References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-12-5755-2012

Assessing large-scale weekly cycles in meteorological variables: a review

Sanchez-Lorenzo

¹ Laux

² Hendricks Franssen

H.-J.

³ Calbó

⁴ Vogl

² ⁵ Georgoulias

A. K.

⁶ Quaas

⁷

Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science (IAC), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (ETH Zürich), Zürich, Switzerland

Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-IFU), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

Agrosphere Institute (IBG-3), Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany

Departament de Física, Universitat de Girona, Girona, Spain

Institute for Geography, Regional Climate and Hydrology, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

Laboratory of Atmospheric Pollution and Pollution Control Engineering of Atmospheric Pollutants, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece

Institute for Meteorology, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

03 07 2012

12 13 5755 5771

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/5755/2012/acp-12-5755-2012.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/5755/2012/acp-12-5755-2012.pdf

Several studies have claimed to have found significant weekly cycles of meteorological variables appearing over large domains, which can hardly be related to urban effects exclusively. Nevertheless, there is still an ongoing scientific debate whether these large-scale weekly cycles exist or not, and some other studies fail to reproduce them with statistical significance. In addition to the lack of the positive proof for the existence of these cycles, their possible physical explanations have been controversially discussed during the last years. In this work we review the main results about this topic published during the recent two decades, including a summary of the existence or non-existence of significant weekly weather cycles across different regions of the world, mainly over the US, Europe and Asia. In addition, some shortcomings of common statistical methods for analyzing weekly cycles are listed. Finally, a brief summary of supposed causes of the weekly cycles, focusing on the aerosol-cloud-radiation interactions and their impact on meteorological variables as a result of the weekly cycles of anthropogenic activities, and possible directions for future research, is presented.

References 1

Ackerman, A. S., Toon, O. B., Stevens, D. E., Heymsfield, A. J., Ramanathan, V., and Welton, E. J.: Reduction of tropical cloudiness by soot, Science, 288, 1042–1047, 2000.

Albrecht, B. A.: Aerosols, cloud microphysics, and fractional cloudiness, Science, 245, 1227–1230, 1989.

Ångström, A. K.: On the atmospheric transmission of Sun radiation and on dust in the air, Geogr. Ann., 11, 156–166, 1929.

Arnfield, A. J.: Two decades of urban climate research: a review of turbulence, exchanges of energy and water, and the urban heat island, Int. J. Climatol., 23, 1–26, 2003.

Ashworth, J. R.: The influence of smoke and hot gases from factory chimneys on rainfall, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 55, 341–350, 1929.

Asmi, A.: Weakness of the weekend effect in aerosol number concentrations, Atmos. Environ., 51, 100–107, 2012.

Asmi, A., Wiedensohler, A., Laj, P., Fjaeraa, A.-M., Sellegri, K., Birmili, W., Weingartner, E., Baltensperger, U., Zdimal, V., Zikova, N., Putaud, J.-P., Marinoni, A., Tunved, P., Hansson, H.-C., Fiebig, M., Kivekäs, N., Lihavainen, H., Asmi, E., Ulevicius, V., Aalto, P. P., Swietlicki, E., Kristensson, A., Mihalopoulos, N., Kalivitis, N., Kalapov, I., Kiss, G., de Leeuw, G., Henzing, B., Harrison, R. M., Beddows, D., O'Dowd, C., Jennings, S. G., Flentje, H., Weinhold, K., Meinhardt, F., Ries, L., and Kulmala, M.: Number size distributions and seasonality of submicron particles in Europe 2008–2009, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 5505–5538, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-5505-2011doi:10.5194/acp-11-5505-2011, 2011.

Barmet, P., Kuster, T., Muhlbauer, A., and Lohmann, U.: Weekly cycle in particulate matter versus weekly cycle in precipitation over Switzerland, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D05206, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008JD011192doi:10.1029/2008JD011192, 2009.

Bäumer, D. and Vogel, B.: An unexpected pattern of distinct weekly periodicities in climatological variables in Germany, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L03819, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006GL028559doi:10.1029/2006GL028559, 2007.

