Effects of heat waves on daily excess mortality in 14 Korean cities during the past 20 years (1991-2010): an application of the spatial synoptic classification approach.

The aims of this study are to explore the "offensive" summer weather types classified under the spatial synoptic classification (SSC) system and to evaluate their impacts on excess mortality in 14 Korean cities. All-cause deaths per day for the entire population were examined over the summer months (May-September) of 1991-2010. Daily deaths were standardized to account for long-term trends of subcycles (annual, seasonal, and weekly) at the mid-latitudes.

Possible mechanism of abrupt jump in winter surface air temperature in the late 1980s over the Northern Hemisphere.

Possible cause of an abrupt warming in winter mean surface air temperature in the midlatitudes of the Northern Hemisphere in the late 1980s is investigated using observation and reanalysis data. To determine the timing of abrupt warming, we use a regime shift index based on detection of the largest significant differences between the mean values of two contiguous periods. Results show that the abrupt warming occurred in association with a regime shift after the 1980's in which the zonal mean sea level pressure (SLP) is significantly increased (decreased) at the latitude 25-35°N (60-70°N), in the form of north-south dipole-like SLP anomaly spanning the subtropics and high latitude.

Influence of monsoons on atmospheric CO2 spatial variability and ground-based monitoring over India.

This study examines the role of Asian monsoons on transport and spatial variability of atmospheric CO2 over the Indian subcontinent, using transport modeling tools and available surface observations from two atmospheric CO2 monitoring sites Sinhagad (SNG) and Cape Rama (CRI) in the western part of peninsular India. The regional source contributions to these sites arise from the horizontal flow in conduits within the planetary boundary layer. Greater CO2 variability, greater than 15 ppm, is observed during winter, while it is reduced nearly by half during summer.

An automated monitoring of atmospheric mixing height from routine radiosonde profiles over South Korea using a web-based data transfer method.

This study describes an effort to estimate atmospheric mixing height using vertical profiles of thermodynamic variables measured operationally at radiosonde sites in South Korea. We focus on mixing height at 06UTC (15LST) when vigorous daytime convection is expected with clear skies. For this purpose, we developed a simple numerical algorithm using a new data transfer tool, known as cURL, to determine mixing height and applied it to radiosonde data at Osan and Gwangju for 2010.