ALBERT

Description: Phase-locked to austral winter and spring, canonical positive Indian Ocean Dipoles (pIODs) generally peak in spring. In recent decades, there has been an increase in unseasonable pIODs which, different from canonical pIODs, peak and decay by September. Distinguishing unseasonable pIODs from canonical pIODs is important, as conditions leading to more frequent unseasonable events are projected to persist in a warming climate. Here using superimposition of the first two seasonally evolving dominant modes of tropical Indian Ocean rainfall variability, we differentiate these types of pIODs. The first mode reflects characteristics of canonical pIODs, in which anomalies intensify with seasonal evolution. However, the second mode, with cool and dry anomalies extending from the eastern pole, reverses from winter to spring, signifying the demise of unseasonable pIODs. Processes embedded in the second mode reflect timing of propagation in equatorial Kelvin waves, and their relative importance to the first mode, in generating different pIODs.

Description: Land surface process modeling of high and cold area with vegetation cover has not yielded satisfactory results in previous applications. In this study, land surface energy budget is simulated using a land surface model for the A’rou meadow in the upper-reach area of the Heihe River Basin in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. The model performance is evaluated using the in-situ observations and remotely sensed data. Sensible and soil heat fluxes are overestimated while latent heat flux is underestimated when the default parameter setting is used. By analyzing physical and physiological processes and the sensitivities of key parameters, the inappropriate default setting of optimum growth and inhibition temperatures is identified as an important reason for the bias. The average daytime temperature during the period of fastest vegetation growth (June and July) is adopted as the optimum growth temperature, and the inhibition temperatures were adjusted using the same increment as the optimum temperature based on the temperature acclimation. These adjustments significantly reduced the biases in sensible, latent, and soil heat fluxes.

Description: Ocean wave activity excites seismic waves that propagate through the solid earth, known as microseismic noise. Here we use a network of 57 ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS) deployed around La Réunion Island in the southwest Indian Ocean to investigate the noise generated in the secondary microseismic band as a tropical cyclone moved over the network. Spectral and polarization analyses show that microseisms strongly increase in the 0.1 - 0.35 Hz frequency band as the cyclone approaches, and that this noise is composed of both compressional and surface waves, confirming theoretical predictions. We infer the location of maximum noise amplitude in space and time, and show that it coincides roughly with the location of maximum ocean-wave interactions. Although this analysis was performed retrospectively, microseisms recorded on the seafloor can be considered a novel source of information for future real-time tracking and monitoring of major storms, complementing atmospheric, oceanographic and satellite observations.

Description: Anthropogenic CO 2 is causing warming and ocean acidification. Coral reefs are being severely impacted, yet confusion lingers regarding how reefs will respond to these stressors over this century. Since the 1982-83 El Niño-Southern Oscillation warming event, the persistence of reefs around the Galápagos Islands has differed across an acidification gradient. Reefs disappeared where pH 〈 8.0 and aragonite saturation state (Ω arag ) ≤ 3 and have not recovered, whereas one reef has persisted where pH 〉 8.0 and Ω arag  〉 3. Where upwelling is greatest, calcification by massive Porites is higher than predicted by a published relationship with temperature despite high CO 2 , possibly due to elevated nutrients. However, skeletal P/Ca, a proxy for phosphate exposure, negatively correlates with density ( R  = -0.822, p  〈 0.0001). We propose that elevated nutrients have the potential to exacerbate acidification by depressing coral skeletal densities and further increasing bioerosion already accelerated by low pH.

Description: Changes to the temporal distribution of daily precipitation were investigated using a dataset of 12,513 land-based stations from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN). The distribution of precipitation was measured using the Gini index (which describes how uniformly precipitation is distributed throughout a year) and the annual number of wet days. The Mann-Kendall test and a regression analysis were used to assess the direction and rate of change to both indices. Over the period of 1976-2000, East Asia, central America and Brazil exhibited a decrease in the number of both wet and light precipitation days, and eastern Europe exhibited a decrease in the number of both wet and moderate precipitation days. In contrast, the USA, southern South America, western Europe and Australia exhibited an increase in the number of both wet and light precipitation days. Trends in both directions were field significant at the global scale.

Description: In the lowermost mantle, seismic velocity variations beneath Pacific margins have been related to the perovskite (pv) to post-perovskite (pPv) phase transition. We investigate the influence of this phase transformation on the geoid using 3D spherical mantle circulation models based on a seismic tomography model and strong lateral viscosity variations in the lower mantle. We demonstrate that the geoid anomalies are strongly affected by the presence of pPv because of phase-dependent viscosity changes relative to the surrounding mantle. Whereas geoid heights above subduction zones are increased for high-viscosity pPv, the presence of weak pPv reduces them, thereby improving the fit to the observed geoid. An investigation using two different tomography models, different pPv density contrasts, and the presence or absence of a global thermal boundary layer and of lateral viscosity variations in the lower mantle demonstrate the various effects of weak pPv on the geoid.

