The Regional Impacts of Climate Change

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10.1.2. Regional Climate Information

The Tibetan plateau, rising to the 600-hPa level of the troposphere, strongly influences the atmospheric general circulation over the region, both thermally and dynamically. Development of polar frontal zones and cyclones in Temperate Asia is closely connected to activities associated with the westerly jet stream and the east Asian monsoon, both of which are significantly affected by the plateau (Kim et al., 1973; Fukui, 1977; Yeh and Gao, 1979).

Climate differs widely within Temperate Asia. The region has a tropical monsoon climate in the far south, a humid, cool, temperate climate in the north, and a desert climate or steppe climate in the west and the northWest. In the rest of the area-where most of the population of the region is concentrated-a humid, temperate climate prevails. Mean monthly and annual temperatures and mean annual precipitation at selected sites are shown in Table 10-2.


Table 10-2: Temperature and precipitation at selected sites in Temperate Asia.

Latitude
Longitude
Height
Temperature (�C)
Annual
Precipitation
(N)
(E)
(m)
January
July
Annual
(mm)

Verkhoyansk
67�33'
133�23'
137
-48.9
15.3
-15.6
155
Oymyakon
63�16'
143�09'
740
-50.1
14.5
-16.5
193
Novosibirsk
44�12'
37�48'
37
2.5
23.6
12.7
638
Khabarovsk
48�31'
135�07'
86
-22.7
21.0
1.2
569
Hotan
37�08'
79�56'
1,375
-5.7
25.5
12.1
35
Beijing
39�48'
116�28'
51
-4.7
26.0
11.6
683
Shanghai
31�10'
121�26'
5
4.2
27.8
16.1
1,135
Haikou
20�02'
110�21'
14
17.1
28.4
23.8
1,690
Seoul
37�03'
126�58'
86
-4.9
24.5
11.2
1,259
Sapporo
43�03'
141�20'
17
-4.9
20.2
8.0
1,158
Tokyo
35�41'
139�46'
5
4.7
25.2
15.3
1,460
Lhasa
29�42'
91�08'
3,658
2.3
14.9
7.5
454


China has kept proxy data, old documents, diaries, and other data throughout its long history. Likewise, Korea and Japan have kept relatively homogeneous proxy data for several hundred years. Such data are useful for analyzing climatic changes and their impacts on human activities.

 



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