Direct Climatic Effect of Aerosols and Interdecadal Variations over East Asia Investigated by a Regional Coupled Climate-Chemistry/Aerosol Model

The direct climatic effect of aerosols for the 1980-2000 period over East Asia was numerically investigated by a regional scale coupled climate-chemistry/aerosol model,which includes major anthropogenic aerosols(sulfate,black carbon,and organic carbon) and natural aerosols(soil dust and sea salt) .Anthropogenic emissions used in model simulation are from a global emission inventory prepared for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report(IPCC AR5) ,whereas natural aerosols are calculated online in the model.The simulated 20-year average direct solar radiative effect due to aerosols at the surface was estimated to be in a range of-9--33 W m-2 over most areas of China,with maxima over the Gobi desert of West China,and-12 W m-2 to-24 W m-2 over the Sichuan Basin,the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.Aerosols caused surface cooling in most areas of East Asia,with maxima of-0.8-C to-1.6-C over the deserts of West China,the Sichuan Basin,portions of central China,and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Aerosols induced a precipitation decrease over almost the entire East China,with maxima of-90 mm/year to-150 mm/year over the Sichuan Basin,the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the lower reaches of the Yellow River.Interdecadal variation of the climate response to the aerosol direct radiative effect is evident,indicating larger decrease in surface air temperature and stronger perturbation to precipitation in the 1990s than that in the 1980s,which could be due to the interdecadal variation of anthropogenic emissions.

Simulation of the East Asian Subtropical Westerly Jet Stream with GFDL AGCM (AM2.1)

The present study validated the capability of the AM2.1,a model developed at NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL),in reproducing the fundamental features of the East Asian Subtropical Westerly Jet Stream (EASWJ).The main behaviors of the EASWJ are also investigated through the reanalysis of observational NCEP/NCAR data.The mean state of the EASWJ,including its intensity,location,structure,and seasonal evolution is generally well-portrayed in the model.Compared with the observation,the model tends to reproduce a weaker jet center.And,during summer,the simulated jet center is northward-situated.Results also demonstrate the model captures the variability of EASWJ during summer well.The results of the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) applied on the zonal wind at 200 hPa (U200) over East Asia for both the observation and simulation indicate an inter-decadal shift around the late 1970s.The correlation coefficient between the corresponding principle components is as great as 0.42 with significance at the 99% confidence level.

Indirect Radiative and Climatic Effects of Sulfate and Organic Carbon Aerosols over East Asia Investigated by RIEMS

The indirect radiative and climatic effects of sulfate and organic carbon aerosols over East Asia were investigated using a Regional Integrated Environment Model System (RIEMS) with an empirical aerosol-cloud parameterization.The first indirect radiative forcing was negative and ranged from-9-0 W m-2 in the domain.The maximum cooling,up to-9 W m-2,occurred in the Chongqing District in winter,whereas the cooling areas were larger during summer than in winter.Organic carbon (OC) aerosols were more abundant in winter than in summer,whereas the sulfate concentration during summer was much higher than during winter.The concentrations of sulfate and OC were comparable in winter,and sulfate played a dominant role in determining indirect radiative forcing in summer,whereas in winter,both sulfate and OC were important.The regional mean indirect radiative forcings were-0.73 W m-2 and-0.41 W m-2 in summer and winter,respectively.The surface cooling caused by indirect effects was more obvious in winter than that in summer.The ground temperature decreased by ～1.2 K in most areas of eastern China in winter,whereas in summer,the temperature decreased (～-1.5 K) in some regions,such as the Yangtze River region,but increased (～0.9 K) in the areas between the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers.In winter,the precipitation decreased by 0-6 mm in most areas of eastern China,but in summer,alternating bands of increasing (up to 80 mm) and decreasing (～-80 mm) precipitation appeared in eastern China.

Modeling Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Reactions on Dust Surfaces on Aerosol Optical Depth and Direct Radiative Forcing over East Asia in Springtime

