Surface measurements of global warming causing atmospheric constituents inKorea

The expansion of the industrial economy and the increase of population in N ortheast Asian countries have caused much interest in climate monitoring re lated to global warming. However, new techniques and better platforms for t he measurement of global warming and regional databases are still old-fashi oned and are not being developed sufficiently. With respect to this agenda, since 1993, at the request of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), to monitor functions of global warming, the Korea Meteorological Administr ation (KMA) has set up a Global Atmospheric Watch (GAW) Station on the west ern coast of Korea (Anmyun-do) and has been actively monitoring global warm ing over Northeast Asia. In addition, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) has been measured for a similar KMA global warming program at Kosan, Cheju Isla nd since 1990. Aerosol and radiation have also been measured at both sites as well as in Seoul. The observations have been analyzed using diagnostics of climate change in Northeast Asia and also have been internationally comp ared. Results indicate that greenhouse gases are in good statistic agreemen t with the NOAA/Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) long-t erm trends of monthly mean concentrations and seasonal cycles. Atmospheric particulate matter has also been analyzed for particular Asian types in ter ms of optical depth, number concentration and size distribution.