A giant thunderstorm on Saturn

Lightning discharges in Saturn's atmosphere emit radio waves with intensities about 10,000 times stronger than those of their terrestrial counterparts. These radio waves are the characteristic features of lightning from thunderstorms on Saturn, which last for days to months. Convective storms about 2,000 kilometres in size have been observed in recent years at planetocentric latitude 35° south (corresponding to a planetographic latitude of 41° south). Here we report observations of a giant thunderstorm at planetocentric latitude 35° north that reached a latitudinal extension of 10,000 kilometres-comparable in size to a 'Great White Spot'-about three weeks after it started in early December 2010. The visible plume consists of high-altitude clouds that overshoot the outermost ammonia cloud layer owing to strong vertical convection, as is typical for thunderstorms. The flash rates of this storm are about an order of magnitude higher than previous ones, and peak rates larger than ten per second were recorded. This main storm developed an elongated eastward tail with additional but weaker storm cells that wrapped around the whole planet by February 2011. Unlike storms on Earth, the total power of this storm is comparable to Saturn's total emitted power. The appearance of such storms in the northern hemisphere could be related to the change of seasons, given that Saturn experienced vernal equinox in August 2009.     

天山北麓一例黑风暴天气的成因

利用常规观测资料、地面气象自记记录和静止气象卫星云图资料对1998-04-18由南支冷锋爆发性发展生成的干飑线触发的天山北麓黑风暴天气过程进行了分析。结果表明：强沙尘暴和黑风暴过境时风、压、温、湿在短时间内出现突变,跃变幅度黑风暴远大于强沙尘暴,黑风暴嵌于强沙尘暴时变化幅度比强沙尘暴弱。沙尘壁具有等温性,水平厚度4～9km。影响黑风暴的天气因素中,地面大风形成主要源于冷锋的加强和锋后强冷平流,高空急流的加强及其形成的次级环流使高空动量有效下传到地面则是另一个重要原因。混合层是有利于黑风暴在干旱环境形成的大气层结特征,这次过程深厚混合层的形成是深厚干对流和黑风暴产生的主要原因,而它的形成则是长时间地面加热的结果。     

A strong decrease in Saturn's equatorial jet at cloud level

The atmospheres of the giant planets Jupiter and Saturn have a puzzling system of zonal (east-west) winds alternating in latitude, with the broad and intense equatorial jets on Saturn having been observed previously to reach a velocity of about 470 m x s(-1) at cloud level. Globally, the location and intensity of Jupiter's jets are stable in time to within about ten per cent, but little is known about the stability of Saturn's jet system. The long-term behaviour of these winds is an important discriminator between models for giant-planet circulations. Here we report that Saturn's winds show a large drop in the velocity of the equatorial jet of about 200 m x s(-1) from 1996 to 2002. By contrast, the other measured jets (primarily in the southern hemisphere) appear stable when compared to the Voyager wind profile of 1980-81.     

The trend of sand flux and the meteorology elements changes in the near-surface layer of Tengger desert in the spring of 2006

Dust storm events, especially those associated with strong winds, are immediately dangerous, and have long-term harmful effects. During a dust storm event, dust in the near-surface atmospheric layer decreases visibility, and changes local meteorological parameters. In this paper, we analyzed levels of near-surface turbulence during and outside a dust storm event and found differences in the degree of turbulence, with wind speed increasing and amounts of windblown sand greatly increasing air turbulence during the dust storms compared with the corresponding values on a sunny day. In addition, the wind profile during the dust storm deviated from the normal profile and became more complex. In the near-surface atmospheric layer, sand and dust flux during the dust storm also differed from those on a sunny day.     

Mackenzie三角洲风暴相关的海岸水动力现象

针对西北风和东风这2种强风在Mackenzie三角洲开敞水域时期占主导地位的特点,运用SWAN模型对1次西北向风暴过程中的风暴浪进行模拟,并基于实测风、流数据和MODIS数据对2次东风引起的海岸水动力现象进行分析。结果表明:西北向风暴影响水域中上层的波浪和强流,引起明显的波浪增水和波能耗散;东向风暴可以引起从海表到海底的强流,甚至强度较弱的持续东风都可以引起上升流和水体混合;西北风和东风都会使水底的细小泥沙发生运动。     

河北省强对流天气统计分析

利用1999—2006年全省142个基本站的强对流观测资料（5~8月）和2.5°×2.5°分辨率,间隔6 h NCEP/NCAR全球客观分析资料,对河北省强对流天气的时空分布进行了详细统计,结果表明：雷暴、雷雨大风和冰雹空间分布呈北多南少、西多东少的趋势,时间主要集中在6月和7月,5月最少;午后到傍晚为各种强对流天气的日高峰期,冰雹和雷雨大风稍滞后于雷暴。     

