Historical Climate Records in China and Reconstruction of Past Climates

Zhang, Jiacheng; Crowley, Thomas J.

doi:10.1175/1520-0442(1989)002<0833:hcrica>2.0.co;2

Cited by 100 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Based on results presented here, a long multivariate icecore record recovered from Inilchek glacier will provide a means to investigate climatic and environmental conditions in central Asia and extend reconstructions prior to the instrumental period. Several trends observed in central Asia over the past half-century, namely, increasing temperatures, decreasing precipitation (Aizen and others,1997b), and aridity (Zhang and Crowley, 1989), can thus be established within a longer climatic context.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Oxygen isotopic and soluble ionic composition of a shallow firn core, Inilchek glacier, central Tien Shan

et al. 2001

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data from the core demonstrate the dominant influence of dust deposition on the soluble chemistry at the site, and indicate significant interannual variability in atmospheric-dust loading during the 1990s. Anthropogenic impacts on NH 4 + concentrations are observed at the site, and suggest a summer increase in atmospheric NH 4 + that may be related to regional agricultural (nitrogen-rich fertilizer use) activities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Oxygen isotopic and soluble ionic composition of a shallow firn core, Inilchek glacier, central Tien Shan

et al. 2001

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“…Dry-wet indices are the reconstructed data from Chinese historical records and modern observations by Zhang (1999). The annual dry-wet indices from 1470 to 1992 at 120 stations in China (Academy of Meteorological Science, 1981;Zhang and Crowley, 1989) were used to obtain the six regional values by cluster analysis: I, Hebei; II, Shanxi; III, Huangxia; IV, Henan; V, Jianghuai; and VI, Suhang (see Figure 6). The regional indices have a 1 year resolution for the period AD 960-1992 (1033 years).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…East Asia also has a variety of proxy data (e.g. Zhang and Crowley, 1989), and it would be beneficial to examine whether they can be effectively utilized for the reconstruction of climate events in Korea, especially for the period before instrumental observations. To accomplish this, the determination of the spatial and temporal relationship of climate events between Korea and other East Asian regions is required as the first step.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal comparisons of droughts over Korea with East Asia

Min

Kwon

Park

et al. 2003

Intl Journal of Climatology

143

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To investigate the spatial and temporal relationships of drought occurrence and intensity between Korea and East Asia, the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), calculated from Climatic Research Unit (CRU) monthly precipitation data, was used from 1951 to 1996. It is found that the frequency of occurrence of droughts in Korea has significant time intervals of 2-3 and 5-8 years and has been increasing since the 1980s. Correlation and composite analyses showed that the occurrence of droughts over central eastern China, Manchuria, and the north coast of Japan was highly correlated with those in Korea. However, the time scales of occurrence of droughts over the three regions were different. Droughts in eastern China represented in-phase variations with those in Korea with a time interval of 5-8 years, whereas those in Manchuria occurred with a time interval of 15 years, and those in Japan had no coincident variations.To assess the feasibility of usage of proxy climate data in eastern China for the research of droughts in Korea during the pre-instrumental period, dry-wet indices in six regions of eastern China were correlated to the SPI values in Korea for the period of 1951-92 considering several time scales. Dry-wet indices of region V showed a larger correlation and the most similar trend to the droughts in Korea with a time scale of 5-11 years. This suggested an effective utilization of historical records and other proxy data in eastern China to understand extreme climatic events in Korea for the past 500 years.

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“…Of these, the Chinese 'phenological temperature' record developed by Chu (1973), the frequency ef dust rains, also in China (Zhang, 1984), a record of Chinese drought/flood variations , and a drought/flood record for the region around the ancient city of Xian (Chang-an) (Li and Quan, 1987) extend through all or most of the period of interest. Just as in Europe, the acceptance and interpretation of historical documents for use in climate history requires rigorous checking of primary sources, particularly regarding the dates and locations ascribed to meteorologically related events, as well as content analysis of the texts (Zhang, 1988;Zhang and Crowley, 1989). It is not clear to the authors of this review how closely the critical methods used in the Far East resemble those in use in studying the climate history of Europe.…”

Section: Evidence For a Medieval Warm Epochmentioning

confidence: 99%

Was there a ?medieval warm period?, and if so, where and when?

1994

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Abstract. It has frequently been suggested that the period encompassing the ninth to the fourteenth centuries A.D. experienced a climate warmer than that prevailing around the turn of the twentieth century. This epoch has become known as the Medieval Warm Period, since it coincides with the Middle Ages in Europe.In this review a number of lines of evidence are considered, (including climatesensitive tree rings, documentary sources, and montane glaciers) in order to evaluate whether it is reasonable to conclude that climate in medieval times was, indeed, warmer than the climate of more recent times. Our review indicates that for some areas of the globe (for example, Scandinavia, China, the Sierra Nevada in California, the Canadian Rockies and Tasmania), temperatures, particularly in summer, appear to have been higher during some parts of this period than those that were to prevail until the most recent decades of the twentieth century. These warmer regional episodes were not strongly synchronous. Evidence from other regions (for example, the Southeast United States, southern Europe along the Mediterranean, and parts of South America) indicates that the climate during that time was little different to that of later times, or that warming, if it occurred, was recorded at a later time than has been assumed. Taken together, the available evidence does not support a global Medieval Warm Period, although more support for such a phenomenon could be drawn from high-elevation records than from low-elevation records. The available data exhibit significant decadal to century scale variability throughout the last millennium. A comparison of 30-year averages for various climate indices places recent decades in a longer term perspective.

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Historical Climate Records in China and Reconstruction of Past Climates

Cited by 100 publications

References 17 publications

Oxygen isotopic and soluble ionic composition of a shallow firn core, Inilchek glacier, central Tien Shan

Oxygen isotopic and soluble ionic composition of a shallow firn core, Inilchek glacier, central Tien Shan

Spatial and temporal comparisons of droughts over Korea with East Asia

Was there a ?medieval warm period?, and if so, where and when?

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