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Wildfire in Yeongdong

Potential biophysical processes associated with increasing lightning strikes in the Arctic region

The increased vegetation enhanced the surface solar radiation and thus raised near-surface temperatures. Increased temperatures promoted updrafts and atmospheric instability, which facilitated thunderstorm development. Furthermore, greater evapotranspiration with increased NDVI contributed to increased atmospheric moisture and convergence, which favored updrafts and atmospheric instability. Our findings suggest that increasing vegetation at high latitudes could trigger cascading biophysical processes that promote lightning activity.

Thunderstorm asthma

Associations of Emergency Department Visits for Asthma with Precipitation and Temperature on Thunderstorm Days

The initial stage of thunderstorm development, whole pollen grains on the ground level can be carried to the cloud base by ascending air parcels. The pollen grains then frequently rupture upon contacting moisture in the cloud, releasing respirable pollen fragments with allergens in much higher concentration than the concentration of pollen grains themselves.
These bioaerosols could be positively charged by lightning activity and carried back down to ground level by precipitation and descending cool air during a thunderstorm. Precipitation itself can also influence atmospheric concentrations of pollens and mold spores.

Wildfire in Yeongdong

Spatiotemporal Patterns and Climatological Processes of Large Spring Wildfire in Yeongdong, Gangwon-do, Korea

The increase in temperature over the southcentral Eurasia enhanced the geopotential height in the mid- to upper-troposphere through the thermal expansion of the atmosphere, which resulted in the northwesterly winds blowing over the Korean Peninsula. These atmospheric thermodynamic processes induced the anomalous pressure pattern of western-High and eastern-Low, respectively, centered over south-central Eurasia and northeastern East Asia, which strengthened the northwesterly winds. At the same time, descending wind anomalies from the upper atmosphere over eastern China and the Yellow Sea have merged into the northwesterly winds in the lower atmosphere. Then, as crossed over the Taebaek Mountains, the hot and dry conditions of airflows were amplified in the Yeongdong region due to the Föhn phenomenon.

AUS_Fire

Land and atmospheric conditions amplifying the forest fires in southeastern Australia

We attempted to investigate the interactions between the land and atmosphere in leading to forest fires in southeastern Australia (SEA) by analyzing the climatic variables from the near-surface to the upper atmosphere and Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI). Using the DJF (fire season) FFDI EOF1 PC time series, we conducted the detrended correlation and composite difference analyses with the land and atmospheric variables. We propose a plausible physical process by which the dry land condition during the pre-fire season (SON) can affect the near-surface to upper atmosphere by thermal expansion and, thus, increase the danger of bushfires during DJF in the SEA by enhancing the anticyclonic circulation and descending motion at the mid-atmosphere. The vertical cross-section of temperature and geopotential averaged by latitude covering Australia supported the process.

North Korea

Land cover and land use transitions and the associated temperature changes in the East Asian monsoon region

The quantified LCLU transitions revealed that, in northeastern China, the dominant trend was forests and grasslands changing into croplands. Moreover, in the marginal areas of Inner Mongolia in western China, the transitions of grasslands to croplands and forests were evident. Croplands were mainly converted to forests in the Sichuan region. The detected LCLU transitions affect the regional climate as demonstrated by correlation, regression and Granger-causality analyses and the related biogeophysical processes. Specially, in the Sichuan region, the increase in the warming effect of forests and the decrease in the cooling effect of croplands could affect the significant increase of temperature.