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Characteristics of observed tropopause height derived from L-band sounder over the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas

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Abstract

The tropopause, which plays important roles in the stratosphere-troposphere exchange, is an interface between the troposphere and stratosphere. In this study, the characteristics of tropopause is investigated with the high vertical resolution daily sounding data during the period from 2008 to 2014 collected by the network of L-band sounder at 119 observational stations over Mainland China developed by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). The results show that the tropopause height increases from the north to the south and has little correspondence with the station elevation. In addition, the spectral analyses and wavelet analyses are also performed to understand the intraseasonal variations of the tropopause. The results show that usually there are seasonal cycles with maximum in summer and minimum in winter. The strongest spectral band with period of 25-35 days is observed over the Southeast China. Besides, 20-60 days signals over the Changjiang River basin and the Tibetan Plateau has a good correlation to the Oceanic Niño Index (ONI), suggesting that the behavior of tropopause over the regions between 30oN and 40oN could relate to the Niño events.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China

    Xiaoling Jiang & Donghai Wang

  2. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Donghai Wang

  3. Global Environment and Natural Resources Institute, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Jianjun Xu

  4. Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Yuwei Zhang

  5. Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    Long S. Chiu

  6. School of Atmospheric Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China

    Donghai Wang

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  1. Xiaoling Jiang
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  2. Donghai Wang
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  3. Jianjun Xu
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  4. Yuwei Zhang
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  5. Long S. Chiu
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Correspondence to Donghai Wang.

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Jiang, X., Wang, D., Xu, J. et al. Characteristics of observed tropopause height derived from L-band sounder over the Tibetan Plateau and surrounding areas. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 53, 1–10 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-016-0035-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-016-0035-7

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