AsianScientist (Nov. 9, 2016) – Scientists in China and the UK have carried out a study investigating to what extent natural variability and human economic activities affect the regional climate of Northeast Asia. Their findings were published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences.

Northeast Asia includes the areas of Northeast China, the Russian Far East, Japan and the Korean Peninsula. Climate variability and change impose enormous challenges for this region, with its rapidly developing economy and large population. Natural climate variability and human economic activites (anthropogenic forcings) both modulate regional climate, particularly in regions sensitive to global climate change, such as Northeast Asia.

According to the findings of scientists from the University of Reading in the UK and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, warming in surface mean temperature is accompanied by significant changes in certain temperature extremes: increases in the summer mean daily maximum temperature; daily minimum temperature; annual hottest day temperature; and annual warmest night temperature.

Climate model experiments that include changes in sea surface temperature (SST), sea ice extent (SIE) and anthropogenic forcings reproduced the general patterns of observed changes. Meanwhile, experiments that simulated individual forcings suggested that changes in SST and SIE play a dominant role in summer mean surface warming, but reduced aerosol precursor emissions over Europe play an important role in changes of some temperature extremes.

“As long as greenhouse gas concentrations continue to increase and anthropogenic aerosol precursor emissions over both North America and Europe continue to decrease, the abrupt summer surface warming and increases in hot temperature extremes over Northeast Asia since the mid-1990s will probably sustain in the next few decades,” predicted corresponding author Dr. Dong Buwen from the University of Reading.



The article can be found at: Dong et al. (2016) Abrupt Summer Warming and Changes in Temperature Extremes over Northeast Asia since the Mid-1990s: Drivers and Physical Processes.

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Source: Chinese Academy of Sciences; Photo: Pixabay.

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