured the gradual transition in the mass-weighted fall speeds and densities from unrimed to rimed particles.

Increases in Anthropogenic Heat Release from Energy Consumption Lead to More Frequent Extreme Heat Events in Urban Cities

With economic development and rapid urbanization,increases in Gross Domestic Product and population in fastgrowing cities since the turn of the 21st Century have led to increases in energy consumption.Anthropogenic heat flux released to the near-surface atmosphere has led to changes in urban thermal environments and severe extreme temperature events.To investigate the effects of energy consumption on urban extreme temperature events,including extreme heat and cold events,a dynamic representation scheme of anthropogenic heat release(AHR)was implemented in the Advanced Research version of the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model,and AHR data were developed based on energy consumption and population density in a case study of Beijing,China.Two simulations during 1999−2017 were then conducted using the developed WRF model with 3-km resolution with and without the AHR scheme.It was shown that the mean temperature increased with the increase in AHR,and more frequent extreme heat events were produced,with an annual increase of 0.02−0.19 days,as well as less frequent extreme cold events,with an annual decrease of 0.26−0.56 days,based on seven extreme temperature indices in the city center.AHR increased the sensible heat flux and led to surface energy budget changes,strengthening the dynamic processes in the atmospheric boundary layer that reduce AHR heating efficiency more in summer than in winter.In addition,it was concluded that suitable energy management might help to mitigate the impact of extreme temperature events in different seasons.

A stamp based exploration framework for numerical weather forecast

Numerical weather simulation data usually comprises various meteorological variables, such as precipitation, temperature and pressure. In practical applications, data generated with several different numerical simulation models are usually used together by forecasters to generate the final forecast. However, it is difficult for forecasters to obtain a clear view of all the data due to its complexity. This has been a great limitation for domain experts to take advantage of all the data in their routine work. In order to help explore the multi-variate and multi-model data, we propose a stamp based exploration framework to assist domain experts in analyzing the data. The framework is used to assist domain experts in detecting the bias patterns between numerical simulation data and observation data. The exploration pipeline originates from a single meteorological variable and extends to multiple variables under the guidance of a designed stamp board. Regional data patterns can be detected by analyzing distinctive stamps on the board or generating extending stamps using the Boolean set operations. Experiment results show that some meteorological phenomena and regional data patterns can be easily detected through the exploration. These can help domain experts conduct the data analysis efficiently and further guide forecasters in producing reliable weather forecast.

An Assessment of Potential Economic Gain from Weather Forecast Based Irrigation Scheduling for Marginal Farmers in Karnataka, Southern State in India

This study is aimed to assess the usefulness of weather forecasts for irrigation scheduling in crops to economize water use. The short-term gains for the farmers come from reducing costs of irrigation with the help of advisory for when not to irrigate because rain is predicted (risk-free because the wrong forecast only delays irrigation within tolerance). Here, a quantitative assessment of saving (indirect income) if irrigation is avoided as rain is imminent (as per forecast), using a five-year archived forecast data over Karnataka state at hobli (a cluster of small villages) level is presented. Estimates showed that the economic benefits to the farmers from such advisories were significant. The potential gain in annual income from such forecast-based irrigation scheduling was of the order of 10% - 15%. Our analysis also indicated that the use of advisory by a small percentage of more than 10 million marginal farmers (landholding < 3 acres) in Karnataka could lead to huge cumulative savings of the order of many crores.

A Hybrid Methodology for Short Term Temperature Forecasting

Developing a reliable weather forecasting model is a complicated task, as it requires heavy IT resources as well as heavy investments beyond the financial capabilities of most countries. In Lebanon, the prediction model used by the civil aviation weather service at Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut (BRHIA) is the ARPEGE model, (0.5) developed by the weather service in France. Unfortunately, forecasts provided by ARPEGE have been erroneous and biased by several factors such as the chaotic character of the physical modeling equations of some atmospheric phenomena (advection, convection, etc.) and the nature of the Lebanese topography. In this paper, we proposed the time series method ARIMA (Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average) to forecast the minimum daily temperature and compared its result with ARPEGE. As a result, ARIMA method shows better mean accuracy (91%) over the numerical model ARPEGE (68%), for the prediction of five days in January 2017. Moreover, back to five months ago, in order to validate the accuracy of the proposed model, a simulation has been applied on the first five days of August 2016. Results have shown that the time series ARIMA method has offered better mean accuracy (98%) over the numerical model ARPEGE (89%) for the prediction of five days of August 2016. This paper discusses a multiprocessing approach applied to ARIMA in order to enhance the efficiency of ARIMA in terms of complexity and resources.

