Numerical simulation of an extreme haze pollution event over the North China Plain based on initial and boundary condition ensembles

The North China Plain often su ers heavy haze pollution events in the cold season due to the rapid industrial development and urbanization in recent decades.In the winter of 2015,the megacity cluster of Beijing Tianjin Hebei experienced a seven-day extreme haze pollution episode with peak PM2.5(particulate matter(PM)with an aerodynamic diameter≤2.5μm)concentration of 727μg m 3.Considering the in uence of meteorological conditions on pollu-tant evolution,the e ects of varying initial conditions and lateral boundary conditions(LBCs)of the WRF-Chem model on PM2.5 concentration variation were investigated through ensemble methods.A control run(CTRL)and three groups of ensemble experiments(INDE,BDDE,INBDDE)were carried out based on difierent initial conditions and LBCs derived from ERA5 reanalysis data and its 10 ensemble members.The CTRL run reproduced the meteorological conditions and the overall life cycle of the haze event reasonably well,but failed to capture the intense oscillation of the instantaneous PM2.5 concentration.However,the ensemble forecasting showed a considerable advantage to some extent.Compared with the CTRL run,the root-mean-square error(RMSE)of PM2.5 concentration decreased by 4.33%,6.91%,and 8.44%in INDE,BDDE and INBDDE,respectively,and the RMSE decreases of wind direction(5.19%,8.89%and 9.61%)were the dominant reason for the improvement of PM2.5 concentration in the three ensemble experiments.Based on this case,the ensemble scheme seems an e ective method to improve the prediction skill of wind direction and PM2.5 concentration by using the WRF-Chem model.

The change characteristics of the calculated wind wave fields near lateral boundaries with SWAN model

Since the wind wave model Simulating Waves Nearshore （SWAN） cannot effectively simulate the wave fields near the lateral boundaries, the change characteristics and the distortion ranges of calculated wave factors including wave heights, periods, directions, and lengths near the lateral boundaries of calculation domain are carefully studied in the case of different water depths and wind speeds respectively. The calculation results show that the effects of the variety of water depth and wind speed on the modeled different wave factors near the lateral boundaries are different. In the case of a certain wind speed, the greater the water depth is, the greater the distortion range is. In the case of a certain water depth, the distortion ranges defined by the relative errors of wave heights, periods, and lengths are different from those defined by the absolute errors of the corresponding wave factors. Moreover, the distortion ranges defined by the relative errors decrease with the increase of wind speed; whereas the distortion ranges defined by the absolute errors change a little with the variety of wind speed. The distortion range of wave direction decreases with the increase of wind speed. The calculated wave factors near the lateral boundaries with the SWAN model in the actual physical areas, such as Lake Taihu and Lake Dianshan considered in this study, are indeed distorted if the calculation domains are not enlarged on the basis of actual physical areas. Therefore, when SWAN is employed to calculate the wind wave fields near the shorelines of sea or inland lakes, the appropriate approaches must be adopted to reduce the calculation errors.

A computational study of a capsule lateral migration in microchannel flow

A numerical method is used to model a capsule migration in a microchannel with small Reynolds number Re = 0.01. The capsule is modeled as a liquid drop sur- rounded by a neo-Hookean elastic membrane. The numer- ical model combines immersed boundary with lattice Boltz- mann method （IB-LBM）. The LBM is used to simulate fixed Cartesian grid while the IBM is utilized to implement the fluid-structure interaction by a set of Lagrangian moving grids for the membrane. The effect of shear elasticity and bending stiffness are both considered. The results show the significance of elastic modulus and initial lateral position on deformation and morphological properties of a circular cap- sule. The wall effect becomes stronger as the capsule ini- tial position gets closer to the channel wall. As the elastic modulus of membrane increases, the capsule undergoes less pronounced deformation and velocity in direction x is de- creased, thus, the capsule motion is slower than the back- ground flow. The best agreement between the present model and experiments for migration velocity takes place for the capsule with normal to moderate membrane elastic modulus. The results are in good agreement with experiment study of Coupier et al. and previous numerical studies. Therefore, the IB-LBM can be employed to make prediction in vitro and in vivo studies of capsule deformation.

