Impatti, adattamento e vulnerabilita Le cause e le responsabilita dei cambiamenti climatici sono state trattate sul numero di ottobre della rivista Cda. Approfondiamo l’argomento presentando il documento: “Cambiamenti climatici 2007: impatti, adattamento e vulnerabilita” votato ad aprile 2007 dal secondo gruppo di lavoro del Comitato Intergovernativo sui Cambiamenti Climatici (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Si tratta del secondo di tre documenti che compongono il quarto rapporto sui cambiamenti climatici.

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Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.

A global rarity rank of G4 means: Apparently secure globally, though it may be quite rare in parts of its range, especially at the periphery. A state rarity rank of S2S3 means: Imperiled or Vulnerable in New York Very vulnerable to disappearing from New York, or vulnerable to becoming imperiled in New York, due to rarity or other factors; typically 6 to 80 populations or locations in New York, few individuals, restricted range, few remaining acres (or miles of stream), and/or recent and widespread declines. More information is needed to assign a single conservation status.

Long-Term Trends

An atmosphere–ocean coupled general circulation model known as the Scale Interaction Experiment Frontier version 1 (SINTEX-F1) model is used to understand the intrinsic variability of the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD). In addition to a globally coupled control experiment, a Pacific decoupled noENSO experiment has been conducted. In the latter, the El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability is suppressed by decoupling the tropical Pacific Ocean from the atmosphere. The ocean–atmosphere conditions related to the IOD are realistically simulated by both experiments including the characteristic east–west dipole in SST anomalies. This demonstrates that the dipole mode in the Indian Ocean is mainly determined by intrinsic processes within the basin. In the EOF analysis of SST anomalies from the noENSO experiment, the IOD takes the dominant seat instead of the basinwide monopole mode. Even the coupled feedback among anomalies of upper-ocean heat content, SST, wind, and Walker circulation over the Indian...

https://www-aos.eps.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~yamagata/A%20CGCM%20Study%20on%20the%20Interaction%20between%20IOD%20and%20ENSO.pdf

A CGCM Study on the Interaction between IOD and ENSO

[1] We report for the first time simultaneous observations of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) at geomagnetic conjugate points in both hemispheres, using two all-sky airglow imagers at midlatitudes. A 630-nm all-sky CCD imager at Sata, Japan, detected MSTIDs with a wavefront elongated from NW to SE on the night of August 9, 2002. During this event, MSTIDs with a wavefront elongated from SW to NE were observed at the geomagnetic conjugate point, Darwin, Australia. To investigate geomagnetic conjugacy of the MSTID structures, the Darwin images were mapped The MSTID structures mapped from Darwin to its magnetic conjugate points along the geomagnetic field lines (B) coincide closely with those in the Sata images. This result suggests that polarization electric field (Ep) plays an important role in the generation of MSTIDs. Ep maps along B and moves the F region plasma upward or downward by E × B drifts, causing plasma density perturbations with structures mirrored in the northern and southern hemispheres.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2004GL020262

Geomagnetic conjugate observations of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances at midlatitude using all-sky airglow imagers

The tropical oceans have long been recognized as the most important region for large-scale ocean–atmosphere interactions, giving rise to coupled climate variations on several time scales. During the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere (TOGA) decade, the focus of much tropical ocean research was on understanding El Nino–related processes and on development of tropical ocean models capable of simulating and predicting El Nino. These studies led to an appreciation of the vital role the ocean plays in providing the memory for predicting El Nino and thus making seasonal climate prediction feasible. With the end of TOGA and the beginning of Climate Variability and Prediction (CLIVAR), the scope of climate variability and predictability studies has expanded from the tropical Pacific and ENSO-centric basis to the global domain. In this paper the progress that has been made in tropical ocean climate studies during the early years of CLIVAR is discussed. The discussion is divided geographically into three tropical ocean basins with an emphasis on the dynamical processes that are most relevant to the coupling between the atmosphere and oceans. For the tropical Pacific, the continuing effort to improve understanding of large- and small-scale dynamics for the purpose of extending the skill of ENSO prediction is assessed. This paper then goes beyond the time and space scales of El Nino and discusses recent research activities on the fundamental issue of the processes maintaining the tropical thermocline. This includes the study of subtropical cells (STCs) and ventilated thermocline processes, which are potentially important to the understanding of the low-frequency modulation of El Nino. For the tropical Atlantic, the dominant oceanic processes that interact with regional atmospheric feedbacks are examined as well as the remote influence from both the Pacific El Nino and extratropical climate fluctuations giving rise to multiple patterns of variability distinguished by season and location. The potential impact of Atlantic thermohaline circulation on tropical Atlantic variability (TAV) is also discussed. For the tropical Indian Ocean, local and remote mechanisms governing low-frequency sea surface temperature variations are examined. After reviewing the recent rapid progress in the understanding of coupled dynamics in the region, this study focuses on the active role of ocean dynamics in a seasonally locked east–west internal mode of variability, known as the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD). Influences of the IOD on climatic conditions in Asia, Australia, East Africa, and Europe are discussed. While the attempt throughout is to give a comprehensive overview of what is known about the role of the tropical oceans in climate, the fact of the matter is that much remains to be understood and explained. The complex nature of the tropical coupled phenomena and the interaction among them argue strongly for coordinated and sustained observations, as well as additional careful modeling investigations in order to further advance the current understanding of the role of tropical oceans in climate.

