Based on consideration of both thermodynamic and kinetic features of the subtropical summer monsoon in East Asia,a new index is defined by the moist potential vorticity (MPV) for this monsoon.Variation features of the subtropical summer monsoon over 60 years are analyzed using National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (USA) data from 1948 to 2007.Results show that the new index can well reflect the seasonal,interannual,and interdecadal variations of the East Asian subtropical summer monsoon.Correlation analysis of the new index and precipitation data from 160 stations in China shows that in high-index years,the summer monsoon is strong,and more rain falls in eastern North China,southwestern China,and along the coast of South China and less rain falls in the Yangtze-Huaihe R.basin.In low-index years,the opposite occurs.Lastly,the new index is compared with four established monsoon indices.The new index is found to have an advantage in representing summer rainfall in the Yangtze-Huaihe R.basin.
To analyze the mechanism by which water vapor increase leads to cooling in the stratosphere, the effects of water-vapor increases on temperature in the stratosphere were simulated using the two-dimensional, interactive chemical dynamical radiative model （SOCRATES） of NCAR. The results indicate that increases in stratospheric water vapor lead to stratospheric cooling, with the extent of cooling increasing with height, and that cooling in the middle stratosphere is stronger in Arctic regions. Analysis of the radiation process showed that infrared radiative cooling by water vapor is a pivotal factor in middle-lower stratospheric cooling. However, in the upper stratosphere （above 45 km）, infrared radiation is not a factor in cooling; there, cooling is caused by the decreased solar radiative heating rate resulting from ozone decrease due to increased stratospheric water vapor. Dynamical cooling is important in the middle-upper stratosphere, and dynamical feedback to temperature change is more distinct in the Northern Hemisphere middle-high latitudes than in other regions and signiffcantly affects temperature and ozone in winter over Arctic regions. Increasing stratospheric water vapor will strengthen ozone depletion through the chemical process. However, ozone will increase in the middle stratosphere. The change in ozone due to increasing water vapor has an important effect on the stratospheric temperature change.
The infrared radiative effect of methane was analyzed using the 2D, interactive chemical dynamical radiative SOCRATES model of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Then, a sensitivity experi ment, with the methane volume mixing ratio increased by 10%, was carried out to study the influence of an increase of methane on air temperature. The results showed that methane has a heating effect through the infrared radiative process in the troposphere and a cooling effect in the stratosphere. However, the cooling effect of the methane is much smaller than that of water vapor in the stratosphere and is negligible in the mesosphere. The simulation results also showed that when methane concentration is increased by 10%, the air temperature lowers in the stratosphere and mesosphere and increases in the troposphere. The cooling can reach 0.2 K at the stratopause and can vary from 0.2-0.4 K in the mesosphere, and the temperature rise varies by around 0.001-0.002 K in the troposphere. The cooling results from the increase of the infrared radiative cooling rate caused by increased water vapor and O3 concentration, which are stimulated by the increase in methane in most of the stratosphere. The infrared radiation cooling of methane itself is minor. The depletion of O3 stimulated by the methane increase results indirectly in a decrease in the rate of so- lar radiation heating, producing cooling in the stratopause and mesosphere. The tropospheric warming is mainly caused by the increase of methane, which produces infrared radiative heating. The increase in H2O and O3 caused by the methane increase also contributes to a rise in temperature in the troposphere.
