We examine the capability of thirteen Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) phase 5 (CMIP5) models in simulating climatology and interannual variability of Winter North Pacific Storm Track (WNPST). It is found that nearly half of the selected models can reproduce the spatial pattern of WNPST climatology. However, the strength and spatial variation of WNPST climatology are weak in most of the models.

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The dynamic character of an enstrophy-based diagnostic, previously used in the study of atmospheric blocking, is examined here, in near-term future simulations from the Institut Pierre Simon Laplace Climate Model version 4 (IPSL-CM4) and version 5 (IPSL-CM5) climate models of the Northern Hemisphere flow for moderate climate change scenarios. Previous research has shown that integrated regional enstrophy (IE) increases during blocking onset and decay, which is a reflection of planetary-scale instability.

Meteorological conditions are important environmental factors affecting apple quality.

We examined the past 23 years of ground-level O3 data and selected meteorological parameters in Houston, Texas, which historically has been one of the most polluted cities in the United States. Both 1-h and 8-h O3 exceedances have been reduced significantly down to single digit yearly occurrences. We also found that the frequency of southerly flow has increased by a factor of ~2.5 over the period 1990–2013, likely suppressing O3 photochemistry and leading to a “cleaner” Houston environment.

Nighttime light data record the artificial light on the Earth’s surface and can be used to estimate the degree of pollution associated with particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) in the ground-level atmosphere. This study proposes a simple method for monitoring PM2.5 concentrations at night by using nighttime light imagery from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program-Operational Linescan System (DMSP-OLS).

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