Assessment of Dynamic Downscaling of the Extreme Rainfall over East Asia Using a Regional Climate Model

This study investigates the capability of the dynamic downscaling method （DDM） in an East Asian climate study for June 1998 using the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research non-hydrostatic Mesoscale Model （MM5）.Sensitivity experiments show that MM5 results at upper atmospheric levels cannot match reanalyses data,but the results show consistent improvement in simulating moisture transport at low levels.The downscaling ability for precipitation is regionally dependent.During the monsoon season over the Yangtze River basin and the pre-monsoon season over North China,the DDM cannot match observed precipitation.Over Northwest China and the Tibetan Plateau （TP）,where there is high topography,the DDM shows better performance than reanalyses.Simulated monsoon evolution processes over East Asia,however,are much closer to observational data than reanalyses.The convection scheme has a substantial impact on extreme rainfall over the Yangtze River basin and the pre-monsoon over North China,but only a marginal contribution for Northwest China and the TP.Land surface parameterizations affect the locations and pattern of rainfall bands.The 10-day re-initialization in this study shows some improvement in simulated precipitation over some sub-regions but with no obvious improvement in circulation.The setting of the location of lateral boundaries （LLB） westward improves performance of the DDM.Including the entire TP in the western model domain improves the DDM performance in simulating precipitation in most sub-regions.In addition,a seasonal simulation demonstrates that the DDM can also obtain consistent results,as in the June case,even when another two months consist of no strong climate/weather events.

Numerical analysis of soil-rock mixture's meso-mechanics based on biaxial test

Soil-rock mixture(S-RM)is a widely distributed geotechnical medium composed of "soil" and "rock block" different both in size and strength. Internal rock blocks form special and variable meso-structural characteristics of S-RM. The objective of this work was to study the control mechanism of meso-structural characteristics on mechanical properties of S-RM. For S-RM containing randomly generated polygonal rock blocks, a series of biaxial tests based on DEM were conducted. On the basis of research on the effects of rock blocks' breakability and sample lateral boundary type(rigid, flexible) on macroscopic mechanical behavior of S-RM, an expanded Mohr-Coulomb criterion in power function form was proposed to represent the strength envelop. At the mesoscopic level, the variations of meso-structure such as rotation of rock block, and the formation mechanism and evolution process of the shear band during tests were investigated. The results show that for S-RM with a high content of rock block, translation, rotating and breakage of rock blocks have crucial effects on mechanical behavior of S-RM. The formation and location of the shear band inside S-RM sample are also controlled by breakability and arrangement of rock blocks.

Treatment of LBCs in 2D Simulation of Convection over Hills

A series of idealized model simulations are analyzed to determine the sensitivity of model results to different configurations of the lateral boundary conditions (LBCs) in simulating mesoscale shallow convection over hilly terrain. In the simulations with steady thermal forcing at the model surface, a radiation condition at both boundaries is the best choice under high wind conditions, and the best results are produced when both the normal velocities and the temperature are treated with the radiation scheme in which the phase speed is the same for different variables. When the background wind speed is reasonably small, the LBC configuration with either the radiation or the zero gradient condition at both boundaries tends to make the numerical solution unstable. The choice of a constant condition at the inflow boundary and a radiation outflow boundary condition is appropriate in most cases. In the simulations with diurnal thermal forcing at the model surface, different LBC schemes are combined together to reduce spurious signals induced by the outflow boundary. A specification inflow boundary condition, in which the velocity fields at the inflow boundary are provided using the time-dependent results of a simulation with periodic LBCs over a flat domain, is tested and the results indicate that the specification condition at the inflow boundary makes it possible to use a smaller model domain to obtain reasonable results. The model horizontal domain length should be greater than a critical length, which depends on the domain depth H and the angle between gravity wave phase lines and the vertical. An estimate of minimum domain length is given by , where N and U are the background stability and wind speed, respectively, Lx is the typical gravity wavelength scale, and Zi is the convective boundary layer (CBL) depth.

