A Numerical Study of Hurricane Erin (2001)

A high-resolution numerical simulation of Hurricane Erin (2001) is used to examine the organization of vertical motion in the eyewall and how that organization responds to a large and rapid increase in the environmental vertical wind shear and subsequent decrease in shear. During the early intensification period, prior to the onset of significant shear, the upward motion in the eyewall was concentrated in small-scale convective updrafts that formed in association with regions of concentrated vorticity (herein termed mesovortices) with no preferred formation region in the eyewall. Asymmetric flow within the eye was weak. As the shear increased, an azimuthal wavenumber 1 asymmetry in storm structure developed with updrafts tending to form on the downshear to downshear-left side of the eyewall. Continued intensification of the shear led to increasing wavenumber 1 asymmetry, large vortex tilt, and a change in eyewall structure and vertical motion organization. During this time, the eyewall structure was dominated by a vortex couplet with a cyclonic (anticyclonic) vortex on the downtilt-left (downtilt-right) side of the eyewall and strong asymmetric flow across the eye that led to strong mixing of eyewall vorticity into the eye. Upward motion was concentrated over an azimuthally broader region on the downtilt side of the eyewall, upstream of the cyclonic vortex, where low-level environmental inflow converged with the asymmetric outflow from the eye. As the shear diminished, the vortex tilt and wavenumber 1 asymmetry decreased, while the organization of updrafts trended back toward that seen during the weak shear period

Growing Typhoon Influence on East Asia

Numerical model studies have suggested that the ongoing global warming will likely affect tropical cyclone activity. But so far little observed evidence has been detected to support the projected future changes. Using satellite-supported best-track data from 1965 to 2003, we show for the first time that over the past four decades the two prevailing typhoon tracks in the western North Pacific (WNP) have shifted westward significantly; the typhoon activity over the South China Sea has considerably decreased; and East Asia has experienced increasing typhoon influence. Our trajectory model simulation indicates that the long-term shifts in the typhoon tracks result primarily from the changes in the mean translation velocity of typhoons or the large-scale steering flow, which is associated with the westward expansion and strengthening of the WNP subtropical high

The Three Gorges Dam Affects Regional Precipitation

Issues regarding building large-scale dams as a solution to power generation and flood control problems have been widely discussed by both natural and social scientists from various disciplines, as well as the policy-makers and public. Since the Chinese government officially approved the Three Gorges Dam (TGD) projects, this largest hydroelectric project in the world has drawn a lot of debates ranging from its social and economic to climatic impacts. The TGD has been partially in use since June 2003. The impact of the TGD is examined through analysis of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) rainfall rate and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) land surface temperature and high-resolution simulation using the Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research (PSU-NCAR) fifth-generation Mesoscale Model (MM5). The independent satellite data sets and numerical simulation clearly indicate that the land use change associated with the TGD construction has increased the precipitation in the region between Daba and Qinling mountains and reduced the precipitation in the vicinity of the TGD after the TGD water level abruptly rose from 66 to 135 m in June 2003. This study suggests that the climatic effect of the TGD is on the regional scale (approx.100 km) rather than on the local scale (approx.10 km) as projected in previous studies

Changes in Tropical Cyclone Intensity Over the Past 30 Years: A Global and Dynamic Perspective

The hurricane season of 2005 was the busiest on record and Hurricane Katrina (2005) is believed to be the costliest hurricane in U. S. history. There are growing concerns regarding whether this increased tropical cyclone activity is a result of global warming, as suggested by Emanuel(2005) and Webster et al. (2005), or just a natural oscillation (Goldenberg et al. 2001). This study examines the changes in tropical cyclone intensity to see what were really responsible for the changes in tropical cyclone activity over the past 30 years. Since the tropical sea surface temperature (SST) warming also leads to the response of atmospheric circulation, which is not solely determined by the local SST warming, this study suggests that it is better to take the tropical cyclone activities in the North Atlantic (NA), western North Pacific (WNP) and eastern North Pacific (ENP) basins as a whole when searching for the influence of the global-scale SST warming on tropical cyclone intensity. Over the past 30 years, as the tropical SST increased by about 0.5 C, the linear trends indicate 6%, 16% and 15% increases in the overall average intensity and lifetime and the annual frequency. Our analysis shows that the increased annual destructiveness of tropical cyclones reported by Emanuel(2005) resulted mainly from the increases in the average lifetime and annual frequency in the NA basin and from the increases in the average intensity and lifetime in the WNP basin, while the annual destructiveness in the ENP basin generally decreased over the past 30 years. The changes in the proportion of intense tropical cyclones reported by Webster et a1 (2005) were due mainly to the fact that increasing tropical cyclones took the tracks that favor for the development of intense tropical cyclones in the NA and WNP basins over the past 30 years. The dynamic influence associated with the tropical SST warming can lead to the impact of global warming on tropical cyclone intensity that may be very different from our current assessments, which were mainly based on the thermodynamic theory of tropical cyclone intensity

What affects the timing of tropical cyclone formation within a monsoon trough?

