›› 2018, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (4): 846-854.doi: 10.13866/j.azr.2018.04.12

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Spatiotemporal distribution of cloud liquid water volume over three main mountains in Xinjiang

ZHANG Xiao-juan1, WANG Jun1, HUANG Guan1, CHEN Yong-hang1,2   

  1. (1. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620, China; 2. Institute of Desert Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Urumqi 830002, Xinjiang,China;
  • Received:2017-11-03 Revised:2018-01-23 Online:2018-07-15 Published:2018-07-19

Abstract:

A case study on the spatiotemporal distribution of cloud liquid water over Xinjiang, especially over its three main mountainous with abundant cloud liquid water, was carried out using the cloud data set distributed by NASA (AIRS/Aqua L2 Standard Physical Retrieval (AIRS + AMSU) V006 (AIRX2RET)). The results showed that the cloud liquid water volume over north Xinjiang was higher than that over south Xinjiang, it was higher over the mountains than that over the desert basins, it over the windward slope of the mountains was as high as 500×10-6 kg·m-2, and it decreased from the west to the east. Affected by the general atmospheric circulation, the cloud liquid water over the whole study area, Tianshan Mountains and Altay Mountains was abundant in spring, and its volumes over these regions were all higher than 350×10-6 kg·m-2. The cloud water over the Kunlun Mountains was abundant in summer, but it was low over the whole study area in autumn and less than 20×10-6 kg·m-2. The average annual cloud water volume fluctuated between 42.47×10-6 kg·m-2 and 455.32×10-6 kg·m-2 in recent 13 years. The cloud liquid water was generally stable in the whole study area, but is was in a decrease trend in the three main mountainous. The cloud liquid water volume was in an upward trend in the study area from 2009 to 2010, especially in the Tianshan Mountains. The curves of annual cloud water volumes over the three main mountains were unimodal, and the highest values of cloud liquid water over the Altay, Tianshan and Kunlun mountains occurred from February to April, March to May and April to August, and the peak values were 822.30×10-6, 869.75×10-6 and 742.82×10-6 kg·m-2, respectively.

Key words: cloud liquid water, atmospheric circulation, spatiotemporal distribution, Altay Mountains, Tianshan Mountains, Kunlun Mountains, Xinjiang