Moisture Transport and Sources of the Extreme Precipitation Over Northern and Southern Xinjiang in the Summer Half-Year During 1979–2018

Based on the output data from the Lagrangian flexible particle dispersion model (FLEXPART), we analyze the pathways of moisture to identify the moisture source areas for extreme precipitation in the summer half-year (April–September) over northern and southern Xinjiang, respectively. For both northern and southern Xinjiang, the local evaporation plays a decisive role for extreme precipitation in the summer half-year, of which contribution ratio accounts for 24.5% to northern Xinjiang and 30.2% to southern Xinjiang of all identified source areas. In addition, central Asia and northwestern Asia are the major moisture source areas as well and contribute similarly to extreme precipitation relative to local evaporation. For northern Xinjiang, central Asia surpasses northwestern Asia, and each of them contributes 24.1 and 18.8%, whereas northwestern Asia is somewhat more crucial than central Asia for southern Xinjiang, accounting 22.1 and 19.1%, respectively. Note that the three top-ranked moisture source areas make up a large proportion of total sources. Regarding the remaining source areas that also provide moisture, the contributions are entirely different for southern and northern Xinjiang. Originating from the North Atlantic Ocean, Europe, and the Mediterranean Sea, some water vapor enters northern Xinjiang and converge to precipitate, while this process is barely detectable for extreme precipitation over southern Xinjiang, which is affected by the westerly flow. On the contrary, the Arabian Sea, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Peninsula contribute, even though slightly, to extreme precipitation over southern Xinjiang, which indicates that the meridional transport pathways from the Arabian Sea can carry moisture to this inland region.

Sound in Udmurt Rituals

This article is dedicated to the Udmurt’s understanding of the world of sounds, their norms of behaviour towards sound in the acoustic community. The Udmurt sound worldview has been formed under the influence of the surrounding landscape. The peculiar sound of the Forest, that the Udmurt see and hear in their particular way, causes a particular sound reaction and musical approach. According to tradition, the voice of a singing person must fit into the natural soundscape in order to respect acoustic balance. Within the hunting and fishing cults, singing has received the particular function of a magic incantation. The texts of incantatory songs in hunting and in honey producing, are characterised by incantation formulas as well as by different kinds of sound imitations. The collective community ritual singing is one of the most important elements that organise the Udmurt’s soundscape. The acoustic code is integrated in a whole system of ritual practices; it sanctifies the surrounding cultural and natural landscape. The spring-summer half of the year is characterised by a particularly strong intensity of sounds, as in the most significant calendar holiday, the beginning of the agricultural year, Akashka / Byddzh’ym nunal. The rituals of welcoming have their own aesthetics of sound behaviour. According to the Udmurt community’s mentality, the voice of the singing person is not supposed to stand out of the general sound field. Everywhere, the skilful singer occupies a peculiar position on the Udmurt society: they are valued and respected. At the same time, the belief according to which those who are able to sing well are deeply unhappy in life is very widespread. Taking into account that human voice and singing, in the representations of the Udmurt, possessed a huge force and influence on the surrounding world, we may infer that the singer (the skilful singer!) in the ancient society, who mastered this complicated art, had particular authority. It is even possible that at some moments, he/she fulfilled the function of a mediator between the worlds. And similarly to the shaman, the good singer, usto kyrdzh’as’ could not refuse to practice his/her art, this art given him/her by fate. Thus, the Udmurt’s sound worldview is encompassed into an ontological worldview, which sets the rules of behaviour. It requires a proper sound behaviour inside the natural space as well as in the socio-cultural one, and determines the Udmurt’s behaviour not only in their natural environment but also in the urban space.

The Role of Frost Processes in the Retreat of River Banks

The rate of bank retreat was measured using erosion pins on the alluvial banks of the rivers in the Podhale region (the boundary zone between Central and Outer Carpathians) during the hydrological year 2013/2014. During the winter half-year (November–April), the bank retreat was mainly caused by processes related to the freezing and thawing of the ground (swelling, creep, downfall). During the summer half-year (May–October), fluvial processes and mass movements such as lateral erosion, washing out, and sliding predominated. The share of fluvial processes in the total annual amount of bank retreat (71 cm on average) was 4 times greater than that of the frost phenomena. Erosion on bank surfaces by frost phenomena during the cold half-year was greatest (up to 38 cm) on the upper parts of banks composed of fine-grained alluvium, while fluvial erosion during the summer half-year (exceeding 80 cm) mostly affected the lower parts of the banks, composed of gravel. The precise calculation of the relative role of frost phenomena in the annual balance of bank erosion was precluded at some stations by the loss of erosion pins in the summer flood.

