Adaptation of potato production to climate change by optimizing sowing date in the Loess Plateau of central Gansu, China

Potato grows in most part of China, it achieves higher yield and better quality in Gansu Province than in others. With global warming, its growth duration has been prolonged and sowing date become earlier than before. Therefore, to regulate its sowing date and growing period is of great significance for better harvest. In this study, experiments were conducted with six sowing-date treatments of potato in Dingxi, which is in the Loess Plateau of central Gansu Province in Northwest China in 2010. The growth period, morphological index and change in yield and their relationships with temperature, precipitation, and other climatic factors were investigated for each treatment. Results show that the crop with different sowing dates experienced different climate conditions, leading to distinct growth duration, plant height, and leaf area index. The growth duration was shortened due to a delay in sowing date. For each 15-day delay in sowing, the growth duration was reduced by 12 days on average. A significant linear relationship was found between numbers of days either from seeding to emergence or from flowering to harvest and mean temperature over the corresponding period. Dry matter accumulation, tuber fresh weight, and final yield were all decreased because of insufficient cumulative temperature over the shorter growing periods. Marked differences in tuber yield were discovered among the six treatments of sowing date, the potato planted on May 27 giving the highest yield. The potato planted either earlier or later would produce invariably lower yield than the treatment of May 27. Late May therefore can be taken as the optimum sowing time of potato in this region because the crop can fully utilize thermal resource. We conclude that to postpone sowing time is a good practice for potato production to adapt to climate warming in the Loess Plateau of central Gansu, China.

Features of Climate Change in Northwest China during 1961-2010

In this study, observational data from 141 meteorological stations in Northwest China, including temperature, precipitation, dust storm, gale days and wind speed, were analyzed statistically to gain insight of the features of basic climate index and extreme climate events. The results showed that the annual mean temperature and seasonal mean temperature rose significantly, and the rising rate of the annual mean temperature is 0.27℃ per decade; the extreme high temperature days have increased; the interdecadal change of annual precipitation is marked, and the precipitation in winter and summer increased slightly, while decreased slightly in spring and autumn. The annual precipitation increased in the area west of the Yellow River, whereas decreased in the area east of the river. The drought had an increasing trend. There were 17 droughts during 1961-2010, and 10 droughts from 1991 to 2010. The number of droughts in spring and autumn increased, while decreased in summer.

Characteristics of Extreme Temperature Event and Its Response to Regional Warming in Northwest China in Past 45 Years

Using the daily maximum and minimum temperature dataset from 128 stations from 1960 to 2004 in Northwest China,daily extreme high temperature(EHT)and extreme low temperature(ELT)thresholds were deter-mined by centesimal method for different stations at first,then yearly EHT and ELT events were counted up in differ-ent stations,and the characteristics of their spatio-temporal distribution were diagnosed at last.The study drew follow-ing conclusions:1)The consistent anomaly distribution characteristic was the most important mode of the EHT and ELT events in Northwest China.2)The spatial distribution of the EHT and ELT events can be divided into five sub-regions,namely,the north of Qinghai and west of Gansu,the north of Xinjiang,the south of Xinjiang,the east of Northwest China and the south of Qinghai.3)The EHT events showed remarkable increasing trend in all of five sub-regions,but only in the north of Qinghai and west of Gansu area,sudden change phenomenon occurred;the ELT events showed decreasing trend in all of five sub-regions,and sudden change phenomenon occurred in Northwest China except for south of Qinghai.4)In all of five sub-regions the EHT events showed remarkable 12-14yr period os-cillation,and the ELT event showed significant 13-15yr and 7-8yr period oscillation.5)The EHT and ELT events displayed remarkable positive and negative responses to regional warming of Northwest China respectively.

Optical Properties and Source Analysis of Aerosols over a Desert Area in Dunhuang,Northwest China

