In the summers of 2006 and 2007, the atmospheric CO2 concentration and the wind speed in the Rongbuk Valley on the northern slope of Mr. Everest were measured by an ultrasonic anemometer with an Li-7500 CO2/H2O gas analyzer. The average CO2 concentration was 370.23±0.59 and 367.45±1.91 ppm in June of 2006 and 2007, respectively. The values are much lower than those at sites with similar latitudes and altitudes worldwide. The observed atmospheric CO2 concentration in Rongbuk Valley can be affected by the transportation of prevailing down-valley winds from the up-valley direction to the observation site. Our results suggest that the Mt. Everest region could be ideal for background atmospheric and environmental studies.
Based on the meteorological data of 20 stations in the Hengduan Mountains region during 1961-2009, the annual and seasonal variation of potential evapotranspiration was analyzed in combination with the Penman-Monteith model. With the method of Spline interpolation under ArcGIS, the spatial distribution of potential evapotranspiration was presented to research the regional difference, and the correlation analysis was used to discuss the dominant factor affecting the potential evapotranspiration. The results indicated that the an-nual potential evapotranspiration showed a decreasing tendency since the 1960s, especially from the 1980s to 1990s, while it showed an increasing tendency since 2000. Regional potential evapotranspiration showed a rate of -0.17 mm a？1. Potential evapotranspiration in north, middle and south of the Hengduan Mountains exhibited decreasing trends over the studied period, and its regional trend was on the decline from southwest to northeast.
The sensitivity of simulated tropical intraseasonal oscillations (ISO) to different cumulus parameterization schemes was analyzed using an atmospheric general circulation model (latest version-SAMIL2.2.3) developed at the Laboratory for Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics (LASG) at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Results show that the basic features of tropical climatological intraseasonal oscillations (CISO) can be captured using all three cumulus schemes.The CISO simulated by the Tiedtke scheme was found to be more realistic than that of the Manabe and Zhang-McFarlane schemes.The results of simulated transient intraseasonal oscillations (TISO) indicate that although the Tiedtke and the Zhang-McFarlane schemes in the new version SAMIL2.2.3 have been adjusted according to different problems,only the latter can simulate the eastward propagation of the 27-50-day TISO mode.It may be associated with the more realistic diabatic heating profile simulated by the Zhang-McFarlane scheme.In addition,the Manabe scheme in SAMIL2.2.3 is the same as that in the prior version SAMIL2.08.However,some aspects of the physical process,such as the radiation scheme and aerosol condition,have been changed.Conversely the eastward propagation from 100°E to the west of the tropical 27-50-day TISO mode only can be simulated using the Manabe scheme of SAMIL 2.08.Consequently,not all the improvements of physical parameterization schemes work well in every respect.The coordinated developments between dynamic frame and physical processes,and among different physical processes,are important methods that may be used to improve the model.
A new mesoscale air-sea coupled model (WRF- OMLM-Noh) was constructed based on the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and an improved Mellor-Yamada ocean mixed-layer model from Noh and Kim (OMLM-Noh). Through off-line tests and a simulation of a real typhoon, the authors compared the performance of the WRF-OMLM-Noh with another existing ocean mixed-layer coupled model (WRF-OMLM-Pollard). In the off-line tests with Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Program's Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA-COARE) observational data, the results show that OMLM-Noh is better able to simulate sea surface temperature (SST) variational trends than OMLM -Pollard. Moreover, OMLM-Noh can sufficiently reproduce the diurnal cycle of SST. Regarding the typhoon case study, SST cooling due to wind-driven ocean mixing is underestimated in WRF-OMLM-Pollard, which artificially increases the intensity of the typhoon due to more simulated air-sea heat fluxes. Compared to the WRF- OMLM-Pollard, the performance of WRF-OMLM-Noh is superior in terms of both the spatial distribution and temporal variation of SST and air-sea heat fluxes.
