Spatiotemporal variations of maximum seasonal freeze depth in 1950s–2007 over the Heihe River Basin, Northwest China

Investigation on spatiotemporal variations of maximum seasonal freeze depth （MSFD） over the Heihe River Basin is of great importance for systematic understanding of regional climate and environmental change, ecological-hydrological processes, water resources assessment, construction and resource development. Based on soil and air temperatures at the meteorological stations of the China Meteorological Administration （CMA） over the Heihe River Basin, MSFDs time series are structured into a composite time series over the 1960-2007 period. Evaluating the averaged MSFD time series for 1960 2007 reveals a statistically significant trend of 4.0 cm/decade or a net change of-19.2 cm for the 48-year period over the basin. The MSFD had significantly negative correlation with mean annual air temperature （MAAT）, winter air temperature, mean annual ground surface temperature （MAGST）, degree days of thawing for the air （DDTa） as well as for the surface （DDTs）, and degree days of freezing for the surface （DDFs）. While there was significantly positive correlation between DDF,. and MSFD time series, MSFD was deeper and changed greatly in the Heihe River source area. It was shallower in the east-central basin and gradually deepened in other sections of the basin. The MSFD distribution pattern in 2003-2005 is consistent with that of averaged degree days of freezing for air （DDFa） in 1960-2007. However, the maximum of MSFD may not be accurate, because there is no long term observation data in the deep seasonally frozen ground regions near the lower boundary of permafrost. With increasing elevation, averaged DDFa increased at a rate of 51.6 ℃-day/100m, therefore, the MSFG and the date reaching MSFG became deeper and later, respectively.

The relation between the Mindanao Current and Mindanao Undercurrent on seasonal scale

The ocean general circulation model for the earth simulator（OFES） products is applied to estimate the transports of the Mindanao Current（MC） and the Mindanao undercurrent（MUC） and explore the relation between them on seasonal scale. In general, the MUC is composed of the lower part of the Southern Pacific Tropical Water（SPTW）and Antarctic Intermediate Water（AAIW）. While the deep northward core below 1 500 m is regarded as a portion of MUC. Both salinity and potential density restrictions become more reasonable to estimate the transports of MC/MUC as the properties of water mass having been taken into consideration. The climatological annual mean transport of MC is（37.4±5.81）×10~6 m^3/s while that of MUC is（23.92±6.47）×10~6 m^3/s integrated between 26.5 σ_θ and 27.7 σ_θ, and（17.53±5.45）×10~6 m^3/s integrated between 26.5 σ_θ and 27.5 σ_θ in the OFES. The variations of MC and MUC have good positive correlation with each other on the seasonal scale： The MC is stronger in spring and weaker in fall, which corresponds well with the MUC, and the correlation coefficient of them is 0.67 in the OFES.The same variations are also appeared in hybrid coordinate ocean model（HYCOM） results. Two sensitive experiments based on HYCOM are conducted to explore the relation between MC and MUC. The MUC（26.5〈σ_θ〈27.7） is strengthening as the MC increases with the enhancement of zonal wind field. It is shown,however, that the main part of the increasement is the deeper northward high potential density water（HPDW）,while the AAIW almost remains stable, SPTW decreases, and vice versa.