Impact of forcing data and land surface properties on snow simulation in a regional climate model:a case study over the Tianshan Mountains,Central Asia

Snow is a key variable that influences hydrological and climatic cycles.Land surface models employing snow physics-modules can simulate the snow accumulation and ablation processes.However,there are still uncertainties in modeling snow resources over complex terrain such as mountains.This study employed the National Center for Atmospheric Research’s Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model coupled with the Noah-Multiparameterization(Noah-MP)land surface model to run one-year simulations to assess its ability to simulate snow across the Tianshan Mountains.Six tests were conducted based on different reanalysis forcing datasets and different land surface properties.The results indicated that the snow dynamics were reproduced in a snow hydrological year by the WRF/Noah-MP model for all of the tests.The model produced a low bias in snow depth and snow water equivalent(SWE)regardless of the forcing datasets.Additionally,the underestimation of snow depth and SWE could be relatively alleviated by modifying the land cover and vegetation parameters.However,no significant improvement in accuracy was found in the date of snow depth maximum and melt rate.The best performance was achieved using ERA5 with modified land cover and vegetation parameters(mean bias=−4.03 mm and−1.441 mm for snow depth and SWE,respectively).This study highlights the importance of selecting forcing data for snow simulation over the Tianshan Mountains.

Recent advances in regional air-sea coupled models

In this paper,we first briefly review the history of air-sea coupled models,and then introduce the current status and recent advances of regional air-sea coupled models.In particular,we discuss the core technical and scientific issues involved in the development of regional coupled models,including the coupling technique,lateral boundary conditions,the coupling with sea waves(ices),and data assimilation.Furthermore,we introduce the application of regional coupled models in numerical simulation and dynamical downscaling.Finally,we discuss the existing problems and future directions in the development of regional air-sea coupled models.

INFLUENCE OF INTERACTION BETWEEN LOW AND MIDDLE LATITUDES ON ENSO VARIABILITY IN THE CANE-ZEBIAK MODEL

In this paper,an error source in the atmospheric component of the CZ(Cane-Zebiak)model is discussed,which is missing a free mode in“the exact solutions”.However,the improved scheme is proposed,which is the computational scheme with adjusted wind or observed u and v as lateral boundaries.The simulations show that the simulated surface wind by the improved scheme strong- ly bears resemblance to the observation except for the area near the west and the east boundaries of the integrated area.These results support the conclusion that the wind stress simulated by the im- proved scheme with lateral boundaries is much better than that simulated by the CZ model,and show that interaction between low and middle latitudes has an important influence on the ENSO variability in the CZ model.Therefore,considering its impact on the CZ model can improve capa- bility of the CZ model for simulating ENSO variability.

Numerical Investigation and Uncertainty Analysis of Eastern China's Large-Scale Urbanization Effect on Regional Climate

Eastern China has experienced rapid urbanization during the past four decades,and it is necessary to understand the impacts of the urbanization on the regional climate.Previous simulations with either regional climate models(RCMs)or general circulation models have produced inconsistent and statistically non-significant urbanization effects on precipitation during the East Asian summer monsoon.In the studies with RCMs,reanalysis data were used as the lateral boundary conditions(LBCs)for both urban and non-urban experiments.Since the same LBCs may limit the urbanization effect,in this study,the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model nested within the Global Forecast System(GFS),both of which were coupled with an urban canopy model,were used to explore the urbanization effect over eastern China.The WRF’s LBCs in the runs with/without urbanization were provided by the corresponding GFS runs with/without urbanization.The results showed a significant decrease in precipitation over North China,mainly due to a marked decrease in evaporation and the divergence induced by the reduced latent heating in the mid and upper atmosphere,from the experiment with urbanization.Meanwhile,to the north and south of the large-scale urbanization areas,especially to the south of the Yangtze River,precipitation increased significantly due to largescale urbanization-induced circulation change.With the same LBCs for the WRF runs with/without urbanization,the urbanization effects were limited only to urban and nearby areas;no significant change was found to the south of the Yangtze River,since the same LBCs hampered the effects of urbanization on large-scale circulation.In addition,this study demonstrated that the urban fraction may be a key factor that affects the intensity of the urbanization effect within the urban areas.

Research on Later Greek Philosophy in Chinese Academic Circles

In recent years, Chinese scholars have made important progress in research on later Greek philosophy. Using current European and American work as a reference point, this article explores the differences and gaps between foreign and Chinese scholars in this field of research. The author believes that on the question of the boundaries of later Greek philosophy, Chinese scholars have, through long years of exploration, come up with independent opinions and solutions that differ from those of their European and Ameriean counterparts, and that they have a better grasp of the distinctive features of later Greek philosophy. Their work, however, clearly falls short with regard to historical source material. As far as methodology is concerned, there is a clear tendency towards convergence between Chinese scholars and their foreign colleagues.