The spatial distributions and interannual variations of aerosol concentrations,aerosol optical depth(AOD) ,aerosol direct radiative forcings,and their responses to heterogeneous reactions on dust surfaces over East Asia in March 2006-10 were investigated by utilizing a regional coupled climate-chemistry/aerosol model. Anthropogenic aerosol concentrations(inorganic+carbonaceous) were higher in March 2006 and 2008,whereas soil dust reached its highest levels in March 2006 and 2010,resulting in stronger aerosol radiative forcings in these periods.The domain and five-year(2006-10) monthly mean concentrations of anthropogenic and dust aerosols,AOD,and radiative forcings at the surface(SURF) and at the top of the atmosphere(TOA) in March were 2.4μg m-3,13.1μg m-3,0.18,-19.0 W m-2,and-7.4 W m-2,respectively.Heterogeneous reactions led to an increase of total inorganic aerosol concentration;however,the ambient inorganic aerosol concentration decreased,resulting in a smaller AOD and weaker aerosol radiative forcings.In March 2006 and 2010,the changes in ambient inorganic aerosols,AOD,and aerosol radiative forcings were more evident.In terms of the domain and five-year averages,the total inorganic aerosol concentrations increased by 13.7%(0.17μg m-3) due to heterogeneous reactions,but the ambient inorganic aerosol concentrations were reduced by 10.5%(0.13μg m-3) .As a result,the changes in AOD,SURF and TOA radiative forcings were estimated to be-3.9%(-0.007) ,-1.7%(0.34 W m-2) ,and-4.3%(0.34 W m-2) ,respectively,in March over East Asia.

Statistically Downscaled Temperature Scenarios over China

Monthly mean temperatures at 562 stations in China are estimated using a statistical downscaling tech-nique.The technique used is multiple linear regressions (MLRs) of principal components (PCs).A stepwise screening procedure is used for selecting the skilful PCs as predictors used in the regression equation.The predic-tors include temperature at 850 hPa (T),the combination of sea-level pressure and temperature at 850 hPa (P+T) and the combination of geo-potential height and tempera-ture at 850 hPa (H+T).The downscaling procedure is tested with the three predictors over three predictor do-mains.The optimum statistical model is obtained for each station and month by finding the predictor and predictor domain corresponding to the highest correlation.Finally,the optimum statistical downscaling models are applied to the Hadley Centre Coupled Model,version 3 (HadCM3) outputs under the Special Report on Emission Scenarios (SRES) A2 and B2 scenarios to construct local future temperature change scenarios for each station and month.The results show that (1) statistical downscaling produces less warming than the HadCM3 output itself;(2) the downscaled annual cycles of temperature differ from the HadCM3 output,but are similar to the observation;(3) the downscaled temperature scenarios show more warming in the north than in the south;(4) the downscaled tempera-ture scenarios vary with emission scenarios,and the A2 scenario produces more warming than the B2,especially in the north of China.

Validation of Land Surface Temperature Derived from 37-GHz AMSR-E over Northern China

A validation study of land surface temperature (LST) obtained from the Ka band (37 GHz) vertically polarized brightness temperature over northern China is presented.The remotely sensed LST derived jointly by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (VUA-NASA) from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) were compared to the daily in-situ top soil temperature/infrared surface temperature observations from eleven/three Enhanced Coordinated Observation stations in arid and semi-arid regions of northern China.The VUA-NASA LST from the descending path exhibited a stronger correspondence to the in-situ infrared surface temperature than soil temperature observations,whereas correlations (R 2) of the latter ranged from 0.41 to 0.86.Meanwhile,the ascending overpass LST was generally warmer than the in-situ soil temperature observations at all stations,and the correlation (R 2) was between 0.07 and 0.72.Furthermore,the correlation of the descending path was generally greater than that of the ascending path at the same station.The descending path VUA-NASA LST was sensitive to precipitation and presented good agreement with ground temperature dynamics.The analyses demonstrated that the descending overpass LST was reliable to reflect reasonable patterns of temperature dynamics for land surface temperature in the region.

Observations of Aerosol Optical Properties in the Beijing Urban Area in Summer

To investigate aerosol optical properties in the Beijing metropolitan area,aerosol absorption coefficient(Ab) ,scattering coefficient(Sc) ,and fine particulate matter(PM2.5) were measured in the Beijing urban area from 20 May to 30 August 2009.The average Ab,Sc,single scattering albedo(SSA) ,and PM2.5 concentration were 58.0±39.5 M m-1,343.5±353.7 M m-1,0.80±0.10 and 63.6±50.0-g m-3,respectively,during the observation period.Ab,Sc,and SSA all showed single peak diurnal variations,with their maximum values being measured at 0500,1000,and 1300 local time,respectively.Ab and Sc had a strong positive correlation with PM2.5,and Ab,Sc,and PM2.5 all had positive correlations with relative humidity and negative correlations with wind speed.

