A Review of the Asian-Pacific Monsoon

Research on the Asian-Pacific monsoon has a long history. This paper starts by summarizing field experiments investigating the Asian-Pacific monsoon. Since the 1960s, a number of international and regional monsoon projects and field experiments have been carried out, and substantial progress regarding research on the Asian-Pacific monsoon has been made. Second, the onset and the seasonal march of the Asian summer monsoon and the annual cycle of active and break periods of the monsoon, which are characterized by precipitation maxima and minima, are studied. Since the inter-tropical convergence zone (ITCZ or TCZ) is the dominating weather system and is the major birthplace of typhoons and tropical convective systems, the monsoonal rainfall and ITCZ are analyzed after the onset of the Asian mon- soon. Finally, because the ITCZ has a close relationship with tropical convective systems and rainfall events in monsoon regions, analyses of the developments of deep convection and rainfall events are briefly introduced.

Musical quality in Edgar Allan Poe＇s poetry

Edgar Allan Poe is one of the greatest writers in American literary history. He was a short-story writer, fathering the detective story and starting the psychoanalytical tradition. He was also a poet, advocating short poems with regular and delicate rhyming schemes. He was, at the same time, a literary theorist, writing about the principles of composition. This paper is to analyze the theme and musical quality of Poe＇s poems, focusing on the techniques Poe had employed in his poems to help enhance his major themes of death and beauty. According to Poe, the most appropriate tone for all poems is melancholy. In Poe＇s life, there was a personal connection with ＂the death of a beautiful woman＂, which is acknowledged in his thesis The philosophy of composition. The impetus for composing of poems undoubtedly arose from Poe＇s loss of his mother and of other women he had loved. The beauty of music exerts great influence on Poe＇s aesthetic perception. He paid more than enough attention to the musical qualities of poetry. He defined poetry as ＂the rhythmical creation of beauty＂. Poe advocated the idea of the poet as a craftsman, interested in polishing and refining language. He stressed the use of language as a medium of convey pure musical and rhythmical beauty. Poe＇s reputation for musical verses is due to his choice of sounds and treatment of rimes and meter.

The microphysics of ice accretion on wires:Observations and simulations

The weather system, meteorological conditions, and microphysics of cloud, fog, and rain droplets are studied during the formation, growth, maintenance, and shedding periods of ice accretion on wires in Enshi, Hubei Province in China using 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 winter observations. The comprehensive observations include data of visibility, microphysics of fog and rain droplets, and ice thickness, as well as data from an automated weather station and other routinely recorded meteorological data. The results show that icing occurred during the passage of a cold front, with a high-pressure system and a cold temperature trough at 850 hPa, and a southeasterly at 500 hPa that provided abundant moisture. Ice formation usually started in the evening or early morning, and ice shed around noon the following day when the temperature was -1℃ to 0℃. The averaged liquid water content of the fog droplet was distinctly greater during the growth period than during the other three periods, and there was precipitation during the growth period in each case of ice accretion. The growth rate of the ice thickness was clearly correlated with the liquid water content, with a correlation coefficient of 0.62. Simulations using empirical equations were carried out, and the simulated ice thickness agreed with observations fairly well.