Applied Meteorology

The successful Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission provides operational soil
moisture products of high quality; yet its impacts on global carbon and water cycle estimation are yet to be further investigated. Here we assimilated the SMAP enhanced Level-2 soil moisture product at 9 km resolution into a land surface scheme in order to study the soil moisture control on the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems. We found that SMAP significantly improves soil moisture simulations, especially
in the spring. Extensive wetting signals were revealed over croplands in arid and semi-arid regions and could not be explained using reanalysis meteorological data, indicating an additional water input, for example, irrigation. Stronger impacts on gross primary production and evapotranspiration simulations are found in wetting adjustments than in drying adjustments after data assimilation. This study suggests that the performance of the land surface scheme benefits greatly from assimilating the SMAP soil moisture
product.

A climatology of the Great Plains low-level jet (LLJ) is developed from 2 yr of research rawinsonde data obtained up to eight times per day at a site in north-central Oklahoma. These data have better height and time resolution than earlier studies, and show that jets are stronger than previously reported and that the heights of maximum wind speed are closer to the ground. LLJs are present in 47% of the warm season soundings and 45% of the cold season soundings. More than 50% of the LLJs have wind maxima below 500 m above ground level (AGL). Because the 404-MHz radar profiler network in the central United States has its first data points at 500 m AGL, it is likely to miss some LLJ events and will have inadequate vertical resolution of LLJ wind structure.Previous studies have identified LLJs on the basis of a wind speed profile criterion. This criterion fails to separate the classical southerly LLJs from the less frequent northerly jets, which differ in both structure and evolution. Classical southerly jets are more frequent; they occur year round, with the highest frequency in the summer and at night. Southerly LLJ wind speed maxima are most frequently found at 300-600 m AGL, and peak speeds, typically between 15 and 21 m s1, are attained at 0200 CST. The height of the wind speed maximum varies little during nighttime-a period when surface-based inversions grow in depth but generally remain below the jet. Winds at the nose of the southerly jets exhibit a distinct diurnal clockwise turning in wind direction and an oscillation in speed.Northerly jets occur year round. They are generally associated with cold air outbreaks and are found in the cold air behind southward-moving cold fronts. In winter, their frequency of occurrence rivals that of the southerly jets. Their occurrence, however, is less dependent on time of day, with a weak daytime maximum. They are more variable in the heights of their wind speed maxima, are associated more frequently with elevated frontal inversions, and do not exhibit a clockwise turning with time. The heights of the jet speed maxima are found to increase with distance behind the surface cold front.

Climate change has become a challenge for the globe and impacting various systems. This study evaluated the seasonal and annual variabilities and trends of rainfall, temperature, and potential evapotranspiration for the period 1985-2019 over Bilate basin of Rift Valley Lakes basins in Ethiopia. Twenty rain and eleven temperature gauge stations datasets were used. Coefficient of variation and precipitation concentration indices were used for variability analysis, whereas Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope estimator were used for trend detection and magnitude. The short and main rainy seasons characterized the basin with a bimodal rainfall pattern. Variability indices revealed dry Bega season with significant rainfall variability. In the dry season, higher relative variability is exhibited in the upstream north and lesser in the downstream south which flips in the main rainy season. Internal climate variability evaluation with indices showed a weak correlation with the observed rainfall variabilities for seasons. Inter-annual and seasonal anomalies characterize inconsistent wet and dry years, which uncertainly impact climate-sensitive rainfed agriculture. The areal weighted average rainfall shows negligible declining trend (α = 0.05) with a magnitude of 2.45 mm/year and 2.60 mm/year for annual and Belg, respectively. The minimum average temperature was relatively more variable than the maximum average temperature. Most of the stations established warming trends either negligible or significant. Potential evapotranspiration exhibited less variability with negligible trends in the majority of the stations. Therefore, rainfed agricultural practices and water resources use in the basin should adapt with supplementing measures to respond to uncertain variabilities and minor changes.

