南极Dome A至普里兹湾沿岸下降风特征

本文利用我国极地数值天气预报系统和美国南极中尺度预报系统的存档数据,分析了Dome A至普里兹湾沿岸地区下降风风场的时空分布和大气质量通量,给出了该地区下降风的基本特点。该地区下降风受南极冰盖地形影响强烈,艾默里冰架西侧等陡峭地区风速总体较大;下降风随季节变化较大,冬季的下降风较强。强下降风在前进过程中有绝热增温现象,并给艾默里冰架西部带来近表层升温。下降风风速最大处位于地面以上约100~200 m高度,风速较大地区的下降风在垂直方向上分布较为深厚。下降风在普里兹湾沿岸的表层大气质量通量在时空分布上极不均匀,艾默里冰架西侧的下降风气流较强时,普里兹湾海域有较多的中尺度气旋活动。下降风引发普里兹湾中尺度气旋旋生的过程值得关注,需进一步研究下降风引发中尺度气旋的机理。

天外菌群正在落向地球吗?

2001年7月31日,一些研究人员在美国加州举行的一个国际光学工程科学会议上说,他们已经找到了外太空存在生命的一个有力证据-发现了地球大气表层有相当多的非地球细菌。这些细菌存在于离地面41公里高处的大气表层。这些菌群与地球上的细菌很相似。这些研究人员之所以说这些菌群来自于天外,是因为在地球表面同一垂直方向上约16公里高处有一空气对流层,由于这一对流层的阻隔,低处的含菌空气层不可能向上传递。他们还断定,这些菌群来自于天外。

The Effect of the East China Sea Kuroshio Front on the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer

Various satellite data,JRA-25(Japan reanalysis of 25 years) reanalyzed data and WRF(Weather Research Forecast) model are used to investigate the in situ effect of the ESKF(East China Sea Kuroshio Front) on the MABL(marine atmospheric boundary layer).The intensity of the ESKF is most robust from January to April in its annual cycle.The local strong surface northerly/northeasterly winds are observed right over the ESKF in January and in April and the wind speeds decrease upward in the MABL.The thermal wind effect that is derived from the baroclinic MABL forced by the strong SST gradient contributes to the strong surface winds to a large degree.The convergence zone existing along the warm flank of the ESKF is stronger in April than in January corresponding to the steeper SST(sea surface temperature) gradient.The collocations of the cloud cover maximum and precipitation maximum are basically consistent with the convergence zone of the wind field.The clouds develop higher(lower) in the warm(cold) flank of the ESKF due to the less(more) stable stratification in the MABL.The lowest clouds are observed in April on the cold flank of the ESKF and over the Yellow Sea due to the existence of the pronounced temperature inversion.The numerical experiments with smoothed SST are consistent with the results from the ovservations.

The Formation of Wind Curl in the Marine Atmosphere Boundary Layer over the East China Sea Kuroshio in Spring

Various data are used to investigate the characteristics of the surface wind field and rainfall on the East China Sea Kuroshio(ESK) in March and April, 2011. In March, the wind speed maximum shows over the ESK front(ESKF) in the 10 meter wind field, which agrees with the thermal wind effect. A wind curl center is generated on the warm flank of the ESKF. The winds are much weaker in April, so is the wind curl. A rainband exists over the ESKF in both the months. The Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) model is used for further researches. The winds on the top of the marine atmosphere boundary layer(MABL) indicate that in March, a positive wind curl is generated in the whole MABL over the warm flank of the ESKF. The thermal wind effect forced by the strong SST gradient overlying the background wind leads to strong surface northeasterly winds on the ESKF, and a positive shearing vorticity is created over the warm flank of the ESKF to generate wind curl. In the smoothed sea surface temperature experiment, the presence of the ESKF is responsible for the strong northeast winds in the ESKF, and essential for the distribution of the rainfall centers in March, which confirms the mechanism above. The same simulation is made for April, 2011, and the responses from the MABL become weak. The low background wind speed weakens the effect of the thermal wind, thus no strong Ekman pumping is helpful for precipitation. There is no big difference in rainfall between the control run and the smooth SST run. Decomposition of the wind vector shows that local wind acceleration induced by the thermal wind effect along with the variations in wind direction is responsible for the pronounced wind curl/divergence over the ESKF.

