Explaining China’s climate in 2022

Introduction:

The climate in the year 2022 in China was impressive to say the least, with severe heatwaves and droughts bringing on significant social and economic impacts. To improve scientific understanding of the fast-evolving climate and provide policymakers and the public with timely, peer-reviewed and authoritative scientific information, it is important to document and explain the climate yearly, including the anomalous state and the most significant extreme weather and climate events.

We have since successfully published the first issue to detail China’s climate in 2021. The 2022 special issue will be the second instalment of the annual series. This series will systematically record how the climate is changing with our memories of events still vivid. In years to come, this series will be a useful reference and for guiding climate policy, in particular climate adaptation. 

The scope of the special issue includes documentation, diagnostics and attribution of noteworthy anomalies in the regional climate system and climate extremes in the previous year in China. We invite new and timely contributions that describe and discuss these issues and their impacts, including those on human health, plant phenology, as well as offer insights into the causes, both natural and anthropogenic, and physical processes that underpin these phenomena.

Topics covered:

• Surface and/or upper-level variables
• Hydrological cycle
• Cryospheric and coastal phenomena
• Extreme weather and climate events
• Verification of seasonal and interannual climate predictions
• Impact of anomalous climate events
• Health effects of climate change and variability
• Health co-benefits of climate actions
• Hazard early warning and management/response: lessons learned
• Ground observed plant phenology and relationship with climate change

Important deadlines:

• Submission deadline: 31 Mar 2023
• Publication date: 31 Oct 2023

Submission instructions:

Submissions should be 5,000‒6,000 words excluding references. Abstract should be between 300‒500 words. Authors are welcome to submit up to six figures. Please read the Guide for Authors before submitting. All articles should be submitted online; please select ExplainChinaClimate2022.

Guest Editors:

• Prof. Ying Sun, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, China. Email: sunying@cma.gov.cn
• Prof. Qingchen Chao, National Climate Center, China Meteorological Administration, China. Email: chaoqc@cma.gov.cn
• Prof. Botao Zhou, School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, China. Email: zhoubt@nuist.edu.cn
• Prof. Tianjun Zhou, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Email: zhoutj@lasg.iap.ac.cn
• Prof. Shichang Kang, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Email: shichang.kang@lzb.ac.cn
• Prof. Cunrui Huang, Vanke School of Public Health, Tsinghua University, China. Email: huangcunrui@tsinghua.edu.cn
• Prof. Rongshuo Cai, Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, China. Email: cairongshuo@tio.org.cn
• Prof. Junhu Dai, Key Laboratory of Land Surface Pattern and Simulation, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. Email: daijh@igsnrr.ac.cn