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On 21 September 2010, heavy rainfall with a local maximum of 259 mm d occurred near Seoul, South Korea. We examined the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in reproducing this disastrous rainfall event and identified the role of two physical processes: planetary boundary layer (PBL) and microphysics (MPS) processes. The WRF model was forced by 6-hourly National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Final analysis (FNL) data for 36 hours form 1200 UTC 20 to 0000 UTC 22 September 2010. Twenty-five experiments were performed, consisting of five different PBL schemes-Yonsei University (YSU), Mellor-Yamada-Janjic (MYJ), Quasi Normal Scale Elimination (QNSE), Bougeault and Lacarrere (BouLac), and University of Washington (UW)-and five different MPS schemes-WRF Single-Moment 6-class (WSM6), Goddard, Thompson, Milbrandt 2-moments, and Morrison 2-moments. As expected, there was a specific combination of MPS and PBL schemes that showed good skill in forecasting the precipitation. However, there was no specific PBL or MPS scheme that outperformed the others in all aspects. The experiments with the UW PBL or Thompson MPS scheme showed a relatively small amount of precipitation. Analyses form the sensitivity experiments confirmed that the spatial distribution of the simulated precipitation was dominated by the PBL processes, whereas the MPS processes determined the amount of rainfall. It was also found that the temporal evolution of the precipitation was influenced more by the PBL processes than by the MPS processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A simple aerodynamic-variance method is proposed to fill gaps in continuous CO2 flux measurements in rainy conditions, when open-path analysers do not function. The method requires turbulent conditions (friction velocity greater than 0.1ms−1), and uses measurements of mean wind speed, and standard deviations of temperature and CO2 concentration fluctuations to complement, and at times replace, eddy-covariance measurements of friction velocity, sensible heat flux and CO2 flux. Friction velocity is estimated from the mean wind speed with a flux-gradient relationship modified for the roughness sublayer. Since normalised standard deviations do not follow Monin-Obukhov similarity theory in the roughness sublayer, a simple classification scheme according to the scalar turbulence scale was used. This scheme is shown to produce sensible heat and CO2 flux estimates that are well correlated with the measured values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is important to quantify changes in CO2 sources and sinks with land use and land cover change. In the last several decades, carbon sources and sinks in East Asia have been altered by intensive land cover changes due to rapid economic growth and related urbanization. To understand impact of urbanization on carbon cycle in the monsoon Asia, we analyze net CO2 exchanges for various land cover types across an urbanization gradient in Korea covering high-rise high-density residential, suburban, cropland, and subtropical forest areas. Results: Our analysis demonstrates that the urban residential and suburban areas are constant CO2 sources throughout the year (2.75 and 1.02 kg C m−2 year−1 at the urban and suburban sites), and the net CO2 emission indicate impacts of urban vegetation that responds to the seasonal progression of the monsoon. However, the total random uncertainties of measurement are much larger in the urban and suburban areas than at the nonurban sites, which can make it challenging to obtain accurate urban flux measurements. The cropland and forest sites are strong carbon sinks because of a double-cropping system and favorable climate conditions during the study period, respectively (− 0.73 and − 0.60 kg C m−2 year−1 at the cropland and forest sites, respectively). The urban area of high population density (15,000 persons km−2) shows a relatively weak CO2 emission rate per capita (0.7 t CO2 year−1 person−1), especially in winter because of a district heating system and smaller traffic volume. The suburban area shows larger net CO2 emissions per capita (4.9 t CO2 year−1 person−1) because of a high traffic volume, despite a smaller building fraction and population density (770 persons km−2). Conclusions: We show that in situ flux observation is challenging because of its larger random uncertainty and this larger uncertainty should be carefully considered in urban studies. Our findings indicate the important role of urban vegetation in the carbon balance and its interaction with the monsoon activity in East Asia. Urban planning in the monsoon Asia must consider interaction on change in the monsoon activity and urban structure and function for sustainable city in a changing climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results from eight regional climate models (RCMs) participating in the Impact of Initialized Land Temperature and Snowpack on Sub-seasonal to Seasonal Prediction (LS4P) initiative of the Global Energy and Water Exchanges (GEWEX) are examined and compared with observations over the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The RCM common domain covers most areas of East Asia with a horizontal resolution of 20–30 km. The model simulation covers a period from April to September in each year between 1991 and 2015. This study explores the RCMs' ability for seasonal climate simulation over the TP, focusing on the summer monsoon climate as part of the LS4P initiative. An intercomparison is made among eight RCMs for precipitation, surface air temperature, mid-troposphere atmospheric circulation, moisture conditions, and surface energy fluxes. It shows that the downscaling characteristics differ significantly between two major RCM types. The RegCM4 models show positive precipitation biases over the entire TP, especially over the south and southeast TP, while the WRF models mostly show both positive and negative precipitation biases over the TP with relatively high spatial correlation between simulated and observed precipitation. The multi-model ensemble mean produces overall smaller precipitation biases than most individual RCMs, with the largest biases over the southeastern TP, and smaller surface air temperature biases over most areas of the TP, especially over the central and southwestern TP. Moreover, the ensemble mean can better reproduce the inter-annual