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Climate Fluctuations of Tropical Coupled Systems—The Role of Ocean Dynamics

[1] We report for the first time large-scale equatorial F-region airglow depletions extending to low-midlatitudes in both hemispheres. The observational sites were located at low-midlatitude geomagnetic conjugate points. Clear depletions of 630.0-nm airglow intensity due to equatorial plasma bubbles were simultaneously observed with two all-sky imagers at Sata, Japan (magnetic latitude 24°N), and its geomagnetic conjugate point, Darwin, Australia (magnetic latitude 22°S), on the night of November 12, 2001. Airglow depletion regions with east-west scale sizes of 40–100 km extend poleward. The maximum apex altitude of the plasma bubbles is about 1,700 km over the geomagnetic equator. The depletions move eastward at about 100 m/s, without changing their structures. The Darwin depletion structures mapped onto the northern hemisphere along the geomagnetic field coincide closely with structures in the Sata images, even for the 40-km structure. These observations indicate that plasma depletions in the equatorial ionosphere elongate along the geomagnetic field lines.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2002GL015347

Geomagnetic conjugate observations of equatorial airglow depletions

[1] The third FRONT (F-region Radio and Optical measurement of Nighttime TID) campaign was carried out during the new-moon period of May–June 2003, in order to investigate the geomagnetic conjugacy of medium-scale and large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs/LSTIDs) at midlatitudes. Seven all-sky airglow imagers were operated in Japan and Australia. For almost all clear-sky nights, we observed MSTIDs in the 630-nm airglow images with horizontal wavelengths of 100–400 km propagating southwestward in Japan and northwestward in Australia. All of them show a one-to-one correspondence of wave structures between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, indicating strong electrodynamic coupling between the two hemispheres through the geomagnetic field line. We also found that airglow intensity variations with a timescale longer than that of MSTIDs often show a good correlation between the two hemispheres. On 28 May, we succeeded in detecting an equatorward propagating LSTID (spatial scale ∼1000 km) as airglow enhancements at the conjugate stations. The airglow peak of the LSTID in the Northern Hemisphere was ∼20 min earlier than that in the Southern Hemisphere, indicating that the observed LSTID is caused by a wave in the neutral atmosphere rather than by an electric field structure.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2004JA010845

Geomagnetic conjugate observation of nighttime medium‐scale and large‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances: FRONT3 campaign

[1] An all-sky airglow imager with a cooled charge-coupled device camera in place at Darwin (12.4°S, 131.0°E), Australia, since October 2001 has been used to obtain two-dimensional gravity wave images in the mesopause region. Using airglow images of the OI (557.7 nm, emission altitude ∼96 km) and OH band (720–910 nm, ∼86 km) emissions obtained for October 2001 to August 2002, we investigated the wavelengths, phase velocities, and propagation directions of gravity waves. Wave occurrence in OH images (60–90%) is higher than in OI images (30–70%) for all seasons. The waves have wavelengths of less than 90 km (peak: 30–50 km) and phase velocities of less than 90 m/s (peak: 30–60 m/s). Most of the waves propagate in the meridional direction, and the directionality strongly depends on the season. In winter, waves propagate both poleward and equatorward, while in summer almost all waves propagate poleward. An examination of airglow-imaging statistics at Adelaide (35°S, 138°E), Australia, obtained by Walterscheid et al. [1999], leads us to conclude that this clear directionality is caused by the location of the wave sources and by the wave ducting processes; that is, poleward waves in summer come from an equatorial convective source through a thermal duct structure. The effect of wind filtering on the waves is also discussed for zonal wave propagation.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2003JD004336

Statistical characteristics of gravity waves observed by an all-sky imager at Darwin, Australia

We report the first observation of the disappearance of a plasma bubble over geomagnetically conjugate points. It was observed by airglow imagers at Darwin, Australia (magnetic latitude: −22°N) and Sata, Japan (21°N) on 8 August 2002. The plasma bubble was observed in 630-nm airglow images from 1530 (0030 LT) to 1800 UT (0300 LT) and disappeared equatorward at 1800 to 1900 UT (0300 to 0400 LT) in the field of view. The ionograms at Darwin and Yamagawa (20 km north of Sata) show strong spread-F signatures at approximately 16 to 21 UT. At Darwin, the F-layer virtual height suddenly increased from approximately 200 to approximately 260 km at the time of bubble disappearance. However, a similar F-layer height increase was not observed over the conjugate point at Yamagawa, indicating that this F-layer rise was caused not by an eastward electric field but by enhancement of the equatorward thermospheric wind over Darwin. We think that this enhancement of the equatorward neutral wind was caused by an equatorward-propagating large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbance, which was identified in the north-south keogram of 630-nm airglow images. We speculate that polarization electric field associated with this equatorward neutral wind drive plasma drift across the magnetic field line to cause the observed bubble disappearance.

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P. Wilkinson

Papers

Geomagnetic conjugate observations of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances at midlatitude using all-sky airglow imagers

Geomagnetic conjugate observations of equatorial airglow depletions

Geomagnetic conjugate observation of nighttime medium‐scale and large‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbances: FRONT3 campaign

Statistical characteristics of gravity waves observed by an all-sky imager at Darwin, Australia

Airglow-imaging observation of plasma bubble disappearance at geomagnetically conjugate points