River runoff in Switzerland in a changing climate – changes in moderate extremes and their seasonality

Future changes in river runoff will impact many sectors such as agriculture, energy production, or ecosystems. Here, we study changes in the seasonality, frequency, and magnitude of moderate low and high flows and their time of emergence. The time of emergence indicates the timing of significant changes in the flow magnitudes. Daily runoff is simulated for 93 Swiss catchments for the period 1981–2099 under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 with 20 climate model chains from the most recent transient Swiss Climate Change Scenarios. In the present climate, annual low flows typically occur in the summer half-year in lower-lying catchments (<1500 m a.s.l.) and in the winter half-year in Alpine catchments (>1500 m a.s.l.). By the end of the 21st century, annual low flows are projected to occur in late summer and early autumn in most catchments. This indicates that decreasing precipitation and increasing evapotranspiration in summer and autumn exceed the water contributions from other processes such as snowmelt and glacier melt. In lower-lying catchments, the frequency of annual low flows increases, but their magnitude decreases and becomes more severe. In Alpine catchments, annual low flows occur less often and their magnitude increases. The magnitude of seasonal low flows is projected to decrease in the summer half-year in most catchments and to increase in the winter half-year in Alpine catchments. Early time of emergence is found for annual low flows in Alpine catchments in the 21st century due to early changes in low flows in the winter half-year. In lower-lying catchments, significant changes in low flows emerge later in the century. Annual high flows occur today in lower-lying catchments in the winter half-year and in Alpine catchments in the summer half-year. Climate change will change this seasonality mainly in Alpine catchments with a shift towards earlier seasonality in summer due to the reduced contribution of snowmelt and glacier melt in summer. Annual high flows tend to occur more frequent, and their magnitude increases in most catchments except some Alpine catchments. The magnitude of seasonal high flows in most catchments is projected to increase in the winter half-year and to decrease in the summer half-year. However, the climate model agreement on the sign of change in moderate high flows is weak.

Effect of Air Temperature Increase on Changes in Thermal Regime of the Oder and Neman Rivers Flowing into the Baltic Sea

The paper presents long-term changes in water temperature in two rivers, Oder and Neman, with catchments showing different climatic conditions (with dominance of marine climate in the case of the Oder and continental climate in the case of the Neman River). A statistically significant increase in mean annual water temperature was recorded for four observation stations, ranging from 0.17 to 0.39 °C dec−1. At the seasonal scale, for the winter half-year, water temperature increase varied from 0.17 to 0.26 °C dec−1, and for the summer half-year from 0.17 to 0.50 °C dec−1. In three cases (Odra-Brzeg, Odra-Słubice, Niemen-Grodno), the recorded changes referred to the scale of changes in air temperature. For the fourth station on Neman (Smalininkai), an increase in water temperature in the river was considerably slower than air temperature increase. It should be associated with the substantial role of local conditions (non-climatic) affecting the thermal regime in that profile. Short-term forecast of changes in water temperature showed its further successive increase, a situation unfavorable for the functioning of these ecosystems.

Characteristics of Stable Isotopes in Precipitation and Their Moisture Sources in the Guanling Region, Guizhou Province

Environmental prediction is one of the crucial means for social sustainable development. Based on the continuous sampling of atmospheric precipitation in Guanling County, Guizhou Province, China, from March 2016 to February 2017, and combining the reanalyzed data of the National Centre for Environmental Prediction/National Centre for Atmospheric Research with the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory model, this paper analyzed the variations of δ2H and δ18O in precipitation at the synoptic scale in the Guanling region. The results showed that the variations of δ2H, δ18O, and d-excess values in precipitation exhibited remarkable seasonal variability. The stable isotopic values in precipitation in the winter half-year were higher than those in the summer half-year. The meteoric water line of the winter half-year was close to the annual meteoric water line. The results showed that there was more than one fundamental source of moisture. It was affected by the winter monsoon period, which is longer than the summer monsoon period, so the local evaporation of water vapor participating in the water circulation had a greater impact. With the increase of precipitation, the intercept and slope of the meteoric water line gradually decreased, which indicated that the secondary evaporation was weak under the effect of stable isotope subcloud cluster. The correlations of precipitation δ18O with temperature T and precipitation P vary with time scales. As the time scale decreased, the correlation between δ18O and the temperature and precipitation improved. When P ≤ 5 mm and 10°C < T ≤ 30°C, the most sensitive changes in stable isotopes were observed. In the study area, the backward trajectory model showed that the moisture in the winter half of the year was mainly from the transportation of the westerlies wind, replenishment, and local reevaporation of near-source ocean water, while the water in the summer half of the year mainly came from the transportation of water from the ocean at low latitudes.

