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Robust surface warming with distinct interdecadal variations has been observed in the offshore area of China and adjacent seas (hereafter, offshore China) during winter and summer of the period 1958-2014. Acceleration of this warming during 1980-99 at rates greater than the global mean warming rate was accompanied by a weakening of the East Asian monsoon (EAM) and a strengthening of the west Pacific subtropical high (WPSH). It was determined that the sea surface temperature (SST) variation in offshore China correlates very well with changes in the EAM wind on interdecadal time scales. It was also established that the enhanced oceanic lateral heat transfer, mainly attributed to the leading empirical orthogonal function (EOF1), weakening EAM wind mode, has a central role in robust interdecadal winter surface warming in offshore China. However, except for the effect of oceanic lateral heat transfer, the increased surface heat flux through radiative heating related to the third EOF (EOF3) strengthening EAM anticyclone wind mode (WPSH) in summer appears to have a greater contribution to interdecadal summer surface warming in offshore China. These results help clarify the relationship between interdecadal SST variations, EAM, oceanic currents, and sea surface flux in offshore China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerodynamic roughness length zom is an important parameter for reliably simulating surface fluxes. It varies with wind speed, atmospheric stratification, terrain, and other factors. However, it is usually considered a constant. It is known that uncertainties in zom result in latent heat flux (LE) simulation errors, since zom links LE with aerodynamic resistance. The effects of zom on sensible heat flux (SH) simulation are usually neglected because there is no direct link between the two. By comparing SH simulations with three types of zom inputs, it is found that allowing zom temporal variation in an SH simulation model significantly improves agreement between simulated and measured SH and also decreases the sensitivity of the SH model to the heat transfer coefficient Ct, which in turn determines the linkage between zom and thermal roughness length zoh. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To clarify the thermal forcing of the Tibetan Plateau, long-term coarse-temporal-resolution data from the China Meteorological Administration have been widely used to estimate surface sensible heat flux by bulk methods in many previous studies; however, these estimates have seldom been evaluated against observations. This study at first evaluates three widely used bulk schemes against Tibet instrumental flux data. The evaluation shows that large uncertainties exist in the heat flux estimated by these schemes; in particular, upward heat fluxes in winter may be significantly underestimated, because diurnal variations of atmospheric stability were not taken into account. To improve the estimate, a new method is developed to disaggregate coarse-resolution meteorological data to hourly according to statistical relationships derived from high-resolution experimental data, and then sensible heat flux is estimated from the hourly data by a well-validated flux scheme. Evaluations against heat flux observations in summer and against net radiation observations in winter indicate that the new method performs much better than previous schemes, and therefore it provides a robust basis for quantifying the Tibetan surface energy budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 8–14 June 2000, a 500-hPa blocking event occurred over Mongolia and northern China (near 45°N, 108°E), which was the only case over this region in June since 1981. As the block developed, the initially weak low-level mei-yu front over southern China evolved into a system with strong baroclinity and subsequently moved south. The frontal passage over Taiwan caused temperatures to drop by 10°C, the largest in June over two decades. Using gridded analyses, manually analyzed weather maps, and satellite and surface data, the present study investigates the evolution of this mei-yu front under the influence of the block. The 925-hPa frontogenetical function is computed and effects of different processes are discussed. As the blocking event developed, concurrent ridge–trough amplification in the lower–midtroposphere produced a reversed thermal pattern. The lower-tropospheric high moved southward, and large-scale confluence and deformation were enhanced between the northerly flow and the prefrontal southwesterly flow. The location of the block, to the west-southwest of the Okhotsk Sea area, allowed it to affect the front over southern China and caused it to penetrate inside 20°N, unusual for the month of June. The distribution of the frontogenetical function indicated that the mei-yu frontogenesis and the maintenance of the front were attributed to both deformation and convergence. These two processes together counteracted the strong frontolysis along the frontal zone from diabatic effects, caused by evaporative cooling of frontal precipitation on the warm side and stronger sensible heat transfer (and daytime heating over less cloudy areas) on the cold side of the front. When deformation, convergence, and diabatic effects were all combined, the net total frontogenesis peaked slightly ahead of the frontal zone, thus contributing to the southward propagation of the front in addition to the advection by postfrontal cold air in the present case. When the front moved into the South China Sea, the cross-frontal thermal gradient diminished rapidly, mainly due to the frontolytic effect from sensible heat flux over warm waters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A Surface Energy Balance System (SEBS) originally developed for the NOAA Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer was applied to Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS)-5 Visible/Infrared Spin-Scan Radiometer data that were supplemented with other meteorological data. GMS-5, which is a geostationary satellite, recorded continuous hourly information. Surface temperatures obtained from the GMS-5 data were entered into SEBS to estimate the hourly regional distribution of the surface heat fluxes over the Tibetan Plateau. The estimated fluxes are verified by using corresponding field observations. The diurnal cycle of estimated fluxes agreed well with the field measurements. For example, the diurnal range of the estimated sensible heat flux decreases from June to August. This reflects the change of dry to wet surface characteristics resulting from frequent precipitation during the summer monsoon. Over the Tibetan Plateau, the diurnal range of the surface temperature is as large as the annual range, so that the resultant sensible heat flux has a large diurnal variation. Thus, the hourly estimation based on the GMS data may contribute to a better understanding of the land surface–atmosphere interaction in this critical area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]