A conjugate study of the polar ionospheric F2-layer and IRI-2007 at 75 ° magnetic latitude for solar minimum

Long-duration conjugate observations by the EISCAT Svalbard Radar （ESR） and the ionosonde at Zhongshan station from the International Polar Year （IPY） during solar minimum conditions are analyzed, with respect to variability in the F2-1ayer peak parameters. A comparison between International Reference Ionosphere- 2007 （IRI-2007） and observation data clearly demonstrates good agreement in summer, but greater deviations in winter. The IRI model reproduces the F2 peak parameters dominated by solar photoionization reasonably well, but it does not address the effect of electron precipitation. Hence, the discrepancies become large in the winter auroral ionosphere.

China’s Recent Progresses in Polar Climate Change and Its Interactions with the Global Climate System

During the recent four decades since 1980,a series of modern climate satellites were launched,allowing for the measurement and record-keeping of multiple climate parameters,especially over the polar regions where traditional observations are difficult to obtain.China has been actively engaging in polar expeditions.Many observations were conducted during this period,accompanied by improved Earth climate models,leading to a series of insightful understandings concerning Arctic and Antarctic climate changes.Here,we review the recent progress China has made concerning Arctic and Antarctic climate change research over the past decade.The Arctic temperature increase is much higher than the global-mean warming rate,associated with a rapid decline in sea ice,a phenomenon called the Arctic Amplification.The Antarctic climate changes showed a zonally asymmetric pattern over the past four decades,with most of the fastest changes occurring over West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.The Arctic and Antarctic climate changes were driven by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and ozone loss,while tropical-polar teleconnections play important roles in driving the regional climate changes and extreme events over the polar regions.Polar climate changes may also feedback to the entire Earth climate system.The adjustment of the circulation in both the troposphere and the stratosphere contributed to the interactions between the polar climate changes and lower latitudes.Climate change has also driven rapid Arctic and Southern ocean acidification.Chinese researchers have made a series of advances in understanding these processes,as reviewed in this paper.

Optimization of fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for the identification of two polar coccoid green algae species

Standard FISH protocols using fluorochrome-labeled oligonucleotide probes have been successfully applied for in situ detection.However,optimized protocols of FISH for specific eukaryotes in marine environments are often not developed.This study optimized the conditions of fluorescence in situ hybridization （FISH） by using two polar isolated microalgae.The modified conditions were as follows：（1） 10 mg·mL^（-1） lysozyme solution pretreatment at 37℃for 30 min;（2） the hybridization buffer including 20%formamide;（3） the hybridization condition was 47℃for 6 h.The cells enumerated by FISH were compared with those enumerated by flow cytometry（FCM） and DAPI to confirm the cell loss and hybridization efficiency.The optimized protocol was also successfully applied to Arctic Ocean samples,which were found to be dominated by Micromonas sp.The modified protocol showed a high relative efficiency and could be successfully applied for the detection of specific microbial eukaryotes in environmental samples.

DBpedia-Based Fuzzy Query Recommenda-tion Algorithm and Its Applications in the Resource-Sharing Platform of Polar Samples

In order to continuously promote the polar sample resource services in China and effectively guide the users to access such information as needed, a fuzzy algorithm based on DBpedia has been proposed through the analysis of the characteristics of the query recommendations in search engines, namely, to search similar entry queues by constructing a DBpedia category tree, then use the fuzzy matching algorithm to work out the entry similarity, and then present the example query applications of this algorithm on the resource-sharing platform of polar samples. Comparing the traditional literal character matching method and DBpedia semantic similarity algorithm, the experimental results show that the fuzzy query algorithm based on DBpedia features has a higher search accuracy rate, stronger anti-interference capability, and more flexible algorithm use by virtue of its fuzzy weight adjustment.

