Comprehensive Analysis Based on Observation, Remote Sensing, and Numerical Models to Understand the Meteorological Environment in Arid Areas and Their Surrounding Areas

Dear Colleagues,

Arid and semi-arid areas are mostly located in the hinterland of the Eurasian continent—far from the ocean, with relatively scarce water resources. These regions possess complex terrain, being crisscrossed by mountains and basins and coexisting alongside deserts and oases. Today, such areas are among the most ecologically fragile, and they are especially sensitive to climate responses. Continuous research into the climate and its impact mechanisms in the arid zones is of great scientific significance for developing a deeper understanding of the cause of climatic formation and a better way of predicting climate in arid regions.

Drought is one of the most widespread and severe natural disasters in the world. China is located in a typical monsoon climate zone, and the impact of drought disasters is particularly prominent. A large amount of research has been conducted on the issue of drought internationally, gradually developing from a qualitative and superficial understanding of drought to a quantitative understanding of the objective characteristics and formation mechanisms behind the issue. Based on the international frontiers, hot topics, and development trends of drought research, it is proposed that future drought research must perform strengthen comprehensive experiments in typical drought-prone areas, investigating factors such as the synergistic effects of multiple factors on drought formation, the role of land–air interaction in drought formation and development, the identification, monitoring, and prediction of sudden droughts, and the transformation patterns and non-consistent characteristics shared between various types of droughts. Breakthroughs have been made in key scientific issues such as the role of critical impact periods in agricultural drought development, the complexity of drought responses to climate change, and the scientific assessment of drought disaster risks.

At the same time, as a key area in the upstream of China's weather, the northwest arid region has a significant impact on the occurrence of catastrophic weather events and regional climate change in the northwest and eastern regions of China. Understanding and grasping the characteristics of climate change in arid regions is conducive to providing scientific basis for disaster prevention and mitigation, and reasonable response to climate change. In recent years, many scholars have conducted a series of studies on arid areas, revealing the spatiotemporal characteristics and feedback mechanisms of climate change. However, due to the wide spatial coverage of arid areas, data scarcity has become a major constraint that hinders the further exploration of numerous unresolved issues. The vigorous development of integrated meteorological observation systems that combine spaceborne, airborne, and ground sensors, incorporating the latest progress in remote sensing and numerical modeling, has opened up more research avenues for solving existing and emerging meteorological problems in arid areas.

In this Special Issue, we invite researchers from the fields of meteorology, climatology, ecology, geography, remote sensing, Earth information systems, and environmental science to make innovative contributions to the theoretical, observational, and mode research of the meteorological environment in arid areas at different temporal and spatial scales.

In particular, we encourage studies investigating (but not limited to):

• Studies on boundary layer structure of heterogeneous underlying surfaces, and the exchange of water, heat and dust in these layers, as well as land surface process characteristic parameters and parametric schemes in arid areas and surrounding area based on observations, remote sensing, and modeling data.
• Studies on the influencing mechanisms of boundary layers on regional circulation and local weather processes in arid areas by improving the simulation capability of the land surface process model and/or the numerical prediction model.
• Studies on assessment of climate risks in arid areas and surrounding areas based on observational, remote sensing and reanalysis datasets.
• Studies on the feedback mechanisms between extreme climate and elements of land–atmosphere systems.

This is the Second Edition of the Special Issue of Remote Sensing, entitled “Understanding the Meteorological Environment in Arid Regions through the Integrative Analyses of Remote Sensing, Ground Observational Stations and Numerical Models”, and experts and scholars in related fields are welcome to submit their original research to this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Yonghong Zhang
Prof. Dr. Xiefei Zhi
Prof. Dr. Donglian Sun
Dr. Jingyu Wang
Dr. Wen Huo
Dr. Fei Ge
Guest Editors

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