Impacts of Roof/Ground Mitigation Strategies on Improving the Urban Thermal Environment and Human Comfort over the Yangtze River Delta, China

The combined effects of global warming and the urban heat islands exacerbate the risk of urban heat stress. It is crucial to implement effective cooling measures in urban areas to improve the comfort of the thermal environment. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting Model(WRF), coupled with a single-layer Urban Canopy Model(UCM), was used to study the impact of heat mitigation strategies. In addition, a 5-km resolution land-cover dataset for China(ChinaLC), which is based on satellite remote sensing data, was adjusted and used, and 18 groups of numerical experiments were designed, to increase the albedo and vegetation fraction of roof/ground parameters. The experiments were conducted for four heatwave events that occurred in the summer of 2013 in the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration of China. The simulated results demonstrated that, for the single roof/ground schemes, the mitigation effects were directly proportional to the albedo and greening. Among all the experimental schemes, the superposed schemes presented better cooling effects. For the ground greening scheme, with similar net radiation flux and latent heat flux, its storage heat was lower than that of the roof greening scheme, resulting in more energy flux into the atmosphere, and its daytime cooling effect was not as good as that of the roof greening scheme. In terms of human thermal comfort(HTC), the improvement achieved by the ground greening scheme was better than any other single roof/ground schemes, because the increase in the relative humidity was small. The comprehensive evaluation of the mitigation effects of different schemes on the thermal environment presented in this paper provides a theoretical basis for improving the urban environment through rational urban planning and construction.

An Objective Approach to Generating Multi-Physics Ensemble Precipitation Forecasts Based on the WRF Model

Selecting proper parameterization scheme combinations for a particular application is of great interest to the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model users.This study aims to develop an objective method for identifying a set of scheme combinations to form a multi-physics ensemble suitable for short-range precipitation forecasting in the Greater Beijing area.The ensemble is created by using statistical techniques and some heuristics.An initial sample of 90 scheme combinations was first generated by using Latin hypercube sampling(LHS).Then,after several rounds of screening,a final ensemble of 40 combinations were chosen.The ensemble forecasts generated for both the training and verification cases using these combinations were evaluated based on several verification metrics,including threat score(TS),Brier score(BS),relative operating characteristics(ROC),and ranked probability score(RPS).The results show that TS of the final ensemble improved by 9%-33%over that of the initial ensemble.The reliability was improved for rain≤10 mm day^-1,but decreased slightly for rain>10 mm day^-1 due to insufficient samples.The resolution remained about the same.The final ensemble forecasts were better than that generated from randomly sampled scheme combinations.These results suggest that the proposed approach is an effective way to select a multi-physics ensemble for generating accurate and reliable forecasts.

Numerical weather modeling-based slant tropospheric delay estimation and its enhancement by GNSS data

Unmitigated tropospheric delay is one of the major error sources in precise point positioning(PPP).Precise Slant Tropospheric Delay(STD)estimation could help to provide cleaner observables for PPP,and improve its convergence,accuracy,and stability.STD is difficult to model accurately due to the rapid spatial and temporal variation of the water vapor in the troposphere.In the traditional approach,the STD is mapped from the zenith direction,which assumes a spherically symmetric local tropospheric profile and has limitations.In this paper,a new approach of directly estimating the STD from high resolution numerical weather modeling(NWM)products is introduced.This approach benefits from the best available meteorological information to improve real time STD estimation,with the RMS residual lower than 3.5 cm above 15°elevation,and 2 cm above 30°.Therefore,the new method can provide sufficient accuracy to improve PPP convergence time.To improve the performance of the new method in highly variable tropospheric conditions,a correction scheme is proposed which combines NWM information with multi-GNSS observations from a network of local continuously operating reference stations.It is demonstrated through a case study that this correction scheme is quite effective in reducing the STD estimation residuals and PPP convergence time.

