Global Warming

  2010 JUL 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "Long-term variations of monthly average maximum and minimum temperature (TMAX and TMIN) and precipitation records in southern Brazil are investigated for the 1913-2006 period. These variations are carefully analyzed for seasonal and annual indices, taken as regional averages," researchers in Sao Paulo, Brazil report.

  "For this purpose, the serial correlation and trend of the indices are investigated using the run and Mann-Kendall tests. The significant trends are obtained from linear least-square fits. The annual and seasonal TMIN indices show significant warming trends with magnitudes (1.7A degrees C per 100 years for annual index) comparable to those reported by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but lower than those found for the southern Brazil in another previous work. Regarding the two other variables, the indices show significant trends only for summer, being a cooling trend of 0.6A degrees C per 100 years for the TMAX and an increasing trend of 93 mm per 100 years over an average summer precipitation of 367 mm. Concerning the decadal analysis, the 1920s present the lowest annual, autumn, and spring TMIN and the 1990s, the highest ones. The 1970s is the decade with the lowest summer TMAX, and the 1940s the decade with the highest one," wrote C.A. Sansigolo and colleagues ...read more

  2010 JUL 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "This study assesses the performance of spectral nudging methodology in dynamical regional climate downscaling for summer climate over East Asia. The regional climate model NCAR-MM5v3 was used to dynamically downscale the 2.5-degree NCEP/NCAR reanalysis (NNRP) data onto 50-km regional grids," researchers in Nanjing, People's Republic of China report.

  "The main focus is the model's simulation of precipitation. The NCEP/CPC precipitation analysis data were used as the verification. Boreal summers (June, July, and August) in 1991, 1998, and 2003 and heavy floods that occurred in Eastern China were selected for the study. Compared to the control runs (CTLs) without spectral nudging (SN), experiments with SNs greatly reduced systematic errors in upper-level large-scale circulations and were in better agreement with the NNRP. At the same time, SNs outperformed CTLs in simulating model variables near the surface. In comparison with observational precipitation data, spectral nudging also improved the model's simulation of precipitation in spatial and temporal distributions," wrote J.P. Tang and colleagues, NanJing University ...read more

  2010 JUL 26 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to a study from Melbourne, Australia, "This study explores potential impacts of the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) on summer climate variability and predictability in the Australia-Asian region through Australia-Asia (A-A) monsoon interactions. Observational analysis is conducted for the period of 1959 to 2001 using ERA-40 wind reanalysis and Climate Research Unit rainfall and surface temperature monthly datasets. ...read more