Bäumer, D. and Vogel, B.: Reply to comment by H. J. Hendricks Franssen on "An unexpected pattern of distinct weekly periodicities in climatological variables in Germany", Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L05803, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007GL032432doi:10.1029/2007GL032432, 2008.

Bäumer, D., Rinke, R., and Vogel, B.: Weekly periodicities of Aerosol Optical Thickness over Central Europe – evidence of an anthropogenic direct aerosol effect, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 83–90, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-83-2008doi:10.5194/acp-8-83-2008, 2008.

Beirle, S., Platt, U., Wenig, M., and Wagner, T.: Weekly cycle of NO<sub>2</sub> by GOME measurements: a signature of anthropogenic sources, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 3, 2225–2232, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-3-2225-2003doi:10.5194/acp-3-2225-2003, 2003.

Bell, T. L.: Theory of optimal weighting of data to detect climatic change, J. Atmos. Sci., 43, 1694–1710, 1986.

Bell, T. L. and Rosenfeld, D.: Comment on "Weekly precipitation cycles? Lack of evidence from United States surface stations" by D. M. Schultz et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L09803, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007GL033046doi:10.1029/2007GL033046, 2008.

Bell, T. L., Rosenfeld, D., Kim, K. M., Yo, J. M., Lee, M. I., and Hahnenberger, M.: Midweek increase in U.S. summer rain and storm heights suggests air pollution invigorates rainstorms, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D02209, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JD008623doi:10.1029/2007JD008623, 2008.

Bell, T. L., Rosenfeld, D., and Kim, K. M.: Weekly cycle of lightning: Evidence of storm invigoration by pollution, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L23805, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040915doi:10.1029/2009GL040915, 2009a.

Bell, T., Yoo, J. M., and Lee, M. I.: Note on the weekly cycle of storm heights over the southeast United States, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D15201, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012041doi:10.1029/2009JD012041, 2009b.

Cerveny, R. S. and Balling, R. C.: Weekly cycles of air pollutants, precipitation and tropical cyclones in the coastal NW Atlantic region, Nature, 394, 561–563, 1998.

Cerveny, R. S. and Balling, R. C.: Lunar influence on diurnal temperature range, Geophys. Res. Lett., 26, 1605–1607, 1999.

Cerveny, R. S. and Balling, R. C.: Variations in the diurnal character of tropical cyclone wind speeds, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L06706, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004GL021177doi:10.1029/2004GL021177, 2005.

Charlson, R. J., Schwartz, S. E., Hales, J. M., Cess, R. D., Coakley, J. A., Hansen Jr., J. E., and Hoffman, D. J.: Climate forcing by anthropogenic aerosols, Science, 255, 423–430, 1992.

Choi, Y.-S., Ho, C.-H., Chen, D., Noh, Y.-H., and Song C.-K.: Spectral analysis of weekly variation in PM$_10$ mass concentration and meteorological conditions over China, Atmos. Environ., 42, 655–666, 2008a.

Choi, Y. S., Ho, C. H., Kim, B. G., and Hur, S. K.: Long-term variation in midweek/weekend cloudiness difference during summer in Korea, Atmos. Environ., 42, 6726–6732, 2008b.

Cleveland, W. S., Graedel, T. E., Kleiner, B., and Warner, J. L.: Sunday and workday variations in photochemical air pollutants in New Jersey and New York, Science, 186, 1037–1038, 1974.

Daniel, J. S., Portmann, R. W., Solomon, S., and Murphy D. M.: Identifying weekly cycles in meteorological variables: The importance of an appropriate statistical analysis, J. Geophys. Res., http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2012JD017574doi:10.1029/2012JD017574, 2012.

DeLisi, M. P., Cope, A. M., and Franklin, J. K.: Weekly precipitation cycles along the northeast corridor?, Weather Forecast., 16, 343–353, 2001.

Dessens, J., Fraile, R., Pont, V., and Sanchez, J. L.: Day-of-the week variability of hail in southwestern France, Atmos. Res., 59–60, 63–76, 2001.