The connection of phytoplankton biomass in the Marguerite Bay polynya of the western Antarctic Peninsula to the Southern Annular Mode

Antarctic coastal polynyas are biological hotspots in the Southern Ocean that support the abundance of hightrophic-level predators and are important for carbon cycling in the high-latitude oceans.In this study,we examined the interannual variation of summertime phytoplankton biomass in the Marguerite Bay polynya(MBP)in the western Antarctic Peninsula area,and linked such variability to the Southern Annular Mode(SAM)that dominated the southern hemisphere extratropical climate variability.Combining satellite data,atmosphere reanalysis products and numerical simulations,we found that the interannual variation of summer chlorophyll-a(Chl-a)concentration in the MBP is significantly and negatively correlated with the spring SAM index,and weakly correlated with the summer SAM index.The negative relation between summer Chl-a and spring SAM is due to weaker spring vertical mixing under a more positive SAM condition,which would inhibit the supply of iron from deep layers into the surface euphotic layer.The negative relation between spring mixing and spring SAM results from greater precipitation rate over the MBP region in positive SAM phase,which leads to lower salinity in the ocean surface layer.The coupled physical-biological mechanisms between SAM and phytoplankton biomass revealed in this study is important for us to predict the future variations of phytoplankton biomasses in Antarctic polynyas under climate change.

Influence of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation on Antarctic surface air temperature during 1900 to 2015

The importance of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation(AMO)and Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation(IPO)in influencing zonally asymmetric changes in Antarctic surface air temperature(SAT)has been established.However,previous studies have primarily concentrated on examining the combined impact of the contrasting phases of the AMO and IPO,which have been dominant since the advent of satellite observations in 1979.This study utilizes long-term reanalysis data to investigate the impact of four combinations of+AMO+IPO,–AMO–IPO,+AMO–IPO,and–AMO+IPO on Antarctic SAT over the past 115 years.The+AMO phase is characterized by a spatial mean temperature amplitude of up to 0.5℃over the North Atlantic Ocean,accompanied by positive sea surface temperature(SST)anomalies in the tropical eastern Pacific and negative SST anomalies in the extratropical-mid-latitude western Pacific,which are indicative of the+IPO phase.The Antarctic SAT exhibits contrasting spatial patterns during the+AMO+IPO and+AMO–IPO periods.However,during the–AMO+IPO period,apart from the Antarctic Peninsula and the vicinity of the Weddell Sea,the entire Antarctic region experiences a warming trend.The most pronounced signal in the SAT anomalies is observed during the austral autumn,whereas the combination of–AMO and–IPO exhibits the smallest magnitude across all the combinations.The wavetrain excited by the SST anomalies associated with the AMO and IPO induces upper-level and surface atmospheric circulation anomalies,which alter the SAT anomalies.Furthermore,downward longwave radiation anomalies related to anomalous cloud cover play a crucial role.In the future,if the phases of AMO and IPO were to reverse(AMO transitioning to a negative phase and IPO transitioning to a positive phase),Antarctica could potentially face more pronounced warming and accelerated melting compared to the current observations.

MAVEN observation of magnetosonic waves in the Martian magnetotail region

Magnetosonic waves are an important medium for energy transfer in collisionless space plasma.Magnetosonic waves have been widely investigated in the upstream of the bow shock at Mars.These waves are believed to originate from pickup ions or reflected particles.By utilizing MAVEN spacecraft data,we have observed the occurrence of quasi-perpendicularly propagating magnetosonic emissions near the proton gyrofrequency in the Martian magnetotail region.These plasma waves are associated with a significant enhancement of proton and oxygen flux.The excited magnetosonic waves could possibly heat the protons through resonance and facilitate the ionospheric plasma escape.Our results could be helpful to better understand the Mars’magnetospheric dynamics and offer insights into possible energy redistribution between waves and plasma in the Martian nightside magnetosphere.

Progress and future prospects of decadal prediction and data assimilation:A review

年代际预测,也称为“近期气候预测”,旨在预测未来1-10年内的气候变化,是气候预测和气候变化研究领域的一个新关注点.它位于季节至年际预测和长期气候变化预测之间,结合了初值问题和外部强迫问题的两个方面.年代际预测的核心技术在于用于模式初始化的同化方法的准确性和效率,其目标是为模式提供准确的初始条件,其中包含观测到的气候系统内部变率,年代际预测的初始化通常涉及在耦合框架内同化海洋观测,其中观测到的信号通过耦合过程传递到其他分量,如大气和海冰.然而,最近的研究越来越关注在海洋-大气耦合模式中探索耦合数据同化(CDA),有人认为CDA有潜力显著提高年代际预测技巧.本文综合评述了该领域的三个方面的研究现状:初始化方法,年代际气候预测的可预测性和预测技巧,以及年代际预测的未来发展和挑战.