Challenges in Developing Finite-Volume Global Weather and Climate Models with Focus on Numerical Accuracy

High-resolution global non-hydrostatic gridded dynamic models have drawn significant attention in recent years in conjunction with the rising demand for improving weather forecasting and climate predictions.By far it is still challenging to build a high-resolution gridded global model,which is required to meet numerical accuracy,dispersion relation,conservation,and computation requirements.Among these requirements,this review focuses on one significant topic—the numerical accuracy over the entire non-uniform spherical grids.The paper discusses all the topic-related challenges by comparing the schemes adopted in well-known finite-volume-based operational or research dynamical cores.It provides an overview of how these challenges are met in a summary table.The analysis and validation in this review are based on the shallow-water equation system.The conclusions can be applied to more complicated models.These challenges should be critical research topics in the future development of finite-volume global models.

Verification of tropical cyclones(TC)wind structure forecasts from global NWP models and ensemble prediction systems(EPSs)

Forecasting wind structure of tropical cyclone(TC)is vital in assessment of impact due to high winds using Numerical Weather Prediction(NWP)model.The usual verification technique on TC wind structure forecasts are based on grid-to-grid comparisons between forecast field and the actual field.However,precision of traditional verification measures is easily affected by small scale errors and thus cannot well discriminate the accuracy or effectiveness of NWP model forecast.In this study,the Method for Object-Based Diagnostic Evaluation(MODE),which has been widely adopted in verifying precipitation fields,is utilized in TC’s wind field verification for the first time.The TC wind field forecast of deterministic NWP model and Ensemble Prediction System(EPS)of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts(ECMWF)over the western North Pacific and the South China Sea in 2020 were evaluated.A MODE score of 0.5 is used as a threshold value to represent a skillful(or good)forecast.It is found that the R34(radius of 34 knots)wind field structure forecasts within 72 h are good regardless of DET or EPS.The performance of R50 and R64 is slightly worse but the R50 forecasts within 48 h remain good,with MODE exceeded 0.5.The R64forecast within 48 h are worth for reference as well with MODE of around 0.5.This study states that the TC wind field structure forecast by ECMWF is skillful for TCs over the western North Pacific and the South China Sea.

Effects of Land Use Changes Across Different Urbanization Periods on Summer Rainfall in the Pearl River Delta Core Area

The Pearl River Delta(PRD)is one of the three urban agglomerations in China that have experienced rapid development.For this study,a core area of the PRD was identified,comprising the highly urbanized areas of Guangzhou,Foshan,Zhongshan,Zhuhai,Shenzhen,and Dongguan Cities.The expansion of these urban areas was tracked across three time periods—the year population urbanization rate exceeded 70%(2000),18 years before(1982),and 18 years after(2018).This study used the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model to explore summer rainfall changes across different urbanization periods in the PRD core area.The results show that urban land expansion mainly occurred in the post urbanization period.Rainfall changes acros s different urbanization periods were roughly consistent with previously observed spatial and temporal changes accompanying urban expansion in the PRD core area.Extreme rainfall mainly increased in the post urbanization period,shifting rainstorm center towards the PRD core area.Further causal analysis revealed that land use changes affected rainfall by altering thermodynamics and water vapor transfer.The urban expansion changed the surface energy balance,resulting in increased surface heating and heat island effects.The heat island effects thickened the planetary boundary layer and increased vertical wind speeds,which initiated dry island effects,thereby causing more water vapor transportation to the atmosphere.Consequently,rainstorms and extreme rainfall events have become concentrated in urban areas.