Dickersin, K., Chan, S., Chalmers, T. C., Sacks, H. S., and Smith, H.: Publication bias and clinical trials, Control. Clin. Trials, 8, 343–353, 1987.

Easterbrook, P. J., Berlin, J. A., Gopalan, R., and Matthews, D. R.: Publication bias in clinical research, Lancet, 337, 867–872, 1991.

Elkus, B. and Wilson, K. R: Photochemical air pollution: Weekend-weekday differences, Atmos. Environ., 11, 509–515, 1977.

Forster, P. M. and Solomon, S.: Observations of a "weekend effect" in diurnal temperature range, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 100, 11225–11230, 2003.

Fujibe, F.: Day-of-the-week variations of urban temperature and their long-term trends in Japan, Theor. Appl. Climatol., 102, 393–401, 2010.

Georgoulias, A. K. and Kourtidis, K. A.: On the aerosol weekly cycle spatiotemporal variability over Europe, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 4611–4632, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-4611-2011doi:10.5194/acp-11-4611-2011, 2011.

Georgoulias,~A. K. and Kourtidis,~K. A.: A high resolution satellite view of the aerosol weekly cycle variability over Central Europe, Atmos. Res., 107, 145–160, 2012.

Gilge, S., Plass-Duelmer, C., Fricke, W., Kaiser, A., Ries, L., Buchmann, B., and Steinbacher, M.: Ozone, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides time series at four alpine GAW mountain stations in central Europe, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 12295–12316, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-12295-2010doi:10.5194/acp-10-12295-2010, 2010.

Gong, D.-Y., Guo, D., and Ho, C.-H.: Weekend effect in diurnal temperature range in China: Opposite signals between winter and summer, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D18113, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007068doi:10.1029/2006JD007068, 2006.

Gong, D., Ho, C., Chen, D., Qian, Y., Choi, Y., and Kim, J.: Weekly cycle of aerosol-meteorology interaction over China, J. Geophys. Res., 112, D22202, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JD008888doi:10.1029/2007JD008888, 2007.

Gordon, A. H.: Weekdays warmer than weekends?, Nature, 367, 325–326, 1994.

Grant, A. N., Pszenny, A. A. P, and Fischer, E. V.: The 1935–2003 Air Temperature Record from the Summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, J. Climate, 18, 4445–4453, 2005.

Haagen-Smit, A. and Brunelle, M. F.: The application of phenolphthalin reagent to atmospheric oxidant analysis, Int. J. Air Poll., 1, 51–59, 1958.

Hasselmann, K.: On the signal-to-noise problem in atmospheric response studies, in: Meteorology Over the Tropical Oceans, edited by: Shaw, D. B., Royal Meteorological Society, 251–259, 1979.

Hayn, M., Beirle, S., Hamprecht, F. A., Platt, U., Menze, B. H., and Wagner, T.: Analysing spatio-temporal patterns of the global NO<sub>2</sub>-distribution retrieved from GOME satellite observations using a generalized additive model, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 6459–6477, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-6459-2009doi:10.5194/acp-9-6459-2009, 2009.

Hendricks Franssen, H.: Comment on "An unexpected pattern of distinct weekly periodicities in climatological variables in Germany" by Dominique Bäumer and Bernhard Vogel, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L05802, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031279doi:10.1029/2007GL031279, 2008.

Hendricks Franssen, H. J., Kuster T., Barmet P., and Lohmann, U.: Comment on "Winter `weekend effect' in southern Europe and its connection with periodicities in atmospheric dynamics" by A. Sanchez-Lorenzo et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L13706, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008GL036774doi:10.1029/2008GL036774, 2009.

Heuss, J. M., Kahlbaum, D. F., and Wolff, G. T.: Weekday/weekend ozone differences: what can we learn from them?, J. Air Waste Manage., 53, 772–788, 2003.

Ho, C. H., Choi, Y. S., and Hur, S. K.: Long-term changes in summer weekend effect over northeastern China and the connection with regional warming, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L15706, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL039509doi:10.1029/2009GL039509, 2009.

