Abstract The mountain microclimate system is one of the most complicated climate systems. Meteorological stations in mountain regions are limed, which make it difficult for us to study, explore, and make use of the mountain microclimate. Fortunately, the computer has become a powerful tool in researching the variation of the mountain microclimate. The study of the mountain microclimate, based on the simulation model, is the cross subject of meteorology and ecology. In this paper, the advances of mountain microclimate simulations of the temperature, the precipitation, the humidity, the solar radiation and the wind are reviewed, respectively. There are various simulations including l) the model of‘ temperature, a multitudinous regression (both linear regression and non-linear regression) basing on the separated-integrated method; 2) trend surface analysis and topographic factor correlation analysis (including monofactorial, bifactorial, trifactorial and multifactorial) applied in the simulations of the precipitation; 3) models for the relative humidity and the vapor pressure which are the main parameters describing the humidity for the weather stations, but in most of the ecological models, the humidity is represented as the vapor pressure deficit and is simulated by the iterative algorithm between humidity and radiation; 4) the simulation of the solar radiation which is relatively complex, and is commonly simulated in the direct radiation, the diffuse radiation, the reflective radiation, and the total radiation, respectively; and 5) the methods of wind simulation which include diagnosis and forecast.
Based on our studies, we propose methods to improve the algorithm for estimating the mountain microclimate. It is well known that, in the past, when people simulated the mountainous climate, they always took it as a linear, balance and simple system. But we know now the mountainous climate is more complex and, we should regard it as a dynamic and complicated system in the future. When simulating it, we must combine it with the modem theories, especially the modem non-linear theory, to reinforce the theoretical study. At the same time, GIS and RS had proved to be useful in the simulation of the radiation. We should try to incorporate the advanced technologies (eg. GIS and RS) with other mountain microclimate models to improve their precision and help us better understand the microclimate in the mountainous region.