Recently, thermal properties of the landscaped rooftops and walls have attracted the interest of researchers because of the potential to minimize energy consumption in urban areas and to aid summer-time thermal control. For this reason the creation of a plant-based shade for walls or above buildings is highly important. In this paper we evaluate using Lygodium japonicum, one of the many ferns and fern allies traditionally used in Japanese gardening, as a component of thermal-buffering green walls. Lygodium japonicum, the only climbing fern species in Japan, is fast-growing, adheres easily to walls and has a climbing nature. A simple thermal analysis of the sun-shading effect of Lygodium canopy suggested that local surface temperature above the ceramic tiles placed on the rooftop of a building can be buffered (lowered in daytime and maintained relatively warm at night) by the presence of leafy climbing ferns covering the tiles, possibly due to the reflection and absorbance of solar radiation. Furthermore, the presence of the plants may also slow the night-time release of heat from the building surface. Because plants installed on tall walls or on the tops of buildings are not easily accessed for manual care, we performed a real-time routine monitoring and control of plant growth status using various optical sensors that could be automated and monitored remotely for large-scale applications. For this purpose, the optical properties of a L. japonicum canopy under solar incident light have been determined. In order to evaluate the natural shading and growing properties of a green canopy, the incident solar radiation spectrum (J), leaf canopy-filtered light spectrum (transmittance, T) and leaf-reflectivity spectrum (R) were measured. By reading the reflectivity spectrum, concomitant chlorophyll fluorescence signals (F) from Lygodium leaves were also detected at 760 nm, which corresponds to the O2-A Fraunhofer line. Our data suggests that the daily change in photosynthetic status (P) can be traced by monitoring the change in relative F in relation to the estimated heat loss (H) and measured J, R, and T using a series of practical equations designed to roughly estimate the gross photosynthetic response within the plant canopy. Using our equations, the photosynthetic capacity in the plant canopy structure could be simply simulated and predictable by optical sensors.

The performance of the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regulatory Model (AERMOD) Improvement Committee’s applied air dispersion model against 17 field study databases is described. AERMOD is a steady-state plume model with significant improvements over commonly applied regulatory models. The databases are characterized, and the performance measures are described. Emphasis is placed on statistics that demonstrate the model’s abilities to reproduce the upper end of the concentration distribution. This is most important for applied regulatory modeling. The field measurements are characterized by flat and complex terrain, urban and rural conditions, and elevated and surface releases with and without building wake effects. As is indicated by comparisons of modeled and observed concentration distributions, with few exceptions AERMOD’s performance is superior to that of the other applied models tested. This is the second of two articles,...

Pengamatan radiosonde merupakan pengamatan variabel meteorologi di udara atas (tekanan atmosfer, suhu, kelembapan, dan angin horizontal) menggunakan radiosonde (instrumen yang dibawa oleh balon melalui atmosfer, dilengkapi dengan perangkat pengukur suhu dan beberapa variabel meteorologi), yang dilakukan di stasiun radiosonde.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was launched on 27 November 1997, and data from all the instruments first became available approximately 30 days after the launch. Since then, much progress has been made in the calibration of the sensors, the improvement of the rainfall algorithms, and applications of these results to areas such as data assimilation and model

Quantitative use of satellite-derived maps of monthly rainfall requires some measure of the accuracy of the satellite estimates. The rainfall estimate for a given map grid box is subject to both remote sensing error and, especially in the case of low-orbiting satellites, sampling error due to the limited number of observations of the grid box provided by the satellite. A simple model of rain behavior predicts that rms random error in grid-box averages should depend in a simple way on the local average rain rate, and the predicted behavior has been seen in simulations using surface rain gauge and radar data. This relationship is examined using Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) satellite data obtained over the western equatorial Pacific during the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment. Rms error inferred directly from SSM/I rainfall estimates is found to be larger than was predicted from surface data and to depend less on local rain ra...

A new method of seeding convective clouds for the purpose of augmenting rainfall is being developed in South Africa. Flares that produce small salt particles (0.5-m mean diameter) are attached to the trailing edge of the wings of seeding aircraft and ignited in updrafts below the cloud base of convective storms. This method of delivery overcomes most of the difficulties encountered in the handling and the use of hygroscopic materials, difficulties that made seeding with ice nuclei (AgI) a more attractive option.The research that has led to the development of this new technique was prompted by an encounter with a storm with dramatically altered microphysics that was growing over a Kraft paper mill in the research area. Hygroscopic seeding flares were subsequently developed, and seeding trials began in October 1990. Successful seeding trials quickly led to the design and execution of a randomized convective cloud-seeding experiment, the results of which show convincing evidence of increases in the radar-measured rain mass from seeded storms when compared to the control or unseeded storms.Heightened reflectivities aloft seen by the real-time storm-tracking software and observed in the exploratory analysis raises the possibility of developing a radar-measured seeding algorithm that can recognize in almost real time a successful convective seeding event. The implications of such a development would have far-reaching effects on the conduct of future convective cloud-seeding experiments and operations.The authors' seeding hypothesis postulates that the hygroscopic seeding at cloud base accelerates the growth of large hydrometeors in the treated clouds, which harvest more of the available supercooled water before it is expelled into the anvils by the strong updrafts that are a characteristic of the local storms, thereby increasing the efficiency of the rainfall process. The validity of this hypothesis is supported by microphysical measurements made from an instrumented Learjet and the results of the randomized experiment, both of which are supported by numerical condensation-coalescence calculations. There are also indications that the hygroscopic seeding may have an impact upon the dynamics of the treated storms, lengthening their lifetimes by strengthening the coupling of the updraft-downdraft storm propagation mechanism.The apparent sensitivity of rainfall in convective clouds to the aerosol concentration, size, and chemical content may have climatic implications. Higher concentrations of small aerosols produced by pollution, biomass burning, etc., could adversely affect the efficiency of the rainfall process. The negative consequences of this effect would be magnified in regions that depend upon convective storms to provide the bulk of their annual rainfall.