Aerosol observational data for 2012 obtained from Dunhuang Station of CARE-China（Campaign on Atmospheric Aerosol Research Network of China） were analyzed to achieve in-depth knowledge of aerosol optical properties over Dunhuang region. The results showed that the annual average aerosol optical depth（AOD） at 500 nm was 0.32 ± 0.06, and the ？ngstr？m exponent（α） was 0.73 ± 0.27. Aerosol optical properties revealed significant seasonal characteristics. Frequent sandstorms in MAM（March–April–May） resulted in the seasonal maximum AOD, 0.41 ± 0.04, and a relatively smaller αvalue, 0.44 ± 0.04. The tourism seasons, JJA（June–July–August） and SON（September–October–November） coincide with serious emissions of small anthropogenic aerosols. While in DJF（December–January–February）, the composition of the atmosphere was a mixture of dust particles and polluted aerosols released by domestic heating; the average AOD and αwere 0.29 ± 0.02 and 0.66 ± 0.17, respectively. Different air masses exhibited different degrees of influence on the aerosol concentration over Dunhuang in different seasons. During MAM, ranges of AOD（0.11–1.18） and α（0.06–0.82） were the largest under the dust influence of northwest-short-distance air mass in the four trajectories. Urban aerosols transported by northwest-short-distance air mass accounted for a very large proportion in JJA and the mixed aerosols observed in SON were mainly conveyed by air masses from the west. In DJF, the similar ranges of AOD and α under the three air mass demonstrated the analogous diffusion effects on regional pollutants over Dunhuang.

Optical,Radiative and Chemical Characteristics of Aerosol in Changsha City,Central China

Industrial pollution has a significant effect on aerosol properties in Changsha City,a typical city of central China.Therefore,year-round measurements of aerosol optical,radiative and chemical properties from 2012 to 2014 at an urban site in Changsha were analyzed.During the observation period,the energy structure was continuously optimized,which was characterized by the reduction of coal combustion.The aerosol properties have obvious seasonal variations.The seasonal average aerosol optical depth(AOD)at 500 nm ranged from 0.49 to 1.00,single scattering albedo(SSA)ranged from 0.93 to 0.97,and aerosol radiative forcing at the top of the atmosphere(TOA)ranged from−24.0 to 3.8 W m^−2.The chemical components also showed seasonal variations.Meanwhile,the scattering aerosol,such as organic carbon,SO42−,NO3−,and NH4+showed a decrease,and elemental carbon increased.Compared with observation in winter 2012,AOD and TOA decreased by 0.14 and−1.49 W m^−2 in winter 2014.The scattering components,SO42−,NO3−and NH4+,decreased by 12.8μg m^−3(56.8%),9.2μg m^−3(48.8%)and 6.4μg m^−3(45.2%),respectively.The atmospheric visibility and pollution diffusion conditions improved.The extinction and radiative forcing of aerosol were significantly controlled by the scattering aerosol.The results indicate that Changsha is an industrial city with strong scattering aerosol.The energy structure optimization had a marked effect on controlling pollution,especially in winter(strong scattering aerosol).

Development of an Instant Correction and Display System of Numerical Weather Prediction Products in China

This paper presents the development of numerical prediction products(NPP) correction and display system(NPPCDS) for rapid and effective post-processing and displaying of the T213 NPP(numerical prediction products of the medium range numerical weather prediction spectral model T213L31) through instant correction method. The NPPCDS consists of two modules: an automatic correction module and a graphical display module. The automatic correction module automatically corrects the T213 NPP at regularly scheduled time intervals, while the graphical display module interacts with users to display the T213 NPP and its correction results. The system helps forecasters extract the most relevant information at a quick glance without extensive post-processing. It is simple, easy to use, and computationally efficient, and has been running stably at Huludao Meteorological Bureau in Liaoning Province of China for the past three years. Because of its low computational costs, it is particularly useful for meteorological departments that lack advanced computing capacity and still need to make short-range weather forecasting.

Some Phenomena of the Interaction Between Vegetation and a Atmosphere on Multiple Scales

This article studies the response of the distribution pattern and the physiological characteristics of the ecosystem to the spontaneous precipitation and the interaction between vegetation and the atmosphere on multiple scales in arid and semi-arid zones, based on measured data of the ecological physiological parameters in the Ordas Plateau of northern China. The results show that the vegetation biomass and the energy use efficiency of photosynthesis are especially sensitive to the annual precipitation; strong and complex interactions exist between the vegetation and the atmosphere on multiple scales leading to supernormal thermal heterogeneity of the underlying surface, the strong vortex movement and turbulence. This study can facilitate understanding of the land surface processes and the influences of global climate change as well as human activities on the human environment in the arid and semi-arid zones. It also aids in improving the parameterization schemes of turbulent fluxes of a heterogeneous underlying surface for land surface processes in climate models.