Simulation of wind gust structure in the atmospheric boundary layer with Lattice Boltzmann Method

Cold fronts occur in northern East Asia during winter and spring.After cold frontal passage,airflow is downward and accompa-nying strong winds fluctuate significantly;this is termed wind gusts.Analysis of observation data shows that wind gust structure has coherent characteristics.This is important for entrainment of spring dust storms into the upper boundary layer,where they are transported great distances.The Lattice Boltzmann Method(LBM) is a computational fluid technique based on the Boltzmann transport equation.The LBM has been used to study complex motion such as turbulence,because it describes motion at the micro level.In this paper,Large eddy simulation is introduced in the LBM,enabling simulation of turbulent flow in the atmospheric boundary layer.The formation and development of wind gusts are simulated,and a coherent structure with a combination of wave and vortex is obtained.This explains the mechanism of soil erosion and sand entrainment by the coherent structure of wind gusts.     

A gigantic jet event observed over a thunderstorm in mainland China

Gigantic jet(GJ) is a type of large-scaled transient discharge which occurs above thunderstorms.It connects the thunderstorms and ionosphere directly.Compared with the other transient luminous events(TLEs),gigantic jet is very difficult to be seen from the ground.We report a GJ event that was clearly recorded in eastern China(storm center located at 35.6°N,119.8°E,near the Huanghai Sea) at 20:16:22(local time) on 12 August,2010.It is by far the furthest from the equator ground-based GJ recorded over summer thunderstorm.The top altitude of this GJ was estimated to be about 89 km.The GJ-producing storm was a multi-cell thunderstorm and the GJ event occurred in the storm developing stage,with the lowest cloud-top brightness temperature about 73°C and the maximum radar echo top around 17 km.Altitudes with reflectivity of 45 dBZ were estimated to reach 12-14 km.Different from results from other countries that positive CGs(Cloud-to-ground lightnings) dominated during a time period centered at GJ,our study shows that negative CGs dominated during a time period centered at the GJ event and during most of the storm lifetime in this study,indicating a diversity of the lightning activity in the GJ-producing storms.It is interesting that two different storms produced two types of TLEs,that is,the GJ-producing storm only produced one GJ event during its lifetime and five sprites were produced over another storm,different from the other study that sprites and GJs were usually produced by the same storm,enriched the knowledge of GJ-producing storms.In addition,the GJ event in this study is located beyond the effective coverage area(30°S-30°N) of the ISUAL instruments onboard the FORMOSAT II satellite,and results of this study could be useful for GJ studies in the future.     

台风"纳沙"期间广西近岸风暴射流产生与增减水异常现象

利用长度为1年的广西近岸观测站的ADCP数据和有关潮位观测结果,针对2011年"纳沙"台风期间引发的广西沿岸西向风暴射流和增减水变化过程对应关系,分析台风期间广西近岸西向风暴射流产生的主要原因。结果发现:台风登陆期间S1站表、底层实测流速均比无台风期间流速增大将近两倍,余流流速最大值超出正常值3倍以上;台风消退时底层流向恢复最快,表层较慢;广西近岸强劲西向风暴射流的产生,可能是入海径流与台风将海水向北输运两种作用叠加导致的;台风引起的水位增减变化具有先减后增的规律。在距离海岸不到1 km处产生如此大的西向风暴射流实属少见,深入开展台风期广西沿岸西向风暴射流在传入近岸港湾后的变形、分布及衰减的理论问题研究,对于近海生态系统及环境保护具有重要的理论和现实意义。     

Seasonal variations of dust record in the Muztagata ice cores

Based on the oxygen isotope ratio and microparticle record in ice cores recovered at Mt. Muztagata, Eastern Pamirs, the seasonal variations of atmospheric dust have been reconstructed for the past four decades. High dust concentrations and coarser particle grains have the similar trend with oxygen isotope value. Our statistical results indicate that 50%--60% high dust concentration samples occur during the season with high oxygen isotope values （summer）, while low dust storm frequency during spring and winter. Back-trajectory analysis shows that the air mass hitting Muztagata predominately came from West Asia （such as Iran-Afghanistan Plateau） and Central Asia, which are the main dust source area for Muztagata. Dust storms in those source areas most frequently occur during summer （from May to August）, while frequent dust storm events in northern China mainly occur during spring （March to May）. Regions in the path of Asian dust transport, such as in Japan, the North Pacific, and Greenland, also show high dust concentrations during spring （from March to May）. Our results indicate that dust storms have different seasonality in different regions within Asia.     

