China

  2010 MAR 23 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "We present results of a complex study of evaporite sediments from one of the small saline lakes with carbonate sedimentation in the Ol'khon area and substantiate their high significance for paleoclimatic reconstructions. The mineral composition of the bottom sediments was studied by XRD analysis, IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, elemental analysis (SR-XFA), etc," scientists writing in the journal Russian Geology and Geophysics report ...read more

  2010 MAR 9 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "We chose a relatively weak Southeast Asian summer monsoon (SEASM) year (1998) and a relatively strong year ( 2002) to examine the impact of the monsoon strength on the transport of organic carbon (OC) aerosol emitted from the South Asia (75 degrees-105 degrees E, 10 degrees-25 degrees N) by using the global 3-D chemical transport model GEOS-Chem driven by the assimilated meteorological fields. Simulated surface layer concentrations and column burdens of OC indicate that OC levels are much higher in the weak SEASM year 1998 than in the strong SEASM year 2002," scientists writing in the journal Annales Geophysicae report ...read more

  2010 MAR 9 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "The interaction of the storm circulation with the Central Mountain Range (CMR) of Taiwan is studied with a wind profiler located at the leeside during the invasions of two (Kaemi (200605) and Bopha (200609)) typhoons. The moderate typhoon Kaemi upgraded from a tropical depression on 21 July 2006," investigators in Chungli, Taiwan report.

  "It then was made landfall at 15:45 UTC on 24 July 2006 near Cheng-Kung. The weak typhoon Bopha formed at about 12:00 UTC on 5 August 2006 and also landed near Cheng-Kung at around 19:20 UTC on 8 August. A new finding from both typhoons is the vortex splitting into upper and lower parts with the two typhoons that have passed the observation site nearly. For the typhoon Kaemi, demarcation height of the upper-level vortex and lower level is at 2.8 km and passed the site about 3 h earlier than the low-level one. For the typhoon Bopha, the center of the lower-level vortex at 3.5 km locates to the north of the upper-level one at 5.2 km," wrote C.J. Pan and colleagues ...read more