Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan. Ser. II
Online ISSN : 2186-9057
Print ISSN : 0026-1165
ISSN-L : 0026-1165
Volume 96, Issue 3
Displaying 1-4 of 4 articles from this issue
  • Kei KAWAI, Kenji KAI, Yoshitaka JIN, Nobuo SUGIMOTO, Dashdondog BATDOR ...
    2018 Volume 96 Issue 3 Pages 255-268
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: June 09, 2018
    Advance online publication: January 26, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Supplementary material

     The Gobi Desert is one of the major sources of Asian dust, which influences the climate system both directly and indirectly through its long-range transport by the westerlies. In this desert, three ground-based lidars are operated in Dalanzadgad, Sainshand, and Zamyn-Uud, Mongolia. This study firstly combined these lidars into a lidar network and shows the spatial development of a dust layer over the desert and the long-range transport of the dust during 22-23 May 2013 via the lidar network. During this dust event, a cold front accompanying an extratropical cyclone moved southeastward across the desert and sequentially passed through Dalanzadgad, Sainshand, and Zamyn-Uud. In Dalanzadgad, in the central part of the desert, a dust storm occurred owing to the strong wind (6-10 m s−1) associated with the cold front and reached a top height of 1.6 km. Some of the dust floated at a height of 0.9-1.6 km along the cold frontal surface. In Sainshand and Zamyn-Uud, in the eastern part of the desert, the dust layer extended from the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) to the free troposphere in the updraft region of warm air in the cold frontal system. Overall, while the dust layer was moving across the desert with the cold frontal system, it was developing up to the free troposphere. The mechanism of this development can be explained by the combination of two processes as follows: (1) the continuous emission of dust from the desert surface to the ABL by the strong wind around the cold front and (2) the continuous transport of the dust from the ABL to the free troposphere by the updraft of the warm air in the cold frontal system. This mechanism can contribute to the long-range transport of dust by the westerlies in the free troposphere.

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  • Yafei WANG, Xiaoyu XU
    2018 Volume 96 Issue 3 Pages 269-281
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: June 27, 2018
    Advance online publication: April 07, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Supplementary material

     The proposed study aims to examine the relation between the Tibetan Plateau (TP) thermal condition and El Niño and Southern Oscillation (ENSO). There were significant positive correlations between the snow water equivalent (SWE) over the TP from November to next April and sea surface temperature (SST) in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) in November from 1987 to 2005. SST in EEP in November is most significantly correlated with the TP-SWE in next April, which suggests an accumulative effect of the ENSO on the TP snow cover. Although El Niño conditions could bring anomalous snowfall over the TP by generating a wave train entering the North African-Asian jet, it is questionable if this impact could change the thermal condition over the TP. There was almost no significant negative correlation between the SWE and TP surface temperature (representing the TP thermal condition) in winter. This suggests that the TP thermal condition hardly varies with the anomalous snowfall caused by this ENSO impact, despite some cooling effect of snowfall during the El Niño phase. On the contrary, preceding El Niño conditions tended to be associated with increasing TP surface temperature in May and there were significant positive correlations between SWE in April and TP surface temperature in May and June. ENSO might play a part in affecting TP thermal condition in a way that is quite different from the previous research. A plausible mechanism based on the relation of ENSO-TP thermal condition has been proposed. The mechanism explained the direct and indirect effects of ENSO on the TP thermal condition and role that the seasonal progress can play in this relation. The issues about snow cover aging and the impact of global warming, among others, were also included in the mechanism.

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Notes and Correspondence
  • Hiroshi G. TAKAHASHI, Julie Mae B. DADO
    2018 Volume 96 Issue 3 Pages 283-290
    Published: 2018
    Released on J-STAGE: June 20, 2018
    Advance online publication: March 09, 2018
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    Supplementary material

     We offer a new perspective on a relationship between sea surface temperature (SST) over the windward region of the Philippines and rainfall in the western Philippines during the Asian summer monsoon season, which has been known as the negative correlation, using observational daily SST, rainfall, and atmospheric circulation datasets. This study focuses on the local SST effect rather than the remote effect. A warmer local SST results in greater rainfall over the western Philippines under similar monsoon westerlies conditions, particularly during moderate and relatively stronger monsoon regimes. This result is obtained after selecting only the moderate or relatively stronger monsoon days, because the positive effect of SST on rainfall is masked by the apparent negative correlation between SST and rainfall. The warmer SSTs being associated with less rainfall correspond to weaker cooling by weaker monsoon westerlies and the cooler SSTs being associated with more rainfall correspond to stronger cooling by stronger monsoon westerlies. The cooler SSTs are the result of stronger monsoon cooling and are not the cause of the greater rainfall, which is the apparent statistical relationship. This also implies that the monsoon westerly is the primary driver of the variation in rainfall in this region. We conclude that the local SST makes a positive contribution toward rainfall, although it does not primarily control rainfall. This conclusion can be applicable to coastal regions where, climatologically, rainfall is controlled by winds from the ocean.

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Corrigendum
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