Although favorable environmental conditions for tropical cyclone (TC) formation have been known for a long time, physical factors that influence the timing of TC formation remain unclear. Idealized numerical simulations are conducted by placing identical tropical disturbances (TDs) in various locations within the monsoon trough to examine what affects the timing of TC formation. The timing of TC formation is evaluated by the development time of TDs, which ranges from 60 h to 189 h. Vertical misalignment, defined as the vortex tilt between mid-and low-level circulation centers of the TD, is closely related to TC formation timing. The mid-and low-level circulation centers tend to be vertically aligned when TC formation time approaches. Different from previous studies, vertical misalignment does not entirely depend on vertical wind shear. Vertical misalignment is directly induced by inconsistent translation speeds between the mid-and low-level circulation centers. However, the steering flows for the mid-and low-level circulation centers cannot fully explain the differences in translation speeds. Additionally, there is no strong connection between environmental conditions and TC formation timing for the TDs within the monsoon trough. Rossby energy dispersions of TDs and terrain effects have some impacts on TC formation timing but are not decisive in this study

Changes in Climate Extremes and Catastrophic Events in the Mongolian Plateau from 1951 to 2012

AbstractThe spatiotemporal changes in 21 indices of extreme temperature and precipitation for the Mongolian Plateau from 1951 to 2012 were investigated on the basis of daily temperature and precipitation data from 70 meteorological stations. Changes in catastrophic events, such as droughts, floods, and snowstorms, were also investigated for the same period. The correlations between catastrophic events and the extreme indices were examined. The results show that the Mongolian Plateau experienced an asymmetric warming trend. Both the cold extremes and warm extremes showed greater warming at night than in the daytime. The spatial changes in significant trends showed a good homogeneity and consistency in Inner Mongolia. Changes in the precipitation extremes were not as obvious as those in the temperature extremes. The spatial distributions in changes of precipitation extremes were complex. A decreasing trend was shown for total precipitation from west to east as based on the spatial distribution of decadal trends. Drought was the most serious extreme disaster, and prolonged drought for longer than 3 yr occurred about every 7–11 yr. An increasing trend in the disaster area was apparent for flood events from 1951 to 2012. A decreasing trend was observed for the maximum depth of snowfall from 1951 to 2012, with a decreased average maximum depth of 10 mm from the 1990s.</jats:p

Room temperature spin-orbit torque efficiency and magnetization switching in SrRuO3-based heterostructures

Spin-orbit torques (SOTs) from transition metal oxides (TMOs) in conjunction with magnetic materials have recently attracted tremendous attention for realizing high-efficient spintronic devices. SrRuO3 is a promising candidate among TMOs due to its large and tunable SOT-efficiency as well as high conductivity and chemical stability. However, a further study for benchmarking the SOT-efficiency and realizing SOT-driven magnetization switching in SrRuO3 is still highly desired so far. Here, we systematically study the SOT properties of high-quality SrRuO3 thin film heterostructuring with different magnetic alloys of both IMA and PMA configuration by the harmonic Hall voltage technique. Our results indicate that SrRuO3 possesses pronounced SOT-efficiency of about 0.2 at room temperature regardless of the magnetic alloys, which is comparable to typical heavy metals (HMs). Furthermore, we achieve SOT-driven magnetization switching with a low threshold current density of 3.8x10^10 A/m^2, demonstrating the promising potential of SrRuO3 for practical devices. By making a comprehensive comparison with HMs, our work unambiguously benchmarks the SOT properties and concludes the advantages of SrRuO3, which may bring more diverse choices for SOT applications by utilizing hybrid-oxide/metal and all-oxide systems.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Anisotropic linear and nonlinear charge-spin conversion in topological semimetal SrIrO3

Over the past decade, utilizing spin currents in the linear response of electric field to manipulate magnetization states via spin-orbit torques (SOTs) is one of the core concepts for realizing a multitude of spintronic devices. Besides the linear regime, recently, nonlinear charge-spin conversion under the square of electric field has been recognized in a wide variety of materials with nontrivial spin textures, opening an emerging field of nonlinear spintronics. Here, we report the investigation of both linear and nonlinear charge-spin conversion in one single topological semimetal SrIrO3(110) thin film that hosts strong spin-orbit coupling and nontrivial spin textures in the momentum space. In the nonlinear regime, the observation of crystalline direction dependent response indicates the presence of anisotropic surface states induced spin-momentum locking near the Fermi level. Such anisotropic spin textures also give rise to spin currents in the linear response regime, which mainly contributes to the fieldlike SOT component. Our work demonstrates the power of combination of linear and nonlinear approaches in understanding and utilizing charge-spin conversion in topological materials.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure