蓝色狂想曲——余光中散文《南太极》解读

余光中这一代作家有着特殊的经历与遭遇,他们从大陆到台湾,从台湾到海外,他们经过了双重的放逐,离开故土越走越远了。尽管身置物质发达的西方社会,但在精神上却是痛苦的。这种思乡不仅是地理的,更是精神的,历史文化的,中华民族的。这种“中国情结”是对中华民族的认同、归依;是对故乡故土的思念、眷恋;是对文化传统的挚爱、归宿。此时的游子,拒绝西方,即使身处蓝色文明的包围之中,也无法阻断对民族文化的向往。《南太极》以其精妙的语言,铺叙了传统文化和西方文明的影响和冲突,奏响了一曲颂扬民族文化的凯歌。

Meridional distribution of 226Ra in the west Pacific and the Southern Ocean surface waters

During the 134 （1996 1997） and the 19th （2002-2003） Chinese National Antarctica Research Expeditions, we collected 60 discrete surface seawater samples along the cruise from the Chanjiang River （Yangtze） estuary （30^.59%, 122^.26＇E） through Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, and the Eastern Indian Ocean to Prydz Bay, Antarctica （69^.10＇S, 74^.30＇E）, and analyzed them for the 226Ra specific activity. The 226Ra specific activity of the Chanjiang River estuary surface water （3.15 Bq/m3） was found to be the highest among all the surface samples because of the desorption of 226Ra from riverine particles. Between Chanjiang River estuary and 40^.S, 226Ra specific activity was found to be relatively uniform with a mean value of 1.07 Bq/m3 （n= 19, SD=0.14）, similar to that of the open ocean. From 40^.S to 65^.S, 226Ra specific activity increased intensively, then decreased moderately further southwards. Near the Antarctic shore, it increased again, to 2.31 Bq/m3. This distribution was controlled by a combination of deep water upwelling, Southern Ocean fronts, water mixing and the continental 226Ra import. In Prydz Bay and the adjacent sea area, the mean 226Ra activity value was 2.26 Bq/m3 （n=31, SD=0.28）, with a relatively higher value outside of the bay and low 226Ra activity value in the center of the bay. This was consistent with the topography and hydrological setting of the bay. In addition, we extended the study area northward to the Arctic, by combining the published Z26Ra dataset for surface water from the Bering Sea to the Japan Sea. We also discuss the 226Ra distribution of high latitude oceanic surface water and its mechanisms.

Evaluation of the performance of CMIP5 and CMIP6 models in simulating the South Pacific Quadrupole-ENSO relationship

The South Pacific Quadrupole(SPQ) is the extratropical South Pacific’s second principal sea surface temperature mode.Previous observational studies have shown that the SPQ promotes the onset of the El Nino-Southern Oscillation(ENSO).The present study evaluates and compares simulations of the SPQ-ENSO relationship by 20 climate models from CMIP6 and their corresponding 20 previous models from CMIP5.It is found that 16 of the20 pairs of models are able to consistently reproduce the spatial pattern of the SPQ.In terms of simulating the SPQ-ENSO relationship,9 of the 16 CMIP6 models show significant improvement over their previous CMIP5 models.The multi-model ensemble(MME) of these 16 CMIP6 models simulates the SPQ-ENSO connection more realistically than the CMIP5 MME.Further analysis shows that the performance of the model simulations in reproducing the SPQ-ENSO relationship is strongly dependent on their ability to simulate the SPQ-related surface air-sea coupling processes over the southwestern and southeastern South Pacific,as well as the response of the SPQ-related equatorial subsurface ocean temperature anomalies.The improvement of the CMIP6 models in simulating these two processes is responsible for the improved performance of the CMIP6 models over their CMIP5 counterparts in simulating the SPQ-ENSO relationship.

Variability of Antarctic sea ice extent over the past 200 years

While Arctic sea ice has been decreasing in recent decades that is largely due to anthropogenic forcing,the extent of Antarctic sea ice showed a positive trend during 1979–2015, followed by an abrupt decrease. The shortness of the satellite record limits our ability to quantify the possible contribution of anthropogenic forcing and internal variability to the observed Antarctic sea ice variability. In this study,ice core and fast ice records with annual resolution from six sites are used to reconstruct the annualresolved northernmost latitude of sea ice edge(NLSIE) for different sectors of the Southern Ocean, including the Weddell Sea(WS), Bellingshausen Sea(BS), Amundsen Sea(AS), Ross Sea(RS), and the Indian and western Pacific Ocean(Ind WPac). The linear trends of the NLSIE are analyzed for each sector for the past100–200 years and found to be à0.08°, à0.17°, +0.07°, +0.02°, and à0.03° per decade(!95% confidence level) for the WS, BS, AS, RS, and Ind WPac, respectively. For the entire Antarctic, our composite NLSIE shows a decreasing trend(à0.03° per decade, 99% confidence level) during the 20 th century, with a rapid decline in the mid-1950 s. It was not until the early 1980 s that the observed increasing trend occurred. A comparison with major climate indices shows that the long-term linear trends in all five sectors are largely dominated by the changes in the Southern Annular Mode(SAM). The multi-decadal variability in WS,BS, and AS is dominated by the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation, whereas that in the Ind WPac and RS is dominated by the SAM.

A 2680-year record of sea ice extent in the Ross Sea and the associated atmospheric circulation derived from the DT401 East Antarctic ice core

Long time series of Antarctic sea ice extent （SIE） are important for climate research and model forecasting. A historic ice extent in the Ross Sea in early austral winter was rebuilt through sea salt ions in the DT401 ice core in interior East Antarctica. El Nino-Southern Oscillation （ENSO） had a significant influence on the sea salt deposition in DT401 through its influence on the Ross Sea SIE and the transport of sea salt inland. Spectral analysis also supported the influence of ENSO with a significant 2-6 a periodicity band. In addition, statistically significant decadal （10 a） and pentadecadal （50-70 a） periodicities suggested the existence of a teleconnection from the Pacific decadal oscillation （PDO）, which originated from sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The first eigenvector of the empirical orthogonal function analysis （EOF1） showed lower values during the Medieval Warm Period （MWP）, while higher values were found in the Little Ice Age （LIA）. A higher frequency of ENSO events were found in the cold climatic stage, The post 1800 AD period was occupied by significant fluctuations of the EOF1, and PDO may be one of the influencing factors. The EOF1 values showed moderate fluctuations from 680 BC to 1000 AD, showing that the climate was relatively stable in this period.