Effect of Using Land Use Data with Building Characteristics on Urban Weather Simulations:A High Temperature Event in Shanghai

Land use data with building characteristics are important for modeling the impacts of urban morphology on local climate.In this study,an extreme heat event in Shanghai,China,was simulated by using a WRF/BEP+BEM(Weather Research and Forecasting/Building Effect Parameterization+Building Energy Model)model.We incorporated local climate zone(LCZ)land use data that resolved urban morphology using 10 classes of building parameters.The simulation was compared to a control case based on MODIS(Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)land use data.The findings are as follows:(1)the LCZ data performed better than the MODIS data for simulating 10-m wind speed.An increase in building height led to the wind speed to decrease by 0.6-1.4 m s^(-1)in the daytime and by 0.2-0.7 m s^(-1)at nighttime.(2)High-rise buildings warmed the air by trapping radiation in the urban canyon.This warming effect was partially offset by the cooling effect of building shadows in the day.As a result,the 2-m temperature increased by 0.8℃ at night but only by 0.4℃ during the day.(3)Heterogeneous urban surfaces increased the 50-m turbulent kinetic energy by 0.4 m^(2) s^(-2),decreased the 10-m wind speed by 1.8 m s^(-1)in the daytime,increased the surface net radiation by 45.1 W m^(2)-,and increased the 2-m temperature by 1.5℃ at nighttime.(4)The LCZ data modified the atmospheric circulation between land and ocean.The shadowing effect reduced the air temperature differences between land and ocean and weakened the sea breeze.Moreover,high-rise buildings obstructed sea breezes,restricting their impact to a smaller portion(10 km along the wind direction)of inland areas compared to that with MODIS.

Sensitivity of Typhoon Lingling(2019)simulations to horizontal mixing length and planetary boundary layer parameterizations

Forecasting the intensity of typhoons is a difficult problem in numerical weather prediction.It is subject to many factors,among which the selection of physical parameterization schemes for the model is a hot topic of research.In this study,the effects of horizontal mixing length(represented by h_diff)and planetary boundary layer(PBL)schemes were investigated.Six idealized and four operational sensitivity experiments were designed based on simulation of the typhoon Lingling,which occurred over the western Pacific in 2019,using the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting model.The results of the idealized experiments showed that,as h_diff was increased,the slope of the typhoon eye area also increased,and its intensity became stronger.On the other hand,the results of the sensitivity experiments indicated that the intensity of the simulated typhoon was sensitive to the choice of PBL scheme,with the forecast bias of the QNSE(Quasi-Normal Scale Elimination)scheme being smaller than that of the GFDL(Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory)scheme.Angular momentum budget analyses indicated that,when increasing the h_diff,the convergence of angular momentum was larger in the boundary layer,which led to a faster spin-up of the vortex,further increasing the intensity of the typhoon.From the calculated horizontal and vertical vortex spread it was found that,when the h_diff was increased,the corresponding horizontal and vertical diffusion eddies also showed an increasing trend,which was also the reason for the strengthening of the typhoon.Meanwhile,the forecast bias decreased significantly with increasing horizontal mixing length when using the same PBL scheme.

Improvement of an Extreme Heavy Rainfall Simulation Using Nudging Assimilation

From 21 to 22 July 2012, Beijing and its surrounding areas suffered from an extreme precipitation event that was unprecedented relative to the past 61 years, and the event caused 79 deaths and reported direct economic losses of11.64 billion Yuan. However, current models have difficulty to simulate the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of such events. Therefore, improved simulations of these extreme precipitation processes are needed. In this study, nudging methods, including grid nudging(GN) and spectral nudging(SN), and more accurate surface type data retrieved from remote sensing were used in the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model to simulate this extreme precipitation case. When the default city underlay surface of the WRF model was replaced by a more accurate urban surface(NU), the precipitation intensity could be better simulated, but the peak moment of precipitation seriously lagged. Although the peak precipitation intensity simulated by the GN experiment was weak, the simulated precipitation time was basically consistent with the observations. Using GN in only the outside domain could better simulate precipitation peaks, while using GN in both the inside and outside domains could better simulate the spatial distribution characteristics of precipitation. Additionally, the precipitation from GN could be better simulated than that from SN. Overall, the two nudging methods could contribute to better simulations of this case because the nudging methods could improve the simulations of 500-hPa geopotential height, 850-hPa water vapor transport, and low-level weather systems, which are the key factors in adjusting the spatial and temporal distributions of precipitation. This study is the basis for the investigation of the mechanism and attribution of extreme precipitation processes,and the results are of great significance for promoting understanding of and mitigating disasters caused by extreme precipitation.