Spatial Distribution and Temporal Variation of the Winter Wheat Late Frost Disaster in Henan,China

The winter wheat late frost disaster（WFD） occurs mainly in the Yellow and Huaihe River area,of which Henan Province covers the most part.Henan is the major area of wheat production in China,but it is severely hit by the WFD.In this study,we construct a WFD index based on the minimum temperature and the winter wheat development period（WDP）.The WFD degrees and days at 30 agrometeorological stations in Henan Province during the period of 1981-2004 are calculated.For the large-scale temporal variation analysis of WFD,the 24-yr WDP observation series is relatively short,so it is expanded by using the relation between the turning green date of winter wheat and the 5-day running mean temperature and that between the stem elongation phase and the effective cumulative temperature above a critical value of 2.5 ℃.The WFD data are also expanded for the last 50 years and are analyzed by using the empirical orthogonal function（EOF） and the Morlet wavelet methods.Characteristics in the spatial distribution and temporal variation of WFD are revealed.The results show that the frequency of WFD is generally high,exceeding 40% in parts of Henan,and exhibits a rising trend in the period of 1970-1990.The variation trend of WFD degrees is similar to that of WFD days,and the areas with higher WFD degrees coincide the areas with more WFD days.Moreover,the WFD degree has a greater impact on the winter wheat yield than the WFD days.The areas with high WFD degrees lie in the southeast and southwest of Henan,and the areas with low WFD degrees lie in the south of the Huaihe River and parts of western Henan.Temporal variations of the first and second EOF modes of the WFD degree display 16-and quasi-22-yr periodicities,respectively.The areas of high（low） WFD frequency are distributed in the northern Henan and the southwest border of Henan（the northeast Henan and the middle part of southwest Henan）.The temporal variation of the first（second） EOF mode of WFD days exhibits a periodicity（periodicities） of quasi-4 yr（quasi-3 and quasi-6-7 yr）.

A Study on a Heavy Rainfall Event Triggered by an Inverted Typhoon Trough in Shandong Province

A heavy rainfall event that occurred in Shandong Province in 26 28 August 2004 was caused mainly by Typhoon Acre and cold air activities related to a westerly trough. The event was triggered by an inverted typhoon trough, which was closely associated with the intensification of the low-level southeasterly flow and the northward transport of heat and momentum in the periphery of the typhoon low. A numerical simulation of this event is performed using the nonhydrostatic mesoscale model MM5 with two-way interactive and triply-nested grids, and the structure of the inverted typhoon trough is studied. Furthermore, the formation and development mechanism of the inverted typhoon trough and a mesoscale vortex are discussed through a vorticity budget analysis. The results show that the heavy rainfall was induced by the strong convergence between the strong and weak winds within the inverted typhoon trough. Dynamic effects of the low-level jet and the diabatic heating of precipitation played an important role in the development of the inverted typhoon trough and the formation of the mesoscale vortex. The vorticity budget analysis suggests that the divergence term in the low troposphere, the horizontal advection term, and the convection term in the middle troposphere were main contributors to positive vorticity. Nonetheless, at the same pressure level, the effect of the divergence term and that of the adveetion term were opposite to each other. In the middle troposphere, the vertical transport term made a positive contribution while the tilting term made a negative contribution, and the total vorticity tendency was the net result of their counteractions. It is found that the change tendency of the relative vorticity was not uniform horizontally. A strong positive vorticity tendency occurred in the southeast of the mesoscale vortex, which is why the heavy rainfall was concentrated there. The increase of positive vorticity in the low （upper） troposphere was caused by horizontal convergence （upward transport of vorticity from the lower troposphere）. Therefore, the development of the inverted typhoon trough and the formation of the mesoscale vortex were mainly attributed to the vorticity generated in the low troposphere, and also the vertical transport of vorticity from the low and middle troposphere.