Jin, M., Shepherd, J. M., and King, M. D.: Urban aerosols and their variations with clouds and rainfall: A case study for New York and Houston, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D10S20, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2004JD005081doi:10.1029/2004JD005081, 2005.

Kanda, M.: Progress in Urban Meteorology: a review, J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn., 85B, 363–383, 2007.

Kaufmann, R. K., Seto, K. C., Schneider, A., Liu, Z., and Zhou, L.: Climate response to rapid urban growth: evidence of a human-induced precipitation deficit, J. Climate, 20, 2999–2306, 2007.

Kim, B.-G., Choi, M.-H., and Ho, C.-H.: Weekly periodicities of meteorological variables and their possible association with aerosols in Korea, Atmos. Environ.,~43, 6058–6065, 2009.

Kim, K. Y. and Roh, J. W.: Physical mechanisms of the wintertime surface air temperature variability in South Korea and the near-7-day oscillations, J. Climate, 23, 2197–2212, 2010.

Kim, K. Y., Park, R., Kim, K. R., and Na, H.: Weekend effect: Anthropogenic or natural?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L09808, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2010GL043233doi:10.1029/2010GL043233, 2010.

Koren, I., Kaufman, Y. J., Rosenfeld, D., Remer, L. A., and Rudich, Y.: Aerosol invigoration and restructuring of Atlantic convective clouds, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L14828, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2005GL023187doi:10.1029/2005GL023187, 2005.

Lacke, M. C., Mote, T. L., and Shepherd, J. M.: Aerosols and associated precipitation patterns in Atlanta, Atmos. Environ., 43, 4359–4373, 2009.

Lawrence, E. N.: Urban climate and day of the week, Atmos. Environ., 5, 935–948, 1971.

Laux, P. and Kunstmann, H.: Detection of regional weekly weather cycles across Europe, Environ. Res. Lett., 3, 044005, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/3/4/044005doi:10.1088/1748-9326/3/4/044005, 2008.

Lenschow, D. H.: Next stop for weekday warming, Nature, 369, p 193, 1994.

Liu, Y. and Daum, P. H.: Indirect warming effect from dispersion forcing, Nature, 419, 580–581, 2002.

Lohmann, U.: A glaciation indirect aerosol effect caused by soot aerosols, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29, 1052, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2001GL014357doi:10.1029/2001GL014357, 2002.

Lohmann, U. and Feichter, J.: Global indirect aerosol effects: a review, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 715–737, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-5-715-2005doi:10.5194/acp-5-715-2005, 2005.

Marani, M.: The detection of weekly preferential occurrences with an application to rainfall, J. Climate, 23, 2379–2387, 2010.

Mullayarov, V. A., Karimov R. R., Kozlov V. I., and Poddelsky, I. N.: Possible weekly variations in the thunderstorm activity, J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phy., 67, 397–403, 2005.

Murphy, D. M., Capps, S. L., Daniel, J. S., Frost, G. J., and White, W. H.: Weekly patterns of aerosol in the United States, \mboxAtmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 2729–2739, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-2729-2008doi:10.5194/acp-8-2729-2008, 2008.

Pincus, R. and Baker, M. B.: Effect of precipitation on the albedo susceptibility of clouds in the marine boundary layer, Nature, 372, 250–252, 1994.

Quaas, J., Boucher, O., Jones, A., Weedon, G. P., Kieser, J., and Joos, H.: Exploiting the weekly cycle as observed over Europe to analyse aerosol indirect effects in two climate models, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 8493–8501, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-8493-2009doi:10.5194/acp-9-8493-2009, 2009.

Rosenfeld, D. and Bell, T. L.: Why do tornados and hailstorms rest on weekends?, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D20211, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011JD016214doi:10.1029/2011JD016214, 2011.

Rosenfeld, D., Lohmann, U., Raga, G. B., O'Dowd, C. D., Kulmala, M., Fuzzi, S., Reissell, A., and Andreae, M. O.: Flood or drought: how do aerosols affect precipitation?, Science, 321, 1309–1313, 2008.