Recent progress in Chinese polar upper-atmospheric physics research: review of research advances supported by the Chinese Arctic and Antarctic expeditions

It has been more than 30 years since the first Chinese Antarctic Expedition took place. Polar upper atmospheric observations started at this time. First began at Great Wall Station and then at Zhongshan Station in Antarctica, and later in the Arctic at Yellow River Station, Kjell Henriksen Observatory on Svalbard, and at the China-Iceland Joint Aurora Observatory in Iceland. In this paper, we reviewed the advances in polar upper atmosphere physics （UAP） based on the Chinese national Arctic and Antarctic research over the last five years. These included newly deployed observatories and research instruments in the Arctic and Antarctic; and new research findings, from grotmd-based observations, about polar ionosphere dynamics, aurora and particle precipitation, polar plasma convection, geomagnetic pulsations and space plasma waves, space weather in the polar regions, simulations of the polar ionosphere-magnetosphere. In conclusion, suggestions were made for future polar upper atmosphere physics research in China.

Sensitivity of the Arctic sea ice concentration forecasts to different atmospheric forcing: a case study

A regional Arctic configuration of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model （MIT-gcm） is used as the coupled ice-ocean model for forecasting sea ice conditions in the Arctic Ocean at the Na-tional Marine Environmental Forecasting Center of China （NMEFC）, and the numerical weather prediction from the National Center for Environmental Prediction Global Forecast System （NCEP GFS） is used as the atmospheric forcing. To improve the sea ice forecasting, a recently developed Polar Weather Research and Forecasting model （Polar WRF） model prediction is also tested as the atmospheric forcing. Their forecasting performances are evaluated with two different satellite-derived sea ice concentration products as initializa-tions： （1） the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder （SSMIS） and （2） the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS （AMSR-E）. Three synoptic cases, which represent the typical atmospheric circulations over the Arctic Ocean in summer 2010, are selected to carry out the Arctic sea ice numerical forecasting experiments. The evaluations suggest that the forecasts of sea ice concentrations using the Polar WRF atmo-spheric forcing show some improvements as compared with that of the NCEP GFS.

Dome Argus: Ideal site for deep ice drilling

Located on the centre of ice drainage range, the highest Dome Argus （Dome A） of East Antarctic Ice Sheet （EAIS）, could be represented as an ideal site for deep ice cores drilling containing oldest paleo-climate records. To select a suitable drilling site for deep ice core, it needs gather all information pertaining to the local meteorology, ice sheet landforms, ice thickness, subgla- cial topography of bed rocks, ice velocity, internal structures of ice sheet, etc. Based on the International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences （IPICS）, we present recent achievement of glaciological research and its perspective at Dome A in this paper. We system- atically discussed the merits and possible ventures of potential drilling sites around Dome A. Among all the candidates, we find that the Chinese Antarctic Kunlun Station is the best site for and assess further the possibility to obtain a replicate core for carrying out the first deep ice core drilling campaign. We emphasize studying dynamics and evolution of climate change.

Meteorite classification for building the Chinese Antarctic Meteorite Depository Introduction of the classification of 500 Grove Mountains meteorites

Meteorites provide an important window into the origins and evolution of the solar system. Since the first four meteorites were recovered in Grove Mountains, Antarctica, in 1998, a further total of 12665 meteorites have been collected over seven polar seasons in the Grove Mountains. All of these meteorites are owned and managed by the Chinese Antarctic Meteorite Depository （CAMD） at the Polar Research Institute of China （PRIC）. In recent years, another 500 Antarctic meteorites have been classified and characterized based on mineralogy and petrology. In this work we examine four samples that have been identified as terrestrial, and a further 496 samples that have been confirmed as meteorites. These meteorites are further divided into different types：488 ordinary chondrites, one eucrite, one ureilite, one CM2 carbonaceous chondrite, one EH4 enstatite chondrite, one mesosiderite and three iron meteorites. The classification of meteorites not only provides an abundance of fundamental scientific data, but is also significant for introducing meteorites and related scientific knowledge to the publics particularly via the website of Chinese Resource-sharing Platform of Polar Samples for scientific research and education.