Identifying exposure biases in early instrumental data

&lt;p&gt;Long observational records of land surface air temperature are vital to our understanding of climate variability and change, as well as for testing predictions of climatic trends. However, of the relatively few long observational records which exist, many contain inhomogeneities or biases resulting from changing instrumentation, station location/surroundings and/or observing practises. One of the most significant issues is the exposure bias. Prior to the widespread adoption of louvered Stevenson-type screens in the late-19&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; century, various (often insufficient) approaches were used to shield thermometers. Each approach exposed the thermometer to differing levels of solar radiation, thus introducing inhomogeneities into individual station records and biases across regions, if similar approaches were used. Poorly shielded thermometers, for example, tended to read higher during the summer half year than those in Stevenson-type screens. Despite a number of studies documenting the presence of the exposure bias in early instrumental data, relatively few corrections have been applied or incorporated into global temperature datasets. This is largely due to the pervasive nature of the bias and a lack of observational metadata impeding bias identification or estimation of the appropriate correction.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;In this work we explore a range of datasets to identify the potential for exposure bias in early instrumental data. We analyse historical data, corrections applied to homogenized datasets, as well as the small number of parallel measurements from differentially-shielded thermometers, in order to better define the characteristics of the exposure bias. These characteristics are then used to identify potential instances of exposure bias in early instrumental temperature records. We consider differences in seasonal anomalies, which is a key feature of many exposure biases, as well as their geographical variation (focussing mostly, but not solely, on Europe). We analyse how these behave at stations where it is known that exposure bias has already been adjusted for (though perhaps not completely) versus those that have not been. We also make comparisons with proxy reconstructions of temperature as an independent reference that is not susceptible to the same biases as the early instrumental data.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;This work forms part of the NERC-funded GloSAT project which is developing a global surface air temperature dataset starting in 1781. The ultimate aim of the work reported here is to refine the error associated with these biases, in order to improve the representation of the exposure bias in error models used for gridded instrumental temperature datasets.&lt;/p&gt;

Gravity wave driven seasonal variability of temperature differences between ECMWF IFS and lidar measurements at 54S in the lee of the Southern Andes

&lt;p&gt;In November 2017, the DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics started running the ground-based Compact Rayleigh Autonomous Lidar (CORAL) at the southern tip of South America in Rio Grande that is located at the east coast of Argentina in the lee of the Andes. We used this independent (i.e., not assimilated in the ECMWF IFS) and high-resolution lidar data of the year 2018 and some individual months in 2019 and 2020 to investigate middle atmosphere temperature deviations in IFS analyses and short-term forecasts at higher mid-latitudes in the southern hemisphere (54 S).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;We found a generally good agreement between IFS and CORAL temperature data below 45 km altitude and the calculated monthly mean temperature deviations are smaller than +/-2 K.&amp;#160; The temperature deviations are more variable in time and the sign of the monthly mean deviations varies throughout the year above 45 km altitude. There, the largest positive differences (+2 K), i.e. IFS temperatures were too warm, are found for May 2018. The largest negative differences (-10 K), i.e. IFS temperatures were too cold, are found for August 2018.&amp;#160; The standard deviation of the temperature differences is significantly larger (up to 15 K) and increases with altitude in the winter half year (April to September 2018) compared to the summer half year. The better agreement of IFS temperature with ground-based lidar measurements in the summer months previously reported in literature for the northern hemisphere also manifests for the southern hemisphere and more recent cycles of the IFS. The largest temperature differences above 45 km altitude in the winter half year are due to gravity waves (GWs) and it was found that amplitude and phase deviations are equally important at the location of Rio Grande. In general, the IFS underestimates GW potential energy density in the middle atmosphere, especially within the sponge layer. Monthly mean GW potential energy density at 45-60 km altitude gets up to four times larger when the sponge is removed but is still less than 50 % of the amount of GW potential energy density found in the CORAL data.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;

SISTEMI GAJENJA I PROIZVODNJE U ORGANSKOM OVČARSTVU I KOZARSTVU

Lamb production dominates in organic sheep production, while milk production is much less present and very rare. There are usually two basic systems of breeding in lamb production: fattening of lambs on pasture and combined fattening of lambs. In organic goat breeding, the most common is the organic production of milk and dairy products, primarily quality goat cheeses. The cultivation system is usually a combination of grazing (summer half of the year) and stable cultivation (winter half of the year). Such agriculture provides amortization of the negative effects of social development on the ecosphere and the human population as a whole.

Changes in Particle Size Distribution in Hydroponic Lagoons Working as A Third Stage of Wastewater Treatment

The aim of research was to evaluate changes in the particle size distribution in two hydroponic lagoons working as a third stage of wastewater treatment where purification processes are based on plants and algae activity. Wastewater samples were taken during the winter and summer half of the year. In the samples taken from analyzed hydroponic lagoons the range of particles size was very wide (0.01 – 1000.0 μm). In both of the research facilities, the fractal dimension (Df) of particles was close to 2.0 what decides about developed surface of the particles. The results may indicate the predominance of algae cells in the total amount of suspensions. This information may pay a key role in determination the impact of discharged particles on the receiving water bodies quality as well as can be the main factor that allows to improve the system of suspended solids removal.