A Study on Parameterization of Surface Albedo over Grassland Surface in the Northern Tibetan Plateau

The relationship of surface albedo with the solar altitude angle and soil moisture is analyzed based on two-year （January 2002 to December 2003） observational data from the AWS （Automatic Weather Station） at MS3478 in the northern Tibetan Plateau during the experimental period of CEOP/CAMP-Tibet （Coordinated Enhanced Observing Period Asia-Australia Monsoon Project on the Tibetan Plateau）. As a double-variable （solar altitude angle and soil moisture） function, surface albedo varies inconspicuously with any single factor. By using the method of approximately separating the double-variable function into two, one-factor functions （product and addition）, the relationship of albedo with these two factors presents much better. The product and additional empirical formulae of albedo are then preliminarily fitted based on long-term experimental data. By comparison with observed values, it is found that the parameterization formulae fitted by using observational data are mostly reliable and their correlation coefficients are both over 0.6. The empirical formulae of albedo though, for the northern Tibetan Plateau, need to be tested by much more representative observational data with the help of numerical models and the retrieval of remote sensing data. It is practical until it is changed into effective parameterization formulae representing a grid scale in models.

Vertical Atmospheric Structure of the Late Summer Clear Days over the East Gansu Loess Plateau in China

In this paper, by using the sounding data collected in LOPEX05, we have analyzed the vertical atmospheric structure and boundary layer characteristics of temperature and humidity in the late summer over the east Gansu loess plateau. The results show that the bottom of the stratosphere is at about 16 500 m and varies between 14 000 m and 18 000 m above the ground. The center of the westerly jet is located between 8300 m and 14 300 m above the ground and its direction moves between 260~ and 305~. There is an inverse humidity layer at about 3000 m height above the ground. The maximum of the air temperature occurs at 1700 LST in the layer below 800 m above the ground. The inversion layer is relatively thick. The time that the maximum of the vapor occurs is not the same for different layers. The depth of the atmospheric boundary layer can reach about 1000 m and the depth of the stable boundary layer can be 650 m.

A Review of Atmospheric Electricity Research in China

The importance of atmospheric electricity research has been increasingly recognized in recent decades. Research on atmospheric electricity has been actively conducted since the 1980 s in China. Lightning physics and its effects, as important branches of atmospheric electricity, have received more attention because of their significance both in scientific research and lightning protection applications. This paper reviews atmospheric electricity research based primarily on ground-based field experiments at different regions in China in the last decade. The results described in this review include physics and effects of lightning, rocket-triggered lightning and its physical processes of discharge, thunderstorm electricity on the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding areas, lightning activity associated with severe convective storms, the effect and response of lightning to climate change, numerical simulation of thunderstorm electrification and lightning discharge, lightning detection and location techniques, and transient luminous events above thunderstorms.

Estimation of Summer Rainfall over an Arid Area using AMSR-E Measurements:A Case Study in Xinjiang,China

Rainfall estimate in arid region using passive microwave remote sensing techniques has been a complex issue for some time.The main reason for this difficulty is that the high and variable emissivity of land surfaces greatly aggravates the complexity of the signatures from the rain cloud.The Xinjiang area,located in the northwest of China,holds all the typical characteristics of arid climate.A rainfall algorithm has been developed for this region by using the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System(AMSR-E) measurements.The algorithm attempts to use all 12 chan-nels on the AMSR-E instrument and a two-step method calibrated over 11 days of hourly rain-gauge data.First,Stepwise Discriminant Analysis(SDA) used to optimally estimate rain pixels based on all 12 channels,although only three channels were found to be necessary.Next,a rain predicator scattering index was used to estimate rain rates.A linear relationship between the rain rates and the scattering index above the threshold of 3.0K was constructed with a simple approximately linear function.The estimated rain rates were compared with the rain-gauge data used to calibrate the method,and a good relationship was found with a root-mean-square error of 2.1mm/h.The numerical calculations and comparisons show that the algorithm works well in the Xinjiang area.

