Use of Targeted Orographic Smoothing in Very High Resolution Simulations of a Downslope Windstorm and Rotor in a Sub-tropical Highland Location

Nested simulations of a downslope windstorm over Cangshan mountain,Yunnan,China,have been used to demonstrate a method of topographic smoothing that preserves a relatively large amount of terrain detail compared to typical smoothing procedures required for models with terrain-following grids to run stably.The simulations were carried out using the Met Office Unified Model(MetUM)to investigate downslope winds.The smoothing method seamlessly blends two terrain datasets to which uniform smoothing has been applied—one with a minimum of smoothing,the other smoothed more heavily to remove gradients that would cause model instabilities.The latter dataset dominates the blend where the steepest slopes exist,but this is localised and recedes outside these areas.As a result,increased detail is starkly apparent in depictions of flow simulated using the blend,compared to one using the default approach.This includes qualitative flow details that were absent in the latter,such as narrow shooting flows emerging from roughly 1-2 km wide leeside channels.Flow separation is more common due to steeper lee slopes.The use of targeted smoothing also results in increased lee side temporal variability at a given point during the windstorm,including over flat areas.Low-/high-pass filtering of the wind perturbation field reveals that relative spatial variability above 30 km in scale(reflecting the background flow)is similar whether or not targeting is used.Beneath this scale,when smoothing is targeted,relative flow variability decreases at the larger scales,and increases at lower scales.This seems linked to fast smaller scale flows disturbing more coherent flows(notably an along-valley current over Erhai Lake).Spatial variability of winds in the model is unsurprisingly weaker at key times than is observed across a local network sampling mesoscale variation,but results are compromised due to relatively few observation locations sampling the windstorm.Only when targeted smoothing is applied does the model capture the downslope windstorm's extension over the city of Dali at the mountain's foot,and the peak mean absolute wind.

A Possible Cause for Different Diurnal Variations of Warm Season Rainfall as Shown in Station Observations and TRMM 3B42 Data over the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau

In this study, records from a 3-yr intensified observational experiment at eight stations along the hillside of Seqilashan over the southeastern Tibetan Plateau were analyzed and combined with records at 28 routine observation stations in the Chinese National Meteorological Station Network to investigate the influences of station location on the different diurnal rainfall variations between station records and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission （TRMM） data products. The results indicate that the diurnal variation of warm season rainfall is closely related to location of stations. The prevailing nocturnal rainfall peak in observations at routine stations can be largely attributed to the relatively lower location of the stations, which are mostly situated in valleys. The records at Seqilashan stations on hillsides revealed an evident diurnal afternoon peak of warm season rainfall, similar to that indicated by TRMM data. The different diurnal phases between valley and hillside stations are closely related to the orographically induced regional circulations caused by the complex topography over the Tibetan Plateau. The results of this study indicate that the prevailing nocturnal rainfall associated with the relatively lower location of routine observation stations can partially explain the diurnal rainfall variations between observation station records and TRMM data.

Characteristics of Lake Breezes and Their Impacts on Energy and Carbon Fluxes in Mountainous Areas

In mountainous lake areas, lake–land and mountain–valley breezes interact with each other, leading to an "extended lake breeze". These extended lake breezes can regulate and control energy and carbon cycles at different scales. Based on meteorological and turbulent fluxes data from an eddy covariance observation site at Erhai Lake in the Dali Basin,southwest China, characteristics of daytime and nighttime extended lake breezes and their impacts on energy and carbon dioxide exchange in 2015 are investigated. Lake breezes dominate during the daytime while, due to different prevailing circulations at night, there are two types of nighttime breezes. The mountain breeze from the Cangshan Mountain range leads to N1 type nighttime breeze events. When a cyclonic circulation forms and maintains in the southern part of Erhai Lake at night, its northern branch contributes to the formation of N2 type nighttime breeze events. The prevailing wind directions for daytime, N1, and N2 breeze events are southeast, west, and southeast, respectively. Daytime breeze events are more intense than N1 events and weaker than N2 events. During daytime breeze events, the lake breeze decreases the sensible heat flux(Hs) and carbon dioxide flux(F_(CO_2)) and increases the latent heat flux(LE). During N1 breeze events, the mountain breeze decreases Hs and LE and increases F_(CO_2). For N2 breeze events, the southeast wind from the lake surface increases Hs and LE and decreases suppress carbon dioxide exchange.

Eddy covariance measurements of water vapor and CO_2 fluxes above the Erhai Lake

Measurement of turbulence fluxes were performed over the Erhai Lake using eddy covariance(EC) method.Basic physical parameters in the lake-air interaction processes,such as surface albedo of the lake,aerodynamic roughness length,bulk transfer coefficients,etc.,were investigated using the EC data in 2012.The characteristics of turbulence fluxes over the lake including momentum flux,sensible heat flux,latent heat flux,and CO2 flux,and their controlling factors were analyzed.The total annual evaporation of the lake was also estimated based on the artificial neural network(ANN) gap-filling technique.Results showed that the total annual evaporation in 2012 was 1165 ± 15 mm,which was larger than the annual precipitation(818 mm).Local circulation between the lake and the surrounding land was found to be significant throughout the year due to the land-lake breeze or the mountain-valley breeze in this area.The prevailing winds of southeasterly and northwesterly were observed throughout the year.The sensible heat flux over this plateau lake usually had a few tens of W m-2,and generally became negative in the afternoon,indicating that heat was transferred from the lake to the atmosphere.The sensible heat flux was governed by the lake-air temperature difference and had its maximum in the early morning.The diurnal variation of the latent heat flux was controlled by vapor pressure deficit with a peak in the afternoon.The latent heat flux was dominant in the partition of available energy in daytime over this lake.The lake acted as a weak CO2 source to the atmosphere except for the midday of summer.Seasonal variations of surface albedo over the lake were related to the solar elevation angle and opacity of the water.Furthermore,compared with the observation data,the surface albedo estimated by CLM4-LISSS model was underestimated in winter and overestimated in summer.

The asymmetry of rainfall process

Using hourly station rain gauge data in the warm season (May-October) during 1961-2006, the climatological features of the evolution of the rainfall process are analyzed by compositing rainfall events centered on the maximum hourly rainfall amount of each event. The results reveal that the rainfall process is asymmetric, which means rainfall events usually reach the maximum in a short period and then experience a relatively longer retreat to the end of the event. The effects of rainfall intensity, duration and peak time, as well as topography, are also considered. It is found that the asymmetry is more obvious in rainfall events with strong intensity and over areas with complex terrain, such as the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau, the Hengduan Mountains, and the Yungui Plateau. The asymmetry in short-duration rainfall is more obvious than that in long-duration rainfall, but the regional differences are weaker. The rainfall events that reach the maximum during 14:00-02:00 LST exhibit the strongest asymmetry and those during 08:00-14:00 LST show the weakest asymmetry. The rainfall intensity at the peak time stands out, which means that the rainfall intensity increases and decreases quickly both before and after the peak. These results can improve understanding of the rainfall process and provide metrics for the evaluation of climate models. Moreover, the strong asymmetry of the rainfall process should be highly noted when taking measures to defending against geological hazards, such as collapses, landslides and debris flows throughout southwestern China.