Description: The Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation (IPO) influences multidecadal drought risk across the Pacific, but there are no millennial-length, high resolution IPO reconstructions for quantifying long-term drought risk. In Australia, drought risk increases in positive phases of the IPO, yet few suitable rainfall proxies and short (~100 y) instrumental records mean large uncertainties remain around drought frequency and duration. Likewise, it is unknown whether mega-droughts have occurred in Australia's past. In this study, an atmospheric teleconnection in the Indian Ocean mid-latitudes linking East Antarctica and Australia is exploited to produce the first accurate, annually dated millennial-length IPO reconstruction from the Law Dome (East Antarctica) ice core. Combined with an eastern Australian rainfall proxy from Law Dome, the first millennial-length Australian mega-drought (〉5 y duration) reconstruction is presented. Eight mega-droughts are identified including one 39 y drought (AD 1174–1212), which occurred during an unprecedented century of aridity (AD 1102–1212).

Description: The South China Block was formed through the collisional orogeny between the Cathaysia Block and the Yangtze Block in the Early Neoproterozoic. The northern, western and southern sides of the South China Block were affected by disappearance of the Paleo-Tethyan Ocean during the Paleozoic. The southern and northern sides of the South China Block were respectively collided with the Indo-China Block and North China Block in the latest Paleozoic to form the basic framework of the Eastern China. The Eastern China has been affected by the westward subduction of the Pacific Plate since the Mesozoic. Therefore, the South China Block was influenced by the three major tectonic systems, leading to a superposed compound tectonics. The comparative study of the Mesozoic geology between the South China Block and its surrounding areas suggests that although the Mesozoic South China Block was adjacent to the subduction zone of the western Pacific, no juvenile arc-type crust has been found in the eastern margin. The main Mesozoic geology in South China is characterized by reworking of ancient continental margins to intracontinental tectonics, lacking oceanic arc basalts and continental arc andesites. Therefore, a key to understanding of the Mesozoic geology in South China is to determine the temporal-spatial distribution and tectonic evolution of Mesozoic magmatic rocks in this region. This paper presents a review on the tectonic evolution of the South China Block through summarizing the magmatic rock records from the compressional to extensional tectonic process with the transition at the three juncture zones and using the deformation and geophysic data from the deep part of the South China continental lithosphere. Our attempt is to promote the study of South China’s geology and to make it as a typical target for development of plate tectonic theory.

Description: With the influence of global warming, the global climate has undergone significant inter-decadal variation since the late 1970s. Although El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) has been the strongest signal for predicting global climate inter-annual variability, its relation with the summer rainfall in China has significantly changed, and its indicative function on the summer rainfall in China has weakened. This has led to a significant decrease in the accuracy rate of early conceptual prediction models for the Three Rainfall Patterns in the summer of eastern China. On the basis of the difference analysis of atmospheric circulation system configuration in summer, as well as the interaction of ocean and atmospheric in previous winter between two phases, i.e. before and after the significant global warming (1951 to 1978 and 1979 to 2012, respectively), we concluded that (1) Under different inter-decadal backgrounds, the atmospheric circulations that impacted the Three Rainfall Patterns in the summer of eastern China showed consistency, but in the latter phase of the global warming, the Western Pacific Subtropical High (WPSH) was on the strong side, the position of which was in the south, and the blocking high in the Eurasia mid-high latitudes was active, while the polar vortex extended to the south, and meridional circulation intensified. This circulation background may have been conducive to the increase of the circulation frequency of Patterns II and III, and the decrease of the circulation frequency of Pattern I, thus leading to more Patterns II and III and fewer Pattern I in the summer rainfall of eastern China. (2) In the former phase, the corresponding previous winter SST fields of different rainfall patterns showed visible differences. The impact of ENSO on North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) was great, and the identification ability of which on Patterns I and II of summer rainfall was effective. In the latter phase, this identification ability decreased, while the impact of ENSO on the Pacific/North American (PNA) teleconnection pattern increased, and the identification ability of the PNA on Patterns II and III also increased. Based on the new inter-decadal climate background, this study reconstructs the conceptual prediction model for the Three Rainfall Patterns in summer of eastern China by using the previous winter PNA and the Eurasian (EU) teleconnection indexes. The fitting effect was satisfying, though it is necessary to be further tested.

Description: Many details of how thunderstorms generate terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) and other forms of high energy radiation remain uncertain, including the basic question of where they are produced. We exploit the association of distinct low frequency radio emissions with generation of terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs) to directly measure for the first time the TGF source altitude. Analysis of two events reveals source altitudes of 11.8 ± 0.4 km and 11.9 ± 0.9 km. This places the source region in the interior of the thunderstorm between the two main charge layers, and implies an intrinsic TGF brightness of approximately 10 18 runaway electrons. The electric current in this non-traditional lightning process is found to be strong enough to drive nonlinear effects in the ionosphere, and in one case is comparable to the highest peak current lightning processes on the planet.