China National Report on Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences
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2003-2006 China National Report on Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences For The 24rd General Assembly of IUGG Perugia, Italy, 2-13 July, 2007 By Chinese National Committee for The International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics Beijing, China June, 2007 PREFACE As a rule, the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) requests each of her member countries to submit, every four years, a progress report on the relevant operational and research fields, and exchange the report with other members during the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) Assembly that is held every four yeas as well. During the last thirty years, the China National Committee for IAMAS has regularly composed its report. This National Report of the China National Committee for IAMAS is prepared for the XXIV General Assembly of IUGG, Perugia, Italy, July 2007 and introduces some advances and achievements in meteorology and atmospheric sciences in China mainly during 2003-2006. The National Report consists of 15 papers that cover the following fields: Observation, numerical weather prediction, climate and climate change, climate model, nonlinear dynamics and predictability, monsoon, meso-scale meteorology, cloud physics, and etc. Those papers were also sent out for peer-review. If they are accepted, they will be published in a Special Issue of “Advances in Atmospheric Sciences” which is the journal of the China National Committee for IAMAS. Through this report you could briefly understand what Chinese Scientists have done and what they are going to do in China. We hope that this report will strengthen domestic exchanges and enhance international cooperation so that meteorology and atmospheric sciences in China will develop further, and we will be able to contribute more to the outside world. Chinese National Committee for IAMAS WU Guoxiong, Chairman ZHENG Guoguang, Vice-Chairman LI Jianping, Secretary-General June, 2007 China National Report on Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (2003-2006) Report No.1 RECENT PROGRESSES IN THE ATMOSPHERIC OBSERVATION RESEARCHES IN CHINA Qiu Jinhuan, Chen Hongbin, Wang Pucai, Liu Yi, and Xia Xiang’ao Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Beijing 100029 ABSTRACT Recent progresses in atmospheric observation techniques, observation systems and applications in China are reviewed. According to different observation platforms, the reviewing is presented in three sections, i.e. Satellite Remote Sensing (SRS), ground-based observation technologies and applications, and airborne/balloon measurements. The section “satellite remote sensing” presents research advances on SRS techniques, SRS of cloud and aerosol, SRS of trace gases and temperature/moisture profiles. The section “ground-based observation technologies and applications” focuses on researches such as lidar systems and applications, sun/sky radiometer and radiation observations, weather radar and wind profiler, GPS measurements, and some new concept systems. 1. Introduction Modern atmospheric observation, mainly composed of satellite remote sensing and advanced ground-based observation systems, plays a very important role in many research fields such as modern atmospheric science, environment science, global change and so on. In recent years, atmospheric observations have received much attention and great advantage in China. In a paper from Qiu and Chen (2004a), progresses in the atmospheric remote sensing research in China during 1999-2003 were reviewed. The paper paid more attention to atmospheric remote sensing applications. In the present paper, we will review research progresses in the atmospheric observation techniques, observation systems and applications in China mainly since 2003. Our emphasis is not only atmospheric observation applications, but also atmospheric observation technologies and systems. According to different observation platforms, satellite remote sensing, ground-based observation technologies and applications, and airborne/balloon measurements will be reviewed, respectively. 1 China National Report on Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (2003-2006) Report No.1 2. Satellite remote sensing 2.1 Satellite remote sensing techniques There is a great progress in satellite remote sensing technique developments for atmospheric observation applications in China in recent years. The second generation of polar orbit satellite, FY-3 is scheduled to be launched in the next year. The main payloads of FY-3 are Medium Resolution Spectral Imager (MERSI), Infrared Atmospheric Sounder (IRAS), Microwave Temperature Sounder (MWTS), Microwave Humidity Sounder (MWHS), Total Ozone Unit (TOU), Solar Backscattering Ultraviolet Sounder (SBUS), and Earth Radiation Measurement (ERM). The MERSI instrument has 20 channels with two spatial resolutions, 250 m and 1000 m, respectively for visible and infrared bands. MERSI has similar features to MODIS, of which the channels are good for retrieving Aerosol Optical Thickness (AOT) over ocean as well as over land, atmospheric water vapor, dust monitoring, surface albedo, ocean color, and so on. The IRAS scans from 49.5° negative to the positive value across the track, the spatial resolution is 17 km at nadir. 