An East Asian Monsoon in the Mid-Pliocene

In this study, the authors simulate the East Asian climate changes in the mid-Pliocene (～3.3 to 3.0 Ma BP) with the Community Atmosphere Model version 3.1 (CAM3.1) and compare the simulated East Asian monsoon with paleoclimate data. The simulations show an obvious warming pattern in East Asia in the mid-Pliocene compared with the pre-industrial climate, with surface air temperature increasing by 0.5 4.0°C. In the warm mid-Pliocene simulation, the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM) becomes stronger, while the East Asian Winter Monsoon (EAWM) is similar relative to the pre-industrial climate. Compared with the paleoclimate data, our simulations depict the intensified EASM well but cannot reproduce the weakened EAWM. This model-data discrepancy may be attributed to the uncertainty in the reconstructed mid-Pliocene sea surface temperature.

A Seasonal Prediction Model for the Summer Rainfall in Northeast China Using the Year-To-Year Increment Approach

Using the year-to-year increment approach,this study investigated the relationship of selected climatic elements with the increment time series of the summer rainfall between successive years in Northeast China,including the soil moisture content,sea surface temperature,500 hPa geopotential height,and sea level pressure in the preceding spring for the period 1981-2008.Two spring predictors were used to construct the seasonal prediction model:the area mean soil moisture content in Northwest Eurasia and the 500 hPa geopotential height over Northeast China.Both the cross-validation and comparison with previous studies showed that the above two predictors have good predicting ability for the summer rainfall in Northeast China.

Effect of lake surface temperature on the summer precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau

There are numerous lakes on the Tibetan Plateau(TP),but the role of lake temperature in precipitation over the TP remains unclear.Here the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model was used to detect the impact of lakes on summer rainfall.Three test cases were used to evaluate the effect of lakes surface temperature(LSTs) on precipitation variability.The three cases used different methods to determine initial LSTs,including using sea surface temperature data(SST),the WRF inland water module(avg_tsfc),and a lake model.Results show that when precipitation was stimulated over the TP,LSTs cannot be initialized using SST,which led to large discrepancies of precipitation.Compared with the simulations,the simulated precipitation were improved obviously with LSTs using avg_tsfc,indicating that LSTs have an considerable influence on determining precipitation over the TP.Due to a lack of observational data,the lake scheme does not improve on rainfall simulation,but does effectively simulate precipitation pattern over lakes,such as rainfall over the lakes was dominated by convection during the nighttime.Though the simulated precipitation using SST to initialize LSTs caused largediscrepancies,it suggested that precipitation increase especially convective precipitation with increase in LSTs,which confirmed that the moisture from lakes cannot be neglected over the TP.Generally,it was necessary to monitor the LSTs for accurate weather and climate prediction over the TP.

Summer sea-surface temperatures and climate events on the North Icelandic shelf through the last 3000 years

Diatom data from core MD992271 on the North Icelandic shelf record a cooling trend through the last 3000 years. This is indicated by a general decrease in warm water species and an increase in cold water taxa. The relative abundance of these two diatom groups changed periodically, suggesting that the climate also fluctuated within this time period. The results of diatom-based transfer function calculation show that the summer sea-surface temperatures (SSTs) before 1400 cal. a BP were generally higher than the mean value for the last 3000 years and the summer SSTs fluctuated around the mean between 1400 and 700 cal. a BP, and dropped to the values below the mean after 700 cal. a BP. Four cooling events were distinguished, centered at around 2600, 1900, 1300 and 600 cal. a BP respectively. The results are not only consistent with the data from neighbouring cores HM107-03 and MD992275, but also comparable with those from the GISP2 ice core and from other marine sediment records in the North Atlantic. This suggests that changes in the summer SSTs reflect regional climate variations in the North Atlantic. On the North Icelandic shelf, the summer SST variation is a result of changes in the in-teraction between the cold and the warm currents in the area.

Design and testing of a global climate prediction system based on a coupled climate model

A global climate prediction system （PCCSM4） was developed based on the Community Climate System Model, version 4.0, developed by the National Center for Atmospheric Research （NCAR）, and an initialization scheme was designed by our group. Thirty-year （1981-2010） one-month-lead retrospective summer climate ensemble predictions were carded out and analyzed. The results showed that PCCSM4 can efficiently capture the main characteristics of JJA mean sea surface temperature （SST）, sea level pressure （SLP）, and precipitation. The prediction skill for SST is high, especially over the central and eastern Pacific where the influence of E1 Nino-Southem Oscillation （ENSO） is dominant. Temporal correlation coefficients between the pre- dicted Nino3.4 index and observed Nino3.4 index over the 30 years reach 0.7, exceeding the 99% statistical significance level. The prediction of 500-hPa geopotential height, 850-hPa zonal wind and SLP shows greater skill than for precipitation. Overall, the predictability in PCCSM4 is much higher in the tropics than in global terms, or over East Asia. Furthermore, PCCSM4 can simulate the summer climate in typical ENSO years and the interannual variability of the Asian summer monsoon well. These preliminary results suggest that PCCSM4 can be applied to real-time prediction after further testing and improvement.