On the atmospheric movement and the imbalance of observed and calculated energy in the surface layer

Based on existing researches,here we theoretically summarized the characteristics of the atmospheric movement and turbulent transport of energy and substance in the surface layer as well as the ideal and the actual models for the turbulent transport.Then,using the data observed with eddy covariance at the semiarid climate and environment monitoring station(SACOL) in Lanzhou University from May to October during four consecutive years(September 2006-August 2010),we conducted a detailed analysis of the turbulent transport in the surface layer,through introducing the relative vertical turbulence intensity to characterize the turbulence strength,RIw=wn(wn+U),and also by adopting the method for controlling data quality at different levels.Our conclusions are:(1) The turbulent transport of energy and substance in the surface layer must obey the law of conservation of energy and the law of conservation of matter,the observed and calculated energy in the surface layer must be balanced,or closed in theory,but the actual observed and calculated energy just approximates the ideal in some degree and is difficult to achieve the energy balance.(2) The energy closure rate depends much on the atmospheric state in the surface layer,and the energy closure rate increases generally with the relative vertical turbulence intensity.(3) By the way of controlling data quality at different levels,it is found that the degree of data quality control can affect the closure rate,but it does not change the fact that the energy closure rate depends on the atmospheric state.(4) The calculation method of surface soil heat flux can affect energy closure rate,but does not change its dependence on the atmospheric state.

Relationship of atmospheric boundary layer depth with thermodynamic processes at the land surface in arid regions of China

The atmospheric boundary layer （ABL） is an important physical characteristic of the Earth＇s atmosphere. Compared with the typical ABL, the ABL in arid regions has distinct features and is formed by particular mechanisms. In this paper, the depth of the diurnal and nocturnal ABLs and their related thermodynamic features of land surface processes, including net radiation, the ground-air temperature difference and sensible heat flux, under typical summer and winter conditions are discussed on the basis of comprehensive observations of the ABL and thermodynamic processes at the land surface carried out in the extreme arid zone of Dunhuang. The relationships of the ABL depth in the development and maintenance stages with these thermodynamic features are also investigated. The results show that the depth of the ABL is closely correlated with the thermodynamic features in both development and maintenance stages and more energy is consumed in the development stage. Further analysis indicates that wind velocity also affects ABL development, especially the development of a stable boundary layer in winter. Taken together, the analysis results indicate that extremely strong thermodynamic processes at the land surface are the main driving factor for the formation of a deep ABL in an arid region.

A new method to prepare clean cuticular membrane from fossil leaves with thin and fragile cuticles

Leaf cuticle analysis has long been a powerful tool for fossil plant identification, systematics, and palaeoclimatological recon- struction. In recent decades the application of stomatal frequency data that are relied on precise calculation of stomata on plant fossil cuticles to reconstruct ancient atmospheric CO2 concentration made the preparation of cuticular membrane with sufficient size a critical technique in palaeoclimatological research. However, for plants with originally thin and fragile cuticles, e.g., most deciduous plants, conventional techniques sometimes fail to obtain cuticular membranes with sufficient size, or sometimes unable to recover any. This has largely hampered the usage of fossil cuticle analysis in palaeobotanical and palaeo- climatological research. Here, we describe a new method using clear nail polish as a medium to ＂strengthen＂ the originally thin and fragile cuticles prior to maceration procedures. We demonstrate the method by using middle Eocene Metasequoia fossils that were notorious for the difficulty of recovering large-sized clean cuticular membranes due to their thin and fragile nature. Metasequoia, with well-documented and widely-distributed fossil records since the Late Cretaceous and with a living repre- sentative, 114. glyptostroboides, as a comparative reference, bas been widely used as a model genus for the study of evolution of plants, palaeoclimatological reconstruction, and plant adaptation to climate changes. But its deciduous habit produces thin cuticles and makes the preparation of clean cuticular membranes a tedious process. The new method successfully allows us to recover its delicate cuticular membranes with sufficient sizes for SEM observation and stomatal frequency analysis.