From General Circulation to Global Change: The Evolution, Achievements, and Influences of Duzheng Ye’s Scientific Research

Abstract

Duzheng Ye (Tu-cheng Yeh) was an active member of Rossby’s Chicago School, one of the founders of modern meteorology in China since the 1950s, and a pioneer of global change science in China and over the world. His achievements have been central to the development of atmospheric and climate dynamics and global change studies in China, and many of them remain to be fundamental in the context of global climate change. In this review, his lifelong research career is divided into five periods: (1) the preparatory period (1935–1944); (2) the Chicago period (1945–1950); (3) the period of breaking ground (1950–1966); (4) the period of transition (1972–1983); and (5) the period of global change (1984–2013). The evolution of Yeh’s main achievements is described in the context of the historical background of both China and the world. These well-known achievements included the theory of energy dispersion in the atmosphere, the general circulation of the atmosphere (GCA) over East Asia and the globe, Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau meteorology, the scale-dependence theory of geostrophic adaptation (adjustment), and his pioneering ideas on global change. Special emphases are put on some of Yeh’s investigations that were well ahead of his time, such as his investigations on trade inversion, the GCA as an internally consistent whole, abrupt seasonal changes in the GCA, the physical mechanism of atmospheric blocking, and orderly human activities.

Editorial for the Topic “A Themed Issue in Memory of Academician Duzheng Ye (1916–2013)”

“…published in "A Themed Issue in Memory of Academician Duzheng Ye (1916-2013)", comprising 14 in Atmosphere [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14], 2 in Climate [15,16], and 15 in Remote Sensing [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…The first paper (Lu [1]) presents a chronological overview of Professor Ye's remarkable 79-year research journey, spanning from preparatory years and graduate studies, through pioneering breakthroughs in atmosphere dynamics, to a pivotal transition that encompasses global climate sciences and delves into the intricate interplay of climate change's societal impacts, culminating in a globally influential era, offering a comprehensive portrayal of his lifelong scholarly expedition. These prominent accomplishments encompass pioneering seminal research on the Rossby wave dispersion theory and scale-dependent theory of geostrophic adjustment; the establishment of a new meteorology subdiscipline, Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau meteorology; groundbreaking research on the atmospheric general circulation across East Asia and the globe; and visionary research on global changes and their implications for socioeconomic and ecological welfare.…”