State and fate of the remaining tropical mountain glaciers in Australasia using satellite imagery

Tropical glaciers are extremely sensitive to a warming climate. In this paper, the evolution of the remaining tropical glaciers in Australasia(Irian Jaya, Indonesia) during the period 1988-2015 was quantified. Landsat series images, a digital elevation model from SRTM, and previously published data were used. Estimated total glacier area in 1988, 1993, 1997 and 2004 was 3.85 km2±0.13 km2, 3.01 km2±0.08 km2, 2.49 km2±0.07 km2 and 1.725 km2 ±0.042 km2, respectively. Only 0.58 km2±0.016 km2 glacierized area remained in 2015 in Puncak Jaya, which is about 84.9% loss in just 27 years. If this rate continued, the remaining tropical glaciers in Australasia would disappear in the 2020 s. Timeseries analysis of climate variables showed significant positive trends in air temperature(0.009°C per year) and relative humidity(0.43% per year) but no considerable tendency was observed for precipitation. Warming climate together with mining activities would accelerate loss of glacier coverage in this region.

Variation characteristics and prediction of pollutant concentration during winter in Lanzhou New District, China

PM2.5 and PM10 were the main air pollutants during winter in Lanzhou New District,China.In this paper,WRF model output combined with hourly monitoring data of pollutant concentration was used to analyze characteristics of the concentration change and to study the relationship between meteorological elements and PM10/PM2.5 in Lanzhou New District in January,2018.Meanwhile,the concentration changes of PM2.5 and PM10 were predicted by wavelet analysis combined with BP neural network.The results show that:(1)Due to the cold front process in winter,PM2.5 was negatively correlated with the water vapor mixing rate.PM10 was positively correlated with air temperature and negatively correlated with air pressure.(2)There was an inversion layer in the atmosphere near the high value day of PM2.5 and PM10,the surface was controlled by low pressure,low wind speed,and the situation of low value day of PM2.5 was the opposite.On the day of high value of PM10,the air temperature below 600 hPa was higher,and the wind speed near the surface was also higher.(3)Wavelet analysis combined with BP(Back Propagation)neural network had a good prediction effect on PM2.5,which could basically reflect the hourly change of PM2.5 concentration.However,the simulation effect of PM10 was poor,and the input parameters of surrounding pollutants should be added to improve the prediction effect.

Main Influencing Factors of Climatic Aridity in the Most Serious Increasing Aridity Region of North Chi- na

Based on the data of monthly precipitation and other monthly meteorological elements of 661 meteorological stations over China from 1961 to 2013, the temporal evolution characteristics of aridity in Hetao area of North China which is drying significantly were studied by using REOF, and the effects of summer monsoon and meteorological factors on the aridity index were discussed. The results showed that climatic aridity in Hetac area of North China tended to increase with time during 1961 -2013. The annual variation and overall trend of climatic aridity in Hetao area of North China was mainly influenced by /SASM1 before the 1990s, and the degree of the influence weakened with global warming. There were certain differ- ences between annual and decadal variations in the effects of the meteorological elements on climatic aridity. The impact of the thermal factors on aridity index was more significant than the dynamic factor after the 1990s, revealing that climate warming aggravated climatic aridity in Hetao area of North China.

Estimating the Soil Moisture Profile by Assimilating Near-Surface Observations with the Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF)

The paper investigates the ability to retrieve the true soil moisture profile by assimilating near-surface soil moisture into a soil moisture model with an ensemble Kalman filter （EnKF） assimilation scheme, including the effect of ensemble size, update interval and nonlinearities in the profile retrieval, the required time for full retrieval of the soil moisture profiles, and the possible influence of the depth of the soil moisture observation. These questions are addressed by a desktop study using synthetic data. The ＂true＂ soil moisture profiles are generated from the soil moisture model under the boundary condition of 0.5 cm d^-1 evaporation. To test the assimilation schemes, the model is initialized with a poor initial guess of the soil moisture profile, and different ensemble sizes are tested showing that an ensemble of 40 members is enough to represent the covariance of the model forecasts. Also compared are the results with those from the direct insertion assimilation scheme, showing that the EnKF is superior to the direct insertion assimilation scheme, for hourly observations, with retrieval of the soil moisture profile being achieved in 16 h as compared to 12 days or more. For daily observations, the true soil moisture profile is achieved in about 15 days with the EnKF, but it is impossible to approximate the true moisture within 18 days by using direct insertion. It is also found that observation depth does not have a significant effect on profile retrieval time for the EnKF. The nonlinearities have some negative influence on the optimal estimates of soil moisture profile but not very seriously.