26 channels in CO2 absorption 15 μm band, water vapor band, ozone band, and atmospheric window are designed for retrieving atmospheric temperature and humidity profiles. The MWTS scans from 48.3° negative to the same degree but positive, a pixel at nadir stands for about 50 km. While the MWHS scans within 53.35°, with a swath of 2700 km and a resolution of 15 km at nadir. The TOU instrument has 6 channels, ranging from 308 nm to 360 nm, of which 5 channels are sensitive to ozone absorption, and 1 insensitive. The spatial resolution is about 50 km at nadir. The SBUS has 12 channels, ranging from 252 nm to 340 nm, and its spatial resolution is about 200 km. The retrieval algorithms for these four kinds of applications are developing. 2.2 Satellite remote sensing of aerosol and cloud Satellites remote sensing of aerosol and cloud can provide their optical properties over global coverage; it is thought to be the unique approach to obtain temporal and spatial distribution of aerosols and clouds with high resolution on a global scale. Aerosol and cloud particles can change the intensity of incoming radiation by scattering and absorbing, so we can get their optical properties by measuring the changing of incoming radiation. Aerosol can be served as CCN, and its interaction with sunlight and their effect on cloud microphysics form a major uncertainty in 2 China National Report on Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (2003-2006) Report No.1 predicting climate change. During last 5 years, after the successfully launching of MODIS/Terra and MODIS/Aqua, some Chinese authors have contributed great efforts to remote sensing research of aerosol and cloud from space. The researches are summarized in four aspects: 1) development of aerosol retrieval algorithms,2) validation of satellite remote sensing of AOT, 3) applications of satellite aerosol products to atmospheric and environmental researches, 4) development of cloud retrieval algorithms and applications. 2.2.1 Development of aerosol retrieval algorithms After successful launching of MODIS/Terra, several works had been done based on MODIS data. Based on the 6S radiative transfer code, the dense dark vegetation method and contrast reduction method are used to retrieve AOT over land surface from MODIS/Terra data over Beijing and its surrounding area. It is found that the dense dark vegetation method fails to retrieve AOT over urban area because of bright surface and strongly absorbing urban aerosol. By selecting suitable combinations of the two methods, the reasonable retrieval of AOT can be achieved (Li et al., 2003a). Synergy of MODIS/Terra and MODIS/Aqua data are applied to retrieve AOT and surface reflectance simultaneously, this method can be used over many kinds of ground types (Tang et al., 2005). Based on MODIS aerosol operational algorithm, an AOT retrieval method with 1 km resolution is developed, and it is used for obtaining the AOT over Hong Kang. Comparing these products with long-term sunphotometer observations, it is found that the relative error of the products is about 20%, which indicates that this method applied in Hong Kang has precision enough to capture the urban aerosol distribution (Li et al., 2005a) LANDSAT/TM5 high spatial resolution images are used to discriminate cloud and the shadow since they are projected on the surface from cloud free pixels in the visible band. Over a nontransparent cloud shadow, the radiance obtained from satellite measurement is the contribution of atmospheric path radiance and surface diffuse reflection; while, over a bright area surrounding the cloud shadow, besides the contribution of atmospheric radiance and surface diffuse reflection, the surface direct reflection also contributes to the radiance measured from satellite. Based on this theory, the difference between the two radiances and its relationship with the surface reflectance and AOT are analyzed, and a new method to retrieve surface reflectance and AOT simultaneously over land is developed (Duan et al., 2002). 3 China National Report on Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (2003-2006) Report No.1 2.4.2 Validation of satellite remote sensing of AOT MODIS AOT-products are compared with ground-based sunphotometer observations. The comparison in Beijing area, presented by Mao et al. (2002), shows the two data fit very well with high correlations.