Extracellular enzymatic activities of cold-adapted bacteria from polar oceans and effect of temperature and salinity on cell growth

The potential of 324 bacteria isolated from different habitats in polar oceans to produce a variety of extracellular enzymatic activities at low temperature was investigated. By plate assay, lipase, protease, amylase, gelatinase, agarase, chitinase or cellulase were detected. Lipases were generally present by bacteria living in polar oceans. Protease-producing bacteria held the second highest proportion in culturable isolates. Strains producing amylase kept a relative stable proportion of around 30% in different polar marine habitats. All 50 Arctic sea-ice bacteria producing proteases were cold-adapted strains, however, only 20% were psychrophilic. 98% of them could grow at 3% NaCl, and 56% could grow without NaCl. On the other hand, 98% of these sea-ice bacteria produced extracellular proteases with optimum temperature at or higher than 35℃, well above the upper temperature limit of cell growth. Extracellular enzymes including amylase, agarase, cellulase and lipase released by bacteria from seawater or sediment in polar oceans, most expressed maximum activities between 25 and 35℃. Among extracellular enzymes released by bacterial strain BSw20308, protease expressed maximum activity at 40℃, higher than 35℃ of polysaccharide hydrolases and 25℃ of lipase.

Phylogenetic diversity of dinoflagellates in polar regions

Because of the limitations of sampling and seasonal study in polar regions, knowledge of dinoflagellate diversity, distribution and ecology are limited. Dinoflagellates have been incidentally reported from polar regions during some seasons and some populations have been reported as components of microalgae. Surveys of molecular diversity link the genotype of dinoflagellates from polar regions with environmental adaptation. In this study, 37 positive clones of dinoflagellates collected from different sites were used for genotype analysis, providing new insights into the biodiversity and distribution of these species based on 18S rRNA sequencing. Diverse genotypes were recorded for the summer season in Kongsfjorden （high Arctic） whilst a single novel genotype of dinoflagellate was recorded from winter samples from the Antarctic Ocean. Data from ice cores suggests that this single dinoflagellate genotype was adapted to extreme cold and clone library screening found that it was occasionally the only microbial eukaryotic genotype found in winter ice cores. The findings of this study could improve our understanding of the diverse dinoflagellate genotypes occurring in these perennially cold microbial ecosystems.

Simultaneous optical and radar observations of poleward moving auroral forms under different IMF conditions

Using high temporal resolution optical data obtained from three-wavelength all-sky imagers at Chinese Yellow River Station in the Arctic, together with the EISCAT Svalbard radar （ESR） and SuperDARN radars, we investigated the dayside pole- ward moving auroral forms （PMAFs） and the associated plasma features in the polar ionosphere under difibrent interplanetary magnetic field （1MF） conditions, between 0900 and 1010 UT on 22 December 2003. Simultaneous optical and ESR observations revealed that all PMAFs were clearly associated with pulsed particle precipitations. During northward IMF, particles can precipi- tate into lower altitudes and reach the ionospheric E-region, and there is a reverse convection cell associated with these PMAFs. This cell is one of the typical signatures of the dayside high-latitude （lobe） reconnection in the polar ionosphere. These results indicate that the PMAFs were associated with the high-latitude reconnection. During southward IMF, the PMAFs show larger lati- tudinal motion, indicating a longer mean lifetime, and the associated ionospheric features indicate that the PMAFs were generated by the dayside low-latitude reconnection.

Meteorological observations and weather forecasting services of the CHINARE

By 2018, China had conducted 34 scientific explorations in Antarctica spearheaded by the Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition(CHINARE). Since the first CHINARE over 30 years ago, considerable work has been undertaken to promote the development of techniques for the observation of surface and upper-air meteorological elements, and satellite image and data reception systems at Chinese Antarctic stations and onboard Chinese icebreakers have played critical roles in this endeavor. The upgrade of in situ and remote sensing measurement methods and the improvement of weather forecasting skill have enabled forecasters to achieve reliable on-site weather forecasting for the CHINARE. Nowadays, the routing of icebreakers, navigation of aircraft, and activities at Chinese Antarctic stations all benefit from the accurate weather forecasting service. In this paper, a review of the conventional meteorological measurement and operational weather forecasting services of the CHINARE is presented.