Sanchez-Lorenzo, A., Calbó, J., Martin-Vide, J. Garcia-Manuel, A., García-Soriano, G., and Beck, C.: Winter "weekend effect" in Southern Europe and its connections with periodicities in atmospheric dynamics, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L15711, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008GL034160doi:10.1029/2008GL034160, 2008.

Sanchez-Lorenzo, A., Calbó, J., and Martin-Vide, J.: Reply to comment by H. J. Hendricks Franssen et al. on "Winter `weekend effect' in southern Europe and its connections with periodicities in atmospheric dynamics", Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L13707, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL038041doi:10.1029/2009GL038041, 2009.

Schultz, D. M., Mikkonen, S., Laaksonen, A., and Richman, M. B.: Weekly precipitation cycles? Lack of evidence from United States surface stations, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L22815, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007GL031889doi:10.1029/2007GL031889, 2007.

Shutters, S. T. and Balling., R. C.: Weekly periodicity of environmental variables in Phoenix, Arizona, Atmos. Environ., 40, 304–310, 2006.

Simmonds, I. and Keay, K.: Weekly cycle of meteorological variations in Melbourne and the role of pollution and anthropogenic heat release, Atmos. Environ., 31, 1589–1603, 1997.

Sitnov, S. A.: Weekly cycle of meteorological parameters over Moscow Region, Dokl. Earth Sci., 431, 507–513, 2010.

Sitnov, S. A.: Weekly variations in temperature and precipitation in Moscow: relation with weekly cycles of air pollutants and synoptic variability, Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys., 47, 445–456, 2011a. \hack

Sitnov, S. A.: Aerosol optical thickness and the total carbon monoxide content over the European Russia territory in the 2010 summer Period of mass fires: interrelation between the variation in pollutants and meteorological parameters, Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys., 47, 714–728, 2011b.

Small, J. D., Chuang, P. Y., Feingold, G., and Jiang, H.: Can aerosol decrease cloud lifetime?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L16806, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL038888doi:10.1029/2009GL038888, 2009.

Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K., Tignor, M., and Miller, H. (Eds.): Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, 2007.

Stevens, B. and Feingold, G.: Untangling aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation in a buffered system, Nature, 461, 607–613, 2009.

Stjern, C. W.: Weekly cycles in precipitation and other meteorological variables in a polluted region of Europe, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 4095–4104, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-4095-2011doi:10.5194/acp-11-4095-2011, 2011.

Svoma, B. M. and Balling, R. C.: An anthropogenic signal in Phoenix, Arizona winter precipitation, Theor. Appl. Climatol., 98, 315–321, 2009.

Tesouro, M., De La Torre, L., Nieto, R., Gimeno, L., Ribera, P., and Gallego, D.: Weekly cycle in NCAR-NCEP reanalysis surface temperature data, Atmosfera, 18, 205–209, 2005.

Tuttle, J. D. and Carbone, R. E.: Inferences of weekly cycles in summertime rainfall, J. Geophys. Res., 116, D20213, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011JD015819doi:10.1029/2011JD015819, 2011.

Twomey, S.: Pollution and the planetary albedo, Atmos. Environ., 8, 1251–1256, 1974.

Wilks, D. S.: On "field significance" and the false discovery rate, J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol., 45, 1181–1189, 2006.

Xia, X., Eck, T. F., Holben, B. N., Phillippe, G., and Chen, H.: Analysis of the weekly cycle of aerosol optical depth using AERONET and MODIS data, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D14217, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009604doi:10.1029/2007JD009604, 2008.

You, Q., Kang, S., Flugel, W. A., Sanchez-Lorenzo, A., Yan, Y., Xu, Y., and Huang, J.: Does a weekend effect in diurnal temperature range exist in the eastern and central Tibetan Plateau?, Environ. Res. Lett., 4, 045202, http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045202doi:10.1088/1748-9326/4/4/045202, 2009.