Abstract:
A persistent period of low temperature weather is the main cause to the frozen injury of orange during the winter, which is usually accompanied by the sleet and frost weather process (or drought). And the sleet and frost weather process (or drought) may aggravate the injury to the orange. The single-meteorological-factor index of the orange frozen injury is well known and commonly used to analyze the degree of the disaster, which only refers to the low temperature factor while neglects other ones. Considering the climate characteristics which may bring about the frozen injury, a series of frozen injury indexes for orange, including the single-station index and the regional index, are designed by employing multiple meteorological factors, such as temperature, rainfall amount and persistent days of rain. Tallied with the freezing disasters happened in Jiangxi Province from 1959 to 2009 and compared with the single-meteorological-factor index, the surveying effects of the multiple-meteorological-factor indexes are assessed. The calculation results of the single-station index for the typical years, such as 1992 or 2000, compared with the single-meteorological-factor index, are more in line with the freezing disaster happened in Jiangxi Province. Both the reflection on the damage degree and the characteristic of spatial distribution of the single-station grade of the multiple-meteorological-factor indexes are consistent with the actual situation. Taken the typical counties Nanfeng and Xinfeng as example, compared with the single-meteorological-factor index, the calculation result of the frequency for each single-station grade of the multiple-meteorological-factor indexes is more accordant with the cultivation habit and the disaster experience. And the calculation result of single-station grade is much more in line with the actual orange frozen disaster in Nanfeng from 1957 to 2000. The accuracy of the regional index from 1959 to 2009 is about 90%. Meanwhile, the freezing years, in which the calculation grade of regional multiple-meteorological-factor index is extreme-serious, are completely accordant with the actual situation. According to the record from the Department of Agriculture of Jiangxi Province, 80% of the calculation result of the regional grade for each districts in the typical year (for example, in 1992) is in accordance with the actual orange frozen disaster.Results indicate that the single-station multiple-meteorological-factor index for orange can reflect the damage degree and the characteristic of the spatial distribution better than the single-meteorological-factor index. In addition, the analyzing results suggest that the regional multiple-meteorological-factor index is able to assess the regional degree of frozen injury, which can be used to analyze the climate suitability of orange.