Wu Guoxiong

New proofs of the recent climate warming over the Tibetan Plateau as a result of the increasing greenhouse gases emissions

A striking climate warming over the Tibetan Plateau during the last decades has been revealed by many studies, but evidence linking it to human activity is insufficient. By using historical observations, here we show that the in situ climate warming is accompanied by a distinct decreasing trend of the diurnal range of surface air temperature. The ERA40 reanalysis further indicates that there seems to be a coherent warming trend near the tropopause but a cooling trend in the lower stratosphere. Moreover, all these features can be reproduced in two coupled climate models forced by observed CO2 concentration of the 20th century but cannot be produced by the fixed external conditions before the industrial revolution. These suggest that the recent climate warming over the Tibetan Plateau primarily results from the increasing anthropogenic greenhouse gases emissions, and impacts of the increased greenhouse gases emissions upon the climate change in the plateau are probably more serious than the rest of the world.

A nine-layer atmospheric general circulation model and its performance

Different versions of a new nine-layer general circulation model which is rhomboidally truncated at zonal wave number 15 (L9R15) are introduced in this paper. On using the observed global monthly sea surface temperature (SST) and sea ice (SI) data from 1979 to 1988 offered by the international Atmospheric Model Inter-comparison Program (AMIP), these different model versions were integrated for the ten-year AMIP period. Results show that the model is capable of simulating the basic states of the atmosphere and its interannual variability, and in performing reasonable sensitivity experiments.

Mechanism of the Spring Persistent Rains over southeastern China

The Spring Persistent Rains (SPR) in the areas to the south of middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River or over southeastern China (SEC) is a unique synoptic and climatic phenomenon in East Asia. This study reveals a possible mechanism responsible for the climatic cause of SPR formation through climatic mean data analysis and sensitive numerical model experiments. SEC is located at the downstream of the southwesterly velocity center (SWVC) which lies on the southeastern flank of the Tibetan Plateau (TP). As a result, there are strong southwesterly wind velocity convergence and moisture convergence over SEC. This is the immediate climatic cause of SPR formation. In spring, the seasonal evolution of the southwesterly velocity consists with the surface sensible heating over southeastern TP, indicating that the formation of SPR is related to not only the southwesterly wind of mechanical deflected flow of TP, but also the southwesterly wind of thermal-forced cyclonic low circulation. Sensitive numerical experiments demonstrate that, without TP, both SWVC and the SPR rain belt will disappear. The southwesterly wind velocity increases almost linearly with the amount of the total diabatic heating with TP rising. Therefore, SWVC is the result of the mechanical forcing and thermal forcing of TP. All these strongly suggest that the presence of TP plays a primary role in the climatic formation of SPR.

Progress in the study on the formation of the summertime subtropical anticyclone

The studies in China on the formation of the summertime subtropical anticyclone on the climate timescale are reviewed. New insights in resent studies are introduced. It is stressed that either in the free atmosphere or in the planetary boundary, the descending arm of the Hadley cell cannot be considered as a mechanism for the formation of the subtropical anticyclone. Then the theories of thermal adaptation of the atmosphere to external thermal forcing and the potential vorticity forcing are developed to understand the formation of the subtropical anticyclone in the three-dimensional domain. Numerical experiments are designed to verify these theories. Results show that in the boreal summer, the formation of the strong South Asian High in the upper troposphere and the subtropical anticyclone over the western Pacific in the middle and lower troposphere is, to a great extent, due to the convective latent heating associated with the Asian monsoon, but affected by orography and the surface sensible heating over the continents. On the other hand, the formation of the subtropical anticyclone at the surface over the northern Pacific and in the upper troposphere over North America is mainly due to the strong surface sensible heating over North America, but affected by radiation cooling over the eastern North Pacific. Moreover, in the real atmosphere such individual thermal forcing is well organized. By considering the different diabatic heating in synthesis, a quadruple heating pattern is found over each subtropical continent and its adjacent oceans in summer. A distinct circulation pattern accompanies this heating pattern. The global summer subtropical heating and circulation may be viewed as “mosaics” of such quadruplet heating and circulation patterns respectively. At last, some important issues for further research in understanding and predicting the variations of the subtropical anticyclone are raised.

Heating status of the Tibetan Plateau from April to June and rainfall and atmospheric circulation anomaly over East Asia in midsummer

Based on the 1958–1999 monthly averaged reanalysis data of the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the rainfall data of 160 Chinese surface stations, the relationship between rainfall and the atmospheric circulation anomaly over East Asia (EA) in July and the sensible heating (SH) over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) from April to June (AMJ) is investigated by using the rotational experimental orthogonal function (REOF) method. The results show that the TP is an isolated heating source in this period. The lagged correlation analysis between the first rotational principal component (RPC) of SH over the TP in May and rainfall of EA in July demonstrates that strong SH over the TP before July leads to a positive rainfall anomaly over the TP, the valley between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, and the regions south and southeast of the TP, and the Sichuan Basin and Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, but less rainfall anomaly over the regions north, northeast, and west of the TP. Such rainfall anomaly patterns are shown to be well coordinated with those of the circulation and vapor flux fields, and are explained by using the thermal adaptation theory and quasi-stationary large-scale vorticity equation. Therefore, the status of SH over the TP during AMJ can be used as a predictor for the rainfall anomaly over EA, especially in the valley between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River