Atmospheric Environmental Capacity of S_2 in Winter over Lanzhou in China:A Case Study

The total emission control method based on atmospheric environmental capacity is the most effective in air pollution mitigation. The atmospheric environmental capacities of SO2 on representative days over Lanzhou are estimated using the numerical models RAMS, HYPACT and a linear programming model, according to the national ambient air quality standard of China （NAAQSCHN）. The results show that the fields of meteorological elements and SO2 simulated by the models agree reasonably well with observations. The atmospheric environmental capacity of SO2 over Lanzhou is around 111.7 × 10^3 kg d^-1, and in order to meet the air quality level Ⅱ of the NAAQSCHN, SO2 emissions need to be reduced by 20%.

A Multimodel Ensemble-based Kalman Filter for the Retrieval of Soil Moisture Profiles

With the combination of three land surface models （LSMs） and the ensemble Kalman filter （EnKF）, a multimodel EnKF is proposed in which the multimodel background superensemble error covariance matrix is estimated by two different algorithms： the Simple Model Average （SMA） and the Weighted Average Method （WAM）. The two algorithms are tested and compared in terms of their abilities to retrieve the true soil moisture profile by respectively assimilating both synthetically-generated and actual near-surface soil moisture measurements. The results from the synthetic experiment show that the performances of the SMA and WAM algorithms were quite different. The SMA algorithm did not help to improve the estimates of soil moisture at the deep layers, although its performance was not the worst when compared with the results from the single-model EnKF. On the contrary, the results from the WAM algorithm were better than those from any single-model EnKF. The tested results from assimilating the field measurements show that the performance of the two multimodel EnKF algorithms was very stable compared with the single-model EnKF. Although comparisons could only be made at three shallow layers, on average, the performance of the WAM algorithm was still slightly better than that of the SMA algorithm. As a result, the WAM algorithm should be adopted to approximate the multimodel background superensemble error covariance and hence used to estimate soil moisture states at the relatively deep layers.

An Assessment of Storage Terms in the Surface Energy Balance of a Subalpine Meadow in Northwest China

The heat storage terms in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system may play an important role in the surface energy budget.In this paper,we evaluate the heat storage terms of a subalpine meadow based on a ficld experiment conducted in the complex terrain of the eastern Qilian Mountains of Northwest China and their impact on the closure of the surface energy balance under such non-ideal conditions.During the night, the average sum of the storage terms was -5.5 W m,which corresponded to 10.4%of net radiation.The sum of the terms became positive at 0730 LST and negative again at about 1500 LST,with a maximum value of 19 W mobserved at approximately 0830 LST.During the day,the average of the sum of the storage terms was 6.5 W m,which corresponded to 4.0%of net radiation.According to the slopes obtained when linear regression of the net radiation and partitioned fluxes was forced through the origin,there is an imbalance of 14.0%in the subalpine meadow when the storage terms are not considered in the surface energy balance.This imbalance was improved by 3.4%by calculating the sum of the storage terms.The soil heat storage flux gave the highest contribution(1.59%),while the vegetation enthalpy change and the rest of the storage terms were responsible for improvements of 1.04%and 0.77%,respectively.

Validation of MODIS C6 AOD Products Retrieved by the Dark Target Method in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Urban Agglomeration,China

The quality of the MODIS C6 3-km and 10-km aerosol optical depth（AOD） products retrieved by the Dark Target（DT）method is discussed using ground-based observations in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region from 1 August 2007 to 31 July2008. Good consistency exists between the 3-km and 10-km products and ground-based observations. The retrieval accuracy of the two products both show distinctive seasonality. The percentage falling within the expected error（EE） is largest in the winter, moderate in the spring and autumn, and smallest in the summer. A worse overestimation appears in the spring and summer（27%–66%）. However, the 3-km and 10-km products over different surfaces still exhibit obvious deviations. The 10-km product performs better in the large cities, while the 3-km product has advantages in the suburbs. In urban areas, the percentage falling within EE of the 3-km AOD product（18%–59%） is lower than that for the 10-km AOD product（31%–69%）. However, in suburban areas, the percentage falling within EE of the 3-km AOD product（61%–84%） is higher than for the 10 km AOD product（54%–83%）.The percentages falling within EE differ considerably when the AOD is greater than1.5（73% and 63% for the 3-km and 10-km products, respectively）. On the whole, the 3-km（10-km） AOD product performs better in suburban（urban） areas.