Phylogenetic diversity and phenotypic characterization of cultivable bacterioplankton isolated from polar oceans

A set of 27 marine planktonic bacteria isolated from the polar regions was characterized by 16S rDNA sequencing and physiological and biochemical testing. More than half of these bacteria were positive for caseinase, gelatinase and 13-glucosidase, and could utilize glucose, maltose or malic acid as carbon source for cell growth. Twelve isolates expressed nitrate reduction activities. Except for one antarctic isolate BSwlO175 belonging to Actinobacteria phylum, these isolates were classified as γ-Proteobacteria, suggesting that γ-Proteobacteria dominated in cultivable marine bacterioplankton at both poles. Genus Pseudoalteromonas was the predominant group in the Chukchi Sea and the Bering Sea, and genus ShewaneUa dominated in cultivable bacterioplankton in the Prydz Bay. With sequence similarities above 97%, genus Psychrobacter was found at both poles. These 27 isolates were psychrotolerant, and significant 16S rDNA sequence similarities were found not only between arctic and antarctic marine bacteria （ 〉 99% ）, but also between polar marine bacteria and bacteria from other aquatic environments （ ≥ 98.8% ）, including temperate ocean, deep sea, pond and lake, suggesting that in the polar oceans less temperature-sensitive bacteria may be cosmopolitan and have a bipolar, even global, distribution at the species level.

Impact of Assimilation of Radiosonde and UAV Observations from the Southern Ocean in the Polar WRF Model

Weather forecasting in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica is a challenge above all due to the rarity of observations to be assimilated in numerical weather prediction(NWP)models.As observations are expensive and logistically challenging,it is important to evaluate the benefit that additional observations could bring to NWP.Atmospheric soundings applying unmanned aerial vehicles(UAVs)have a large potential to supplement conventional radiosonde sounding observations.Here,we applied UAV and radiosonde sounding observations from an RV Polarstern cruise in the ice-covered Weddell Sea in austral winter 2013 to evaluate the impact of their assimilation in the Polar version of the Weather Research and Forecasting(Polar WRF)model.Our experiments revealed small to moderate impacts of radiosonde and UAV data assimilation.In any case,the assimilation of sounding data from both radiosondes and UAVs improved the analyses of air temperature,wind speed,and humidity at the observation site for most of the time.Further,the impact on the results of 5-day-long Polar WRF experiments was often felt over distances of at least 300 km from the observation site.All experiments succeeded in capturing the main features of the evolution of near-surface variables,but the effects of data assimilation varied between different cases.Due to the limited vertical extent of the UAV observations,the impact of their assimilation was limited to the lowermost 1?2-km layer,and assimilation of radiosonde data was more beneficial for modeled sea level pressure and near-surface wind speed.

Ice concentration assimilation in a regional ice-ocean coupled model and its application in sea ice forecasting

A reasonable initial state of ice concentration is essential for accurate short-term forecasts of sea ice using ice-ocean coupled models. In this study, sea ice concentration data are assimilated into an operational ice forecast system based on a com- bined optimal interpolation and nudging scheme. The scheme produces a modeled sea ice concentration at every time step, based on the difference between observational and forecast data and on the ratio of observational error to modeled error. The impact and the effectiveness of data assimilation are investigated. Significant improvements to predictions of sea ice extent were obtained through the assimilation of ice concentration, and minor improvements through the adjustment of the upper ocean properties. The assimilation of ice thickness data did not significantly improve predictions. Forecast experiments show that the forecast accuracy is higher in summer, and that the errors on five-day forecasts occur mainly around the marginal ice zone.

An introduction to the riometer system deployed at China-Iceland joint Arctic observatory and its beam-forming correction method based on the preliminary data

The China-Iceland joint Arctic observatory(CIAO)has formally been operating since October 18,2018,and an imaging riometer system was deployed at CIAO in August 2019 for the conjunction observation purpose with the co-located ground-based all sky imager auroral observation system.The features of the riometer and antenna system are presented.The riometer’s beam-forming performance were evaluated with the analysis method introduced in detail.The analysis results showed that the mapping of beams was incorrectly ordered,and the correction has been made.The revised ordering result was reasonably verified and the analysis method was proved to be effective.