Analysis of the characteristics of snow drop size distribution in the Qilian Mountains

Under the Watershed Allied Telemetry Experimental Research （WATER） project, a significant amount of snow size data was collected from March to April 2008. However, because of limited observation data for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the modeling behavior was not satisfactory. This paper demonstrates characteristics of the snow drop size distribution （SSD） in this region. The experimental area is located in the northeastern part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Heihe River Basin, which is the second largest interior river basin in China and is located on the northern slopes of the Qilian Mountains, was selected as the simulation region. This basin ranges from approximately 5,000 m to 1,000 m in elevation. A new generation Parsivel disdrometer, the OTT Parsivel, was used for measurements. Four data sets were compiled to determine the average distributions for four different snowfall rates. The characteristics of the snow particle size distribution in the mountainous area were analyzed. Similar to the raindrop distribution, there was a multi-peak structure. Most peaks appear in the D 〈 2 mm region （D： diameter of the snow drop size）. An M-P distribution and a Г distribution were developed based on the precipitation data observed in Qilian mountainous area. We found that the Г distribution has a better fit than the M-P distribution for the actual distribution. In addition, we observed that the intercept parameter （N0） and the slope parameter （Λ） correlate well with the shape parameter （μ）. The disdrometer data can also be used to model the reflectivity factor （ZH） and differential reflectivity factor （ZDR）. The radar reflectivity （ZHH, ZVV） and differential reflectivity （ZDR） were modeled in order to facilitate understanding of the connections between radar and ground measurements, and were used to support work for the improvement of rainfall estimates by polarimetric radar. Rain rate estimation using radar measurements was based on empirical models, such as the Z-R relationship and R（ZH, ZDR） in the Qilian mountainous areas. The relationship of R=0.017×100.079×ZH-0.022×ZDR is better than R=0.019×100.078×ZH for estimating R （melted snow）. The normalized errors （NE） of R（ZH） and R（ZH, ZDR） are 13.22% and 5.20%, respectively.

Red sprites over thunderstorms in the coast of Shandong Province,China

Red sprites, different from lightning flashes occurring in the troposphere, are large and brief dis-charges which appear in the altitude range from about 40 to 90 km above large thunderstorms and are usually caused by cloud-to-ground lightning discharges (CGs). A total of 17 sprites over two thunder-storms were first observed during the summer of 2007. One of the sprites occurred on July 28 above a thunderstorm in Guan County and the center of the storm was about 272 km from the observation site. The other sprites were recorded at the late night of August 1 and in the early morning of August 2, and the storm center was about 315 km away. All of the observed sprites occurred in cluster, and their appearances were very different, including 'columniform sprites', 'columniform sprites' with angel-like wings, 'carrot sprites', 'dancing sprites', etc. The duration of the sprites varied from a minimum of 40 ms to a maximum of 160 ms with a geometric mean (GM) of 61 ms. The time delay between parental positive cloud-to-ground lightning flashes (+CGs) and the associated sprites varied from 3.4 to 11.8 ms with a GM of 7.1 ms. The ratio of the number of +CGs to the total number of CGs during the time period with sprites was 7 times larger than that when no sprites occurred. Sprites did not appear fre-quently at the time when the convective activity is strong but when the thunderstorm starts to become weak.

Observation and study on the whole process of cloud-to-ground lightning using narrowband radio interferometer

A narrowband radio interferometer has been developed and used to locate the entire sources of VHF radiations from a negative cloud-to-ground (CG) lightning discharge which contains 19 strokes. This system uses five antennas to form an array consisting of short- and long-baselines along two or- thogonal directions. The system error which comes from frequency conversion is reduced by phase detection through direct high frequency amplifying. An interactive graphic analysis procedure is used to remove the fringe ambiguities which exist inherently in interferometry and to determine the direction of lightning radiation sources in two dimensions (azimuth and elevation) as a function of time at a time resolution of microsecond orders. With the developed system, the whole progression process in time and space of a lightning flash can be reconstructed. In this paper, combining the synchronous data of electric filed change and VHF radiation, the whole processes of an example negative CG flash have been studied in detail. It is found that the preliminary breakdown event of the CG flash started from negative charge region and exhibited firstly a downward pregression and then an upward propagation. There were very intense and continuous radiations during stepped leaders which became much stronger when the first return stroke began. In contrast, there were less and only discrete radiations during dart leaders. Stepped leader and dart leader may transform to each other depending on the state of the ionization of the path. The progression speed of initial stepped leaders was about 105 ms?1, while that was about 4.1×106 and 6.0×106 ms?1 for dart leaders and dart-stepped leaders, respectively. M events produced hook-shaped field changes accompanied by active burst of radiations at their begin- nings. Followed these active radiation processes, M events appeared to contact finally into conducting main discharge channels. The mean progression speed of M events was about 7×107 ms?1, greater than that of the dart leaders and dart-step leaders. K events and attempted leaders were essentially the same as dart leaders except that they could not reach the ground and initiate return strokes.