Impact of the variation of westerly jets over East Asia on precipitation of eastern China in July

The impact of the northward jump and westward movement of the East Asian westerly jet core fi：om the westem Pacific Ocean to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau on precipitation distribution of eastem China is studied. It is concluded that on the one hand, the northward jump of the jet causes the precipitation belt to move northward from the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River valley and withdraw during the Mei-yu season; on the other hand, the westward movement of the jet core has no correspondence with withdrawal of the Mei-yu season. However, the earlier or later occurrence of the westward movement of the jet has an influence on the process of the rain belt moving northward than the northward jump of the jet： the rain belt moves northward from the middle-lower Yangtze River valley to the Huaihe River and then to an area between the Yellow River and Huaihe River during years when the time of the westward movement of the jet core is later than that of the northward jump of the jet and from the middle-lower Yangtze River valley to an area between the Yellow River and Huaihe River in other years. Further analysis shows that： （1） The northward jump of the jet and the westward movement of the East Asian westerly jet core causes significant variation of the general atmospheric circulation in middle latitudes and water vapor transport from the western Pacific, but not from the Bay of Bengal. （2） Impact of the northward jump and the westward movement of the East Asian westerly jet core on circulation are different, therefore, water vapor transport from the western Pacific and its impact on the rain belt are different. The earlier or later occurrence of the westward movement of the jet core than the northward jump of the jet causes the process of circulation and water vapor transport to be different which produces a different process of the rain belt moving northward.

Diurnal Variation Characteristics of Precipitation in the Shiyang River Basin of Northwest China in Summer

Based on the hourly precipitation data from 32 regional meteorological stations and 5 automatic meteorological stations in summer (from June to August) over the Shiyanghe River basin from 2009 to 2013, we analyzed the diurnal variation characteristics of precipitation over the Shiyanghe River basin, by using four precipitation indices (hourly precipitation, hourly precipitation frequency, hourly precipitation intensity, and different duration precipitation). The results show that the spatial distribution of hourly precipitation, hourly precipitation frequency in summer declines from upstream to downstream over the Shiyanghe River basin because of geographical position, altitude, latitude and weather systems, and the spatial distribution of hourly intensity is complex. The precipitation, the precipitation frequency and the precipitation intensity over the Shiyanghe River basin present a diurnal pattern of double-peak distribution, with the peak periods at 01:00-09:00 and 14:00-23:00, strong precipitation present single-peak with the peak period at 14:00-23:00. Total precipitations and precipitation frequencies of 1 - 3 h short-time rainfall are more than long time rainfall continued more than 10 h over the Shiyanghe River Basin. The short-time rainfall continuing within 1 - 6 h often occurs from afternoon to evening, the long time rainfall continuing more than 6 h often occurs from evening to early morning or late afternoon to evening.

Influence of environmental factors on land-surface water and heat exchange during dry and wet periods in the growing season of semiarid grassland on the Loess Plateau

On the basis of information from the project "Land-surface Processes and their Experimental Study on the Chinese Loess Plateau", we analyzed differences in land-surface water and heat processes during the main dry and wet periods of the semiarid grassland growing season in Yuzhong County, as well as the influences of these environmental factors. Studies have shown that there are significant differences in changes of land-surface temperature and humidity during dry and wet periods. Daily average normalized temperature has an overall vertical distribution of "forward tilting" and "backward tilting" during dry and wet periods, respectively. During the dry period, shallow soil above 20-cm depth is the active temperature layer. The heat transfer rate in soil is obviously different during dry and wet periods. During the dry period, the ratio of sensible heat flux to net radiation(H/Rn) and the value of latent heat flux to net radiation(LE/Rn) have a linear relationship with 5-cm soil temperature; during the wet period, these have a nonlinear relationship with 5-cm soil temperature, and soil temperature of 16°C is the critical temperature for changes in the land-surface water and heat exchange trend on a daily scale. During the dry period, H/Rn and LE/Rn have a linear relationship with soil water content. During the wet period, these have a nonlinear relationship with 5-cm soil water content, and 0.21 m3 m?3 is the critical point for changes in the land-surface water and heat exchange trend at daily scale. During the dry period, for vapor pressure deficit less than 0.7 k Pa, H/Rn rises with increased vapor pressure deficit, whereas LE/Rn decreases with that increase. When that deficit is greater than 0.7 k Pa, both H/Rn and LE/Rn tend to be constant. During the wet period, H/Rn increases with the vapor pressure deficit, whereas LE/Rn decreases. The above characteristics directly reflect the effect of differences in land-surface environmental factors during land-surface water and heat exchange processes, and indirectly reflect the influences of cloud precipitation processes on those processes.

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 conditons 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.