Dust storms and loess accumulation on the Tibetan Plateau：A case study of dust event on 4 March 2003 in Lhasa

Whether the Tibetan Plateau is a significant dust source area is of great importance, because this is related to the understanding of sources, accumulation and environmental effects of dusts on the Tibetan Plateau and inthe Far East-Pacific Ocean regions as well as to the evointion of coupling of the Tibetan Plateau and atmaspbere-oeean-continent exchange. Synoptic dynamics and remote sensing tracing of a dust storm on 3 to 5 March, 2003 in Lhasa onSouth Tibet demonstrate that the Tibetan Plateau possessesall factors and conditions of generating dust storms. Accompanied with this dust storm is a strong ascending stream onthe Plateau which has raised various sizes of durst particlesinto different levels. The lifted coarse particles were largelyfallen down and accumulated as loess on the eastern TibetanPlateau, and the fine particles were translated by the westerly jet and subsided in the northern Pacific Ocean. The spa-tial-temporal distribution of dust-storms between years 1961and 2000 ou the Plateau shows that duststorms mainly occurin winter and early spring with high frequency, and tile pathof dust storm moves gradually from south to north, which isclosely coupled with the northward moving of the westerlyjet from winter to spring over the Tibetan Plateau. Com-pared with other twelve dust source areas in China. the Ti-betan Plateau is one of the key dust souree areas for thelong-distance transport because its high occurring frequencyand elevation cause fine particles easily to be lifted into thezone of the westerly jet.     

A stochastic method for convective storm identification, tracking and nowcasting

The convective storm identification, tracking and nowcasting method is one of the important nowcasting methodologies against severe convective weather. In severe convective cases, such as storm shape or rapid velocity changes, existing methods are apt to provide unsatisfied storm identification, tracking and nowcasting results. To overcome these difficulties, this paper proposes a novel approach to identify, track and short-term forecast （nowcast） of convective storms. A mathematical morphology-based storm identification method is adopted which can identify storm cells accurately in a cluster of storms. As for the difficult tracking problem, sequential Monte Carlo （SMC） method is utilized to simplify the tracking process. It is not only inherently suitable for handling complicated splits and mergers, but also capable of handling the case of storm-missing detection. In order to provide more accurate forecast of a storm position, this method takes the advantages of the cross-correlation method. The qualitative and quantitative evaluations show the efficiency and robustness of the proposed approach.     

Sediment resuspension in the Lake Taihu, China

The Lake Taihu is a large shallow lake in eastern China, with a surface area of 2338 km2, catchments of 36500 km2 and mean depth of 1.9-2.0 m [1]. It is fre-quently influenced by winds and therefore wind-gen- erated waves. The bottom sediment can be resus…     

An intense stratospheric jet on Jupiter

The Earth's equatorial stratosphere shows oscillations in which the east-west winds reverse direction and the temperatures change cyclically with a period of about two years. This phenomenon, called the quasi-biennial oscillation, also affects the dynamics of the mid- and high-latitude stratosphere and weather in the lower atmosphere. Ground-based observations have suggested that similar temperature oscillations (with a 4-5-yr cycle) occur on Jupiter, but these data suffer from poor vertical resolution and Jupiter's stratospheric wind velocities have not yet been determined. Here we report maps of temperatures and winds with high spatial resolution, obtained from spacecraft measurements of infrared spectra of Jupiter's stratosphere. We find an intense, high-altitude equatorial jet with a speed of approximately 140 m s(-1), whose spatial structure resembles that of a quasi-quadrennial oscillation. Wave activity in the stratosphere also appears analogous to that occurring on Earth. A strong interaction between Jupiter and its plasma environment produces hot spots in its upper atmosphere and stratosphere near its poles, and the temperature maps define the penetration of the hot spots into the stratosphere.     