variation of precipitation and surface air temperature than most RCMs with proper magnitude. Sensitivity analyses using RegCM4 with different physics parameterizations show that varying land and cumulus schemes may induce large precipitation differences over the TP by affecting moisture and atmospheric circulation conditions in the lower and upper troposphere, respectively. Moreover, turbulent heat and radiation fluxes differences are associated with the temperature differences between different RegCM4 models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on observations over an alpine glacier, we investigate the turbulent flux dissimilarity between momentum and sensible heat transfer in a stably stratified katabatic flow. The flux correlation coefficient RF is employed as a measure of variable levels of the flux similarity, which are found to be modulated by the anisotropy of turbulence. In the katabatic wind regime over this glacier, heat is transported more efficiently than momentum. Based on quadrant analysis, the sweep–ejection differences in the flux fraction constitute turbulence characteristics in terms of the velocity aspect ratio, which unravel dissimilar transport of momentum and heat. Moreover, an innovative method is established for connecting quadrant analysis and cospectral analysis, whereby the hyperbolic quadrant hole size is coupled to the frequency underlying the fast Fourier transform. In extending applications of octant analysis, we introduce a hypothetical octant hole, whose size is solicited as a proxy for the amplitude scale of fluctuating fluxes. The contributions to R F can then be quantified for eddy structures that are associated with different amplitude scales. The katabatic flow structures identified from octant analysis differ in their behaviour so helping illuminate the outcome of flux dissimilarity. Exhibited as a statistical behaviour regardless of amplitude scale, along-wind rapid motions of heated air parcels can modify fractional contributions to the heat flux instead of the momentum flux, with reductions in R F related to decreasing heat-flux fractions. Besides, along-wind slow motions of cooled air parcels cannot modify the flux fractions for both momentum and heat. Thus, the flux dissimilarity due to low-speed low-temperature eddies cannot be explicable in terms of the flux fractions alone. These findings are an incipient step towards physical understanding of the turbulent flux dissimilarity for a stably stratified katabatic flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The dilution effect caused by boundary-layer evolution over land has strong influences on air quality. Accurate and continuous measurements of the boundary-layer height over urban areas are therefore needed for complete air-quality assessments. Commercial ceilometers, in combination with reliable and simple methodologies, can be used to retrieve the mixed-layer height, and represent a means of obtaining information on vertical mixing and atmospheric structure above cities. Here, we evaluate various retrieval algorithms based on the gradient method against high-temporal-resolution radiosonde observations. Based on the results, we propose a simple algorithm by using the gradient method, the correction of background noise and the moving averages, with the minimum number of parameters that need to be adjusted to the local properties and the instrument itself. The algorithm is adjusted for Seoul, Korea, and improves the retrieval performance by reducing high-frequency noise. The algorithm is used to investigate the relationship between the evolution of the daytime mixed-layer height and air pollution under a two-layer mixing model where changes in concentration depend only on the urban boundary-layer growth and air entrainment from the free atmosphere. Using 2 months of ceilometer retrievals of mixed-layer height and air-quality data from across the city, we find strong negative correlations for primary emitted pollutants such as NO2, CO, SO2, and particulate matter smaller than 10 µm, and a modest positive correlation for O3. The results provide insight into the significant influence of urban boundary-layer evolution on Seoul's air quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation account for a large portion of uncertainties in the prediction of the future course of global hydrologic circulations and climate. As a process of a better understanding of interactions between aerosol, clouds and precipitation, simulations are performed for a mixed-phase convective multiple-cloud system over the tropics. Studies on single-cloud systems have shown that aerosol-induced increases in freezing, associated increases in parcel buoyancy and thus the intensity of clouds (or updrafts) are a main mechanism which controls aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions in convective clouds. However, in the multiple-cloud system that plays much more important roles in global hydrologic circulations and thus climate than single-cloud systems, aerosol effects on condensation play the most important role in aerosol-induced changes in the intensity of clouds and the effects on freezing play a negligible role in those changes. Aerosol-induced enhancement in evaporation intensifies gust fronts and increases the number of subsequently developing clouds, which leads to the substantial increases in condensation and associated intensity of convection. Although aerosol-induced enhancement in freezing takes part in the increases in condensation by inducing stronger convergence around cloud bottom, the increases in condensation are ~one order of magnitude larger than those in freezing. It is found that while aerosol-induced increases in freezing create intermittent extremely heavy precipitation, aerosol-induced increases in evaporation enhance light and medium precipitation in the multiple-cloud system here. This increase in light and medium precipitation makes it possible that cumulative precipitation increases with increasing aerosol concentration, although the increase is small. It is interesting that the altitude of the maximum of the time- and domain-averaged hydrometeor mass densities is quite robust to increases in aerosol concentration. This is because locations of gust fronts and homogeneous freezing do not vary significantly with changing aerosol concentration and this outweighs aerosol effects on hydrometeor size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]