The performance of atmospheric component model R42L9 of GOALS/LASG

This paper examines the performance of an atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) developed at the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics (LASG/IAP). It is a spectral model truncated at R42(2.8125°long×1.66°lat) resolution and with nine vertical levels, and referred to as R42L9/LASG hereafter. It is also the new version of atmospheric component model R15L9 of the global ocean-atmosphere-land system (GOALS/LASG). A 40-year simulation in which the model is forced with the climatological monthly mean sea surface temperature is compared with the 40-year (1958–97) U.S. National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) global reanalysis and the 22-year (1979–2000) Xie-Arkin monthly precipitation climatology. The mean DJF and JJA geographical distributions of precipitation, sea level pressure, 500-hPa geopotential height, 850-hPa and 200-hPa zonal wind, and other fields averaged for the last 30-year integration of the R42L9 model are analyzed. Results show that the model reproduces well the observed basic patterns, particularly precipitation over the East Asian region. Comparing the new model with R15L9/LASG, the old version with coarse resolution (nearly 7.5°long×4.5°lat), shows an obvious improvement in the simulation of regional climate, especially precipitation. The weaknesses in simulation and future improvements of the model are also discussed.

Simulation of Asian monsoon seasonal variations with climate model R42L9/LASG

The seasonal variations of the Asian monsoon were explored by applying the atmospheric general circulation model R42L9 that was developed recently at the State Key Laboratory of Numerical Modeling for Atmospheric Sciences and Geophysical Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (LASG/IAP/CAS). The 20-yr (1979–1998) simulation was done using the prescribed 20-yr monthly SST and sea-ice data as required by Atmospheric Model Intercomparison Project (AMIP) II in the model. The monthly precipitation and monsoon circulations were analyzed and compared with the observations to validate the model’s performance in simulating the climatological mean and seasonal variations of the Asian monsoon. The results show that the model can capture the main features of the spatial distribution and the temporal evolution of precipitation in the Indian and East Asian monsoon areas. The model also reproduced the basic patterns of monsoon circulation. However, some biases exist in this model. The simulation of the heating over the Tibetan Plateau in summer was too strong. The overestimated heating caused a stronger East Asian monsoon and a weaker Indian monsoon than the observations. In the circulation fields, the South Asia high was stronger and located over the Tibetan Plateau. The western Pacific subtropical high was extended westward, which is in accordance with the observational results when the heating over the Tibetan Plateau is stronger. Consequently, the simulated rainfall around this area and in northwest China was heavier than in observations, but in the Indian monsoon area and west Pacific the rainfall was somewhat deficient.

An Empirical Formula to Compute Snow Cover Fraction in GCMs

There exists great uncertainty in parameterizing snow cover fraction in most general circulation models (GCMs) using various empirical formulae, which has great influence on the performance of GCMs. This work reviews the commonly used relationships between region-averaged snow depth (or snow water equivalent) and snow cover extent (or fraction) and suggests a new empirical formula to compute snow cover fraction, which only depends on the domain-averaged snow depth, for GCMs with different horizontal resolution. The new empirical formula is deduced based on the 10-yr (1978–1987) 0.5° × 0.5° weekly snow depth data of the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) driven from the Nimbus-7 Satellite. Its validation to estimate snow cover for various GCM resolutions was tested using the climatology of NOAA satellite-observed snow cover.There exists great uncertainty in parameterizing snow cover fraction in most general circulation models (GCMs) using various empirical formulae, which has great influence on the performance of GCMs. This work reviews the commonly used relationships between region-averaged snow depth (or snow water equivalent) and snow cover extent (or fraction) and suggests a new empirical formula to compute snow cover fraction, which only depends on the domain-averaged snow depth, for GCMs with different horizontal resolution. The new empirical formula is deduced based on the 10-yr (1978–1987) 0.5° × 0.5° weekly snow depth data of the scanning multichannel microwave radiometer (SMMR) driven from the Nimbus-7 Satellite. Its validation to estimate snow cover for various GCM resolutions was tested using the climatology of NOAA satellite-observed snow cover.

Two types of summertime heating over the Asian large-scale orography and excitation of potential-vorticity forcing I. Over Tibetan Plateau

Based on numerical simulation, this study explored the characteristics and interactions of surface sensible heating and atmospheric latent heating over the main part of the Tibetan Plateau, i.e., terrain at elevations >2 km in summer. The impacts of these two types of heating on local vertical motion and monsoonal meridional circulation were compared. Theoretical analysis and numerical experimentation demonstrated that by changing the configuration of the upper-tropospheric air temperature and circulation, the two types of heating could generate both minimum absolute vorticity and abnormal potential vorticity forcing near the tropopause, enhance the meridional circulation of the Asian summer monsoon, and produce an eastward- propagating Rossby wave train within the mid-latitude westerly flow. Consequently, the manifestations of these features were shown to influence the circulation of the Northern Hemisphere.

Computational Performance of the High-Resolution Atmospheric Model FAMIL

Abstract This paper describes the model speed and model In/Out (I/O) efficiency of the high-resolution atmospheric general circulation model FAMIL (Finite-volume Atmospheric Model of IAP/LASG) at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin, China, on its Tianhe-1A supercomputer platform. A series of three-model-day simulations were carried out with standard Aqua Planet Experiment (APE) designed within FAMIL to obtain the time stamp for the calculation of model speed, simulation cost, and model I/O efficiency. The results of the simulation demonstrate that FAMIL has remarkable scalability below 3456 and 6144 cores, and the lowest simulation costs are 1536 and 3456 cores for 12.5 km and 6.25 km resolutions, respectively. Furthermore, FAMIL has excellent I/O scalability and an efficiency of more than 80% on 6 I/Os and more than 99% on 1536 I/Os.