Cloud bands over southern Africa: seasonality, contribution to rainfall variability and modulation by the MJO     

Neil C. G. Hart  Chris J. C. Reason  Nicolas Fauchereau 《Climate Dynamics》2013,41(5-6):1199-1212

Tropical-extratropical cloud band systems over southern Africa, known as tropical temperate troughs (TTTs), are known to contribute substantially to South African summer rainfall. This study performs a comprehensive assessment of the seasonal cycle and rainfall contribution of TTTs by using a novel object-based strategy that explicitly tracks these systems for their full life cycle. The methodology incorporates a simple assignment of station rainfall data to each event, thereby creating a database containing detailed rainfall characteristics for each TTT. This is used to explore the importance of TTTs for rain days and climatological rainfall totals in October–March. Average contributions range from 30 to 60 % with substantial spatial heterogeneity observed. TTT rainfall contributions over the Highveld and eastern escarpment are lower than expected. A short analysis of TTT rainfall variability indicates TTTs provide substantial, but not dominant, intraseasonal and interannual variability in station rainfall totals. TTTs are however responsible for a high proportion of heavy rainfall days. Of 52 extreme rainfall events in the 1979–1999 period, 30 are associated with these tropical-extratropical interactions. Cut-off lows were included in the evolution of 6 of these TTTs. The study concludes with an analysis of the question: does the Madden-Julian Oscillation influence the intensity of TTT rainfall over South Africa? Results suggest a weak but significant suppression (enhancement) of intensity during phase 1(6).  相似文献   

Homogenized Daily Relative Humidity Series in China during 1960?2017   总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1  

Zhen LI  Zhongwei YAN  Yani ZHU  Nicolas FREYCHET  Simon TETT 《大气科学进展》2020,37(4):318-327

Surface relative humidity(RH)is a key element for weather and climate monitoring and research.However,RH is not as commonly applied in studying climate change,partly because the observation series of RH are prone to inhomogeneous biases due to non-climate changes in the observation system.A homogenized dataset of daily RH series from 746 stations in Chinese mainland for the period 1960–2017,ChinaRHv1.0,has been developed.Most(685 or 91.82%of the total)station time series were inhomogeneous with one or more break points.The major breakpoints occurred in the early 2000s for many stations,especially in the humid and semi-humid zones,due to the implementation of automated observation across the country.The inhomogeneous biases in the early manual records before this change are positive relative to the recent automatic records,for most of the biased station series.There are more break points detected by using the MASH(Multiple Analysis of Series for Homogenization)method,with biases mainly around?0.5%and 0.5%.These inhomogeneous biases are adjusted with reference to the most recent observations for each station.Based on the adjusted observations,the regional mean RH series of China shows little long-term trend during 1960–2017[0.006%(10 yr)^?1],contrasting with a false decreasing trend[?0.414%(10 yr)?1]in the raw data.It is notable that ERA5 reanalysis data match closely with the interannual variations of the raw RH series in China,including the jump in the early 2000s,raising a caveat for its application in studying climate change in the region.  相似文献   

Controls on upper Campanian–Maastrichtian chalk deposition in the eastern Danish Basin          下载免费PDF全文

Myriam Boussaha  Nicolas Thibault  Kresten Anderskouv  Julien Moreau  Lars Stemmerik 《Sedimentology》2017,64(7):1998-2030

Detailed facies analysis of a 350 m long core of upper Campanian–Maastrichtian chalk at Stevns Peninsula, eastern Denmark, shows that four mudstone and wackestone chalk facies account for close to 95% of the succession, and that bioturbated mudstone chalk alone accounts for nearly 55% of the sediment. Sedimentation took place in deep water, below the photic zone and storm‐wave base, and is characterized by decimetre to metre‐scale variations in facies and trace fossil assemblages indicating repeated shifts in depositional environment. Integration of facies with published data on sea‐surface temperature and accumulation rates suggests that sea‐surface temperature is the most important parameter in controlling stratification of the water column and thereby, indirectly, the observed variations in depositional facies. However, bioturbated mudstone chalk occurs in all stratigraphic levels independent of accumulation rates and sea temperatures and is interpreted to represent a very broad set of deep water environmental conditions with an ample supply of calcareous nannofossil debris and intense bioturbation. Longer term shifts in deposition are best expressed by distribution of clay, flint and bioturbated micro‐wackestone, bioturbated wackestone and laminated mudstone chalk facies, whereas the trace fossil assemblages appear less useful. The data set indicates overall shallowing over time with two distinctive events of clay influx to the basin during the late Campanian–earliest Maastrichtian and late Maastrichtian.  相似文献   

The West Spitsbergen Fold Belt: The result of Late Cretaceous-Palaeocene Greenland-Svalbard convergence?     

Nikos Lyberis  Geoff Manby 《Geological Journal》1993,28(2):125-136

The West Spitsbergen Fold Belt, together with the Eurekan structures of northern Greenland and Ellesmere Island, are suggested to be the result of Late Cretaceous-Palaeocene intracontinental compressional tectonics. The Late Palaeozoic –Mesozoic rocks of western Spitsbergen are characterized by near-foreland deformation with ramp-flat, top-to-the east thrust trajectories, whereas structurally higher nappes involving Caledonian complexes are typified by more listric thrusts and mylonite zones. A minimum of 40 km of shortening is estimated for the northern part of the West Spitsbergen Fold Belt. The axial trends in the West Spitsbergen and the North Greenland Eurekan fold belts parallel the principal fault zones which accommodated the separation of Greenland and Svalbard after Chron 25/24. In northern Greenland, north directed Eurekan thrusts associated with mylonites and cleavage formation represent at least 10 km of shortening. Between 50 and 100 km of shortening is estimated for the markedly arcuate Eurekan Fold Belt of Ellesmere Island, but the principal tectonic transport is eastwards. Kinematic reconstructions suggest that Svalbard was linked to North America before the opening of the Eurasian Basin and Norwegian — Greenland Sea. In the Late Cretaceous — Palaeocene interval, the relative motion between Greenland and North America was convergent across the Greenland — Svalbard margin, giving rise to the West Spitsbergen Fold Belt and the Eurekan structures of North Greenland.  相似文献