Background

Lei Zhong (born in 1980, Anhui Province, China) is a sandwich PhD candidate at the Water Resources Department, ITC. He obtained his BSc degree in Geography at Anhui Normal University (1997-2001). Then he went on studying for a MSc degree at Anhui Normal University and specialized in the application of GIS and RS. After graduation in 2004, Lei Zhong is studying for a PhD degree now in the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ITPCAS). His PhD research in ITP focuses on the retrieval of surface parameters over the Tibetan Plateau using satellite data and analyses of interaction between the Tibetan Plateau and the above atmosphere. From March to June in 2005, he took part in the fourth scientific expedition to Mt Everest. He was responsible for the observation of two sets of 3-D Sonic Anemometer and one set of radio sonde at Mt. Everest Base Camp.

Research topic

Relationships between the sensible heat flux over the Tibetan Plateau, sea surface temperature of the Western Pacific and the summer precipitations in China

Global climate change is a hot issue not only in the scientific field but also in the whole society. Under the background of the worldwide abnormal climate, the regional climate of China is taking great changes. Since the 1980s, great loss has been brought to China because of the severe nature drought and flood disasters. The frequent drought and flood disasters in China have close relation to abnormal atmosphere circulation. The anomaly of surface heating field over Tibetan Plateau (TP) and western Pacific (WP) sea surface temperature (SST) greatly influence atmosphere circulation in China, East Asian and even over the globe. Therefore, it's not only necessary but also urgent to study the cause of atmosphere circulation formation which leads to abnormal climate changes in China.

However, because of the lack of long series data, which can be representative of heating status of TP and WP, some researchers can only use the data with low resolution in their studies. So many results are very uncertain. In fact, the inner mechanisms and physical processes of the iteration between TP, WP and the atmosphere are still unclear now. With long time series of satellite and metrological data, our study aims to retrieve heat fluxes over TP, SST of WP and to reveal the relationships and mechanisms between the heating status(of TP and WP), the anomaly of East Asian atmosphere circulation and abnormal climate change in China. Therefore, the results of our research are expected to build a solid foundation to forecast short-term climate changes in China.

Publications