The Eighth Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)/U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Meeting on Collaborative Research on CO2-Induced Climate Change was held in Beijing on Aug. 12-14, 1996. At the meeting, presentations were made on the analysis of general circulation models, the preparation and analysis of proxy and instrumental climate data, large and regional-scale climate research, and atmospheric-trace-constituent measurements.
At the meeting, CDIAC researcher Dale Kaiser reported that significant decreases in total cloud amount have occurred over a large part of Northern China from 1954 to 1990. Coupled with his recent findings regarding increasing cloud amounts over neighboring portions of the former Soviet Union, this analysis of Chinese data shows that important regional climate changes that warrant further investigation are occurring over East Asia.
The Institute of Geography of the CAS announced the availability of its new World Wide Web pages that detail the literature and documentary evidence being used to reconstruct the climate for China during the past 2000 years.
Other Chinese scientists reported on the effects that industrial sulphur dioxide emissions have on the climate of China. Their data indicate that these effects are becoming very pronounced and that the emissions are responsible for decreasing the daily maximum temperatures over much of China (mainly in the south).
The meeting also provided the occasion for Professor Tao of CAS to present CDIAC with updates through 1993 for two Chinese databases previously published as a CDIAC numeric data package (NDP-039). CDIAC will now quality-assure the new data and publish an update to the database. This extension of the database marked an important milestone in CDIAC's involvement with the CAS.
Immediately following the CAS/DOE meeting, the Second Chinese Meteorological Association/DOE Science Team Meeting on Regional Climate Research was held. The CMA/DOE meeting consisted primarily of presentations about the four tasks undertaken in this relatively new CMA/DOE joint research activity:
At this meeting, Panmao Zhai of the CMA's National Climate Center (NCC) discussed the possibility of working with CDIAC on further research on Chinese cloud data, and other investigators from the CMA laid plans for further cooperation in the area of data exchange and analysis. CMA agreed to send several unique databases to CDIAC and to the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina. The databases will allow broad research into Chinese climate from the early 1950s through 1994. In exchange, CDIAC and NCDC will send several key databases (e.g., the Global Historical Climatology Network Database and the Comprehensive Aerological Reference Data Set) to the CMA.
The DOE/CMA agreement and the annual meetings between U.S. researchers and their Chinese counterparts should be particularly beneficial for CDIAC and the climate-change research community in the coming years. The CMA and NCC will provide updates of the Chinese climate databases already available as well as data analysis and interpretation.
Professor Tao Shiyan and retired manager of DOE's carbon program Fred Koomanoff, who initiated the exchanges with China, share a meal at the CAS/DOE meeting on CO2-induced climate change.