Characteristics and Changes of Cold Surge Events over China during 1960-2007

This paper demonstrates regional characteristics, a long-term decreasing trend, and decadal variations in the frequency of cold surge events based on daily mean temperature and daily minimum temperature data in China's Mainland from 1960 to 2008. During these 48 years four high frequency centers of cold surge events were located in Xinjiang, central North China, northeast China, and southeast China. A main frequency peak of cold surge events occurs in autumn for the four regions and another peak is detected in spring over northeast China and southeast China. The regional pattern of cold surge frequencies is in accordance with the perturbation kinetic energy distribution in October December, January, and February April. The long-term decreasing trend ( 0.2 times/decade) of cold surge frequencies in northeast China and decadal variations in China are related to the variations of the temperature difference between southern and northern China in the winter monsoon season; these variations are due to the significant rising of winter temperatures in high latitudes.

A Preliminary Analysis of the Relationship between Precipitation Variation Trends and Altitude in China

Characteristics of the relationship between precipitation variation trends (PVT) and altitude were analyzed using monthly mean precipitation data from 526 observation stations in China from 1961 to 2008.With respect to elevation,China was divided into three subregions,below 200 m,200-1500 m,and above 1500 m.The results showed that the correlations between annual PVT and altitude are different among the three regions.In the region below 200 m in elevation,the best relationship has a correlation coefficient of-0.19 (0.49),passing the 90% (99.9%) significance level south (north) of 35 N.However,the correlation coefficient is close to zero,and the latitude strongly governs the spatial distribution of the amplitude of annual PVT in the 200-1500-m elevation region.In most of the Tibetan Plateau,where the elevation is greater than 1500 m,there is a weak negative correlation.The Mann-Kendall method was used to test the trend of regional mean annual precipitation,which indicated that the annual mean precipitation had no obvious trend of change in China due to the reverse significant variation trends in different areas of the country.

Surface Soil Moisture Simulation for a Typical Torrential Event with a Modified Noah LSM Coupling to the NWP Model

Surface soil moisture has great impact on both meso-and microscale atmospheric processes,especially on severe local convection processes and on the dynamics of short-lived torrential rains.To promote the performance of the land surface model (LSM) in surface soil moisture simulations,a hybrid hydrologic runoff parameterization scheme based upon the essential modeling theories of the Xin'anjiang model and Topography based hydrological Model (TOPMODEL) was developed in preference to the simple water balance model (SWB) in the Noah LSM.Using a strategy for coupling and integrating this modified Noah LSM to the Global/Regional Assimilation and Prediction System (GRAPES) analogous to that used with the standard Noah LSM,a simulation of atmosphere-land surface interactions for a torrential event during 2007 in Shandong was attempted.The results suggested that the surface,10-cm depth soil moisture simulated by GRAPES using the modified hydrologic approach agrees well with the observations.Improvements from the simulated results were found,especially over eastern Shandong.The simulated results,compared with the products of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) soil moisture datasets,indicated a consistent spatial pattern over all of China.The temporal variation of surface soil moisture was validated with the data at an observation station,also demonstrated that GRAPES with modified Noah LSM exhibits a more reasonable response to precipitation events,even though biases and systematic trends may still exist.

A Comparison of Several 5-Minute Radar-Rainfall Estimation Models

For the Z-R relationship in radar-based rainfall estimation, the distribution of corresponding R values for a given Z value (or the corresponding Z value for a given R value) may be highly skewed. However, the traditional power-law model is physically deduced and fitted under the normal-distribution presumption of radar wave echoes associated with a rain rate value, and it may not be very appropriate. Considering this problem, the authors devised several generalized linear models with different forms and distribution presumptions to represent the Z-R relationship. Radar-reflectivity scans observed by a CINRAD/SC Doppler radar and 5-minute rainfall accumulation recorded by 10 ground gauges were used to fit these models. All data used in this study were collected during some large rainfalls of the period from 2005 to 2007. The radar and all gauges were installed in the catchment of the Yishu River, a branch of the Huaihe River in China. Three models based on normal distribution and a dBZ presumption of gamma distribution were fitted using maximum-likelihood techniques, which were resolved by genetic algorithms. Comparisons of estimated maximized likelihoods based on assumptions of gamma and normal distribution showed that all generalized linear models (GLMs) of presumed gamma distribution were better fitted than GLMs based on normal distribution. In a comparison of maximum-likelihood, the differences between these three models were small. Three error statistics were used to assess the agreement between radar estimated rainfall and gauge rainfall: relative bias (B), root mean square error (RMSE), and correlation coefficient (r). The results showed that no one model was excellent in all criteria. On the whole, the GLM-based models gave smaller relative bias than the traditional power-law model. It is suggested that validations conducted in many previous works should have been made against a specific criterion but overlooked others.