潮坪沉积韵律与沉积间断

淅西及长江三角洲南翼潮坪剖面均显示，微型层序和小型层序是潮坪沉积的基本组成单元，潮汐说认为，潮坪层序中砂质单层是在大潮汐期间形成的，而泥质单层是在小潮期间形成的潮坪观测证明，砂质单层是风暴沉积，而泥质单层是正常天气的沉积单元，砂，泥质单层共同组成一个支序（风暴序列），风暴沉积在潮坪层序中占重要地位，大小潮沉积旋回的概念不适合于长江三角洲一类的非潮道潮坪。     

孟加拉湾东北路径登陆风暴结构特征

利用NCEP/NCAR（11）再分析资料,对20012010年孟加拉湾东北路径登陆风暴进行合成分析,研究了风暴登陆前后水平流场、垂直环流、涡度、散度和垂直风切变等大气要素场,得到了其结构特征:①风暴中心气流一致性气旋性流入仅限于900 hPa层以下,环形复合带的厚度随风暴登陆时的减弱而减小;②风暴的垂直环流不对称,中心周围上升气流垂直、风速较大,风暴西侧气流向外流出层较高、东侧气流向外流出层较低,南侧和北侧气流几乎向北倾斜;③风暴涡旋结构基本对称,整个对流层内涡旋柱比较垂直,登陆前后圆形涡旋形态逐渐向椭圆形形态变化;④登陆前风暴中心周围对流层底层辐合、高层辐散结构比较脆弱,登陆时,对流层中高层风暴两侧变为了气流辐合辐散不对称结构;⑤孟加拉湾风暴生存环境为垂直风切变较小、梯度变化较大的区域内,风暴向垂直风切变最大梯度方向移动.     

Typical severe dust storms in northern China during 1954 —2002

Based on China抯 available daily observation data from 681 national meteorological stations from 1954 to 2002, a time series of typical severe dust storms in northern China is constructed in terms of the weather process, and the temporal and spatial distribution, and their evolution ten-dency is analyzed. The results indicate that there were 223 relatively typical severe dust storms in northern China from 1954 to 2002, among which the event on April 10—12, 1979 had the largest affected area. Closely associated with the geographical distribution of deserts, sandy lands and the tracks of strong cold air outbreaks, severe dust storms mainly occurred in the Tarim Basin, the eastern part of Northwest China and the northern part of North China. The season with the most frequent severe dust storms was spring, in which the frequency accounts for 82.5% in the whole year, while the least occurrence was in summer and autumn. Dur-ing the past 49 years, the highest frequency of severe dust storms occurred in the 1950s and the lowest was in the 1990s with a general descending tendency, but during 2000—2002 the occurrence was relatively increasing. On the average, the duration of severe dust storms was shortest in the 1990s, about 0.5—1 h shorter than that in the other 4 decades.     

Storm-time ionospheric disturbances monitored by GPS beacon measurements

The Total Electron Content (TEC) during three great storms, from April to August 2000, was collected by means of a GPS receiver located in Jingzhou (30.4° N, 112.2° E). The time-latitude-dependent features of ionospheric storms are identified using TEC difference images based on the deviations of TEC during storm relative to quiet time. The responses of ionospheric TEC to magnetic storms were analyzed. The results show that: 1) In middle and low latitude, ionospheric storms effects are more apparent in local day time than at night: 2) Ionospheric storm effects are more dominant near the hump of the equatorial anomaly region than in other regions of TEC measurements; 3) The positive effects during the main phase of ionospheric storm may be caused by electric fields in low latitude; 4) During the recovery period of ionospheric storm, the negative phase of storm may be due to the perturbation of the neutral gas composition. Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (49984001) Biography: Pei Xiao-hong (1977-), male, Master candidate, research direction: studying ionosphere on GPS beacons.     

大风对新疆沙尘暴的影响

选取1961-1999年新疆90个气象观测站的气表-1资料,对比分析了沙尘暴及大风的时空分布特征,探讨大风对沙尘暴发生的贡献及沙尘暴发生时的最多风向和最低风速指标。分析发现,新疆沙尘暴与大风的地理分布刚好相反,沙尘暴多的地区大风较少,但有着基本一致的气候变化趋势。大风对沙尘暴的贡献北疆大于南疆。沙尘暴发生时的最多风向明显指示出引发沙尘暴的天气系统来向。引起沙尘暴的最低风速指标,北疆及东疆超过10m/s,南疆的吐鄯托盆地和焉耆盆地为10m/s,塔里木盆地为6～8m/s,盆地南缘只有6m/s.     

灾害空间天气对我国电网安全的影响及风险

通过对第23太阳周几次磁暴期间广东岭澳500 kV电网的地磁感应电流（GIC）实测数据,2010年西北陕、甘、青、宁750 kV电网GIC的计算结果,以及500～1 000 kV电网结构特点和1859年超级磁暴强度的分析,阐述了极端空间天气对我国未来特高压、大规模电网安全的可能影响,提出了应对极端空间天气的研究建议。 ［