... Drying of the atmosphere above about 800 hPa (Fig. 4), with the departure of deep clouds in satellite imagery (Fig. 7), would allow for radiational cooling at the top of a fog (eg, Jiusto andLala 1980; Brown 1987; Fitzjarrald and Lala 1989; Croft et al. 1997). ...

Disdrometer data measured during the passage of tropical continental squall lines in Darwin, Australia, are analyzed to study characteristics of raindrop size distribution (DSD). Fifteen continental squall lines were selected for the DSD analysis. An observed squall line was partitioned into three regions based on radar reflectivity pattern, namely, convective line, stratiform, and reflectivity trough. A convective line was further

ABSTRACT An armored T-28 research aircraft made direct observations of the hydrometeors present at approximately the -3°C temperature level in the inflow region of a multicell thunderstorm. During the penetration, both the Colorado State University (CSU) University of Chicago and Illinois State Water Survey (CHILL) 11-cm-wavelength dual-polarization research radar and the Denver, Colorado, Front Range Airport (KFTG) Weather Surveillance Radar-1988 Doppler (WSR-88D) were scanning this storm. Polarimetric radar indications of hail (high reflectivity and low differential reflectivity) appeared near the surface in the echo core adjacent to the aircraft track approximately 6 min after the T-28's inflow transit. Radial velocity data from the KFTG radar were combined with those recorded at CSU CHILL to synthesize the airflow fields in the storm around the time of the T-28 penetration. Hail trajectories were initiated from a location at which the T-28 encountered a burst of approximately 1-cm-diameter, low-density graupel particles within the general storm inflow region. Forward-time trajectory calculations indicated that these graupel particles subsequently grew slightly into small hailstones and ended up within a few kilometers of the near-surface polarimetric radar hail-signature location. Trajectories computed backward in time imply that these hail embryos originated aloft in the forward portion of the echo complex. These are the first quantitative, direct in situ observations of recirculating precipitation becoming embryos for hail development.

The water and heat balances of an arable field and a forest in the boreal zone in Scandinavia were explored using 3 yr of observations and simulations with two different soil–vegetation–atmosphere transfer (SVAT) models over a 30-yr period. Results from a detailed mechanistic model [coupled heat and mass transfer model (COUP)] were compared with those obtained with a large-scale type of SVAT model used in the weather prediction model at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts [ECMWF tiled land surface scheme (TESSEL)]. The COUP model simulations agreed well with the observations from a seasonal perspective. The TESSEL model differed significantly from the measurements when standard operational parameter values were used. The introduction of a seasonal variation in leaf-area index values, tuned canopy resistance for forest, and a reduced roughness length over snow-covered open land reduced the discrepancies. Net radiation was 40% higher in the forest when compared with...

This study compiles a nationwide database of flood fatalities for the contiguous United States from 1959 to 2005. Assembled data include the location of fatalities, age and gender of victims, activity and/or setting of fatalities, and the type of flood events responsible for each fatality report. Because of uncertainties in the number of flood deaths in Louisiana from Hurricane Katrina,

Accounting for the current knowledge of the convective boundary layer structure and characteristics, a new formulation for the eddy diffusivities to be used in atmospheric dispersion models has been derived. That is, expressions for the eddy diffusivities, depending on source distance, for inhomogeneous turbulence are proposed. The classical statistical diffusion theory, the observed spectral properties, and observed characteristics of energy-containing eddies are used to estimate these parameters. In addition, a vertical eddy diffusivity was introduced into an air pollution model, validated with the data of Copenhagen experiments, and compared with an improved Gaussian model. The results of this new method are shown to agree with the measurements of Copenhagen and also with those of the Gaussian model. Furthermore, the current study suggests that the inclusion of the memory effect, important in regions near an elevated continuous point source, improves the description of the turbulent transport process of atmospheric contaminants. The major advance shown in this paper is the necessity of including the downwind distance-dependent eddy diffusivity in air quality modeling, and it is demonstrated that such theory would suggest that it should yield better results than the asymptotic solution alone. It, in fact, does yield better results in the near and intermediate fields.