Organized by:

• The Embassy of Italy in Korea, Seoul, Korea
• The Italian Cultural Institute - Seoul, Korea
• The University of Torino, Torino, Italy
• The Severe Storm Research Center, Ewha Womans University, Seoul, Italy

Scientific secretariat:

• Prof. Seon-Ki Park, Severe Storm Research Center, Ewha Womans University
• Dr. Antonino Tata, Office of Science & Technology, Embassy of Italy, Seoul, Korea

Contacts:

• Prof. Seon-Ki Park, phone +82-02-3277-3331, e-mail: spark_AT_ewha.ac.kr
• Dr. Antonino Tata, phone: +82-(0)2-796-0491, fax: +82-(0)2-793-5311, e-mail: sciencekor_AT_yahoo.it
• The Italian Cultural Institute, Seoul, Korea, phone: +82-(0)2-796-0634, e-mail: cultura.iicseoul_AT_esteri.it

Web:

• Prof. Claudio Cassardo

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14:00 Welcoming & Opening Address

14: 10 Key Note Address

14:20 Ceremony of Signature of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between 1 The University of Torino (Italy) and The Ewha Womans University (Korea)

14: 40 Scientific Session

14:45 Rokjin J. Park (Seoul National University, Korea)

15: 15 Antonello Pasini (CNR-National Research Council, Italy)

15:45 Coffee Break

16:00 Chang-Hoi Ho (Seoul National University, Korea)

16: 30 Claudio Cassardo (University of Torino, Italy)

17: 00 Seon Ki Park (Ewha Womans University, Korea)

17: 30 Discussion and Concluding Remarks

18: 00 Reception

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Summary of scientific session presentations

Ozone and atmospheric aerosol are two most important air pollutants affecting humans and lives on Earth. In addition, they have a significant implication for climate because of their extinctions of radiation in the atmosphere. Spatial and temporal distributions of those species and the capability of simulating them are thus critical for examining and quantifying their influences on air quality and climate. There however are large discrepancies between observations and models of those species in the atmosphere in part due to our lack of understanding of relevant chemical and physical processes. In this work a number of critical scientific issues in atmospheric ozone and aerosols are presented and discussed in the context of their roles in climate change.

Is Climate Change Attributed to Human Activities?

Chang-Hoi Ho

The present study has examined changes In meteorological variables over East Asia during the half of the 20th century. The long-term meteorological variables include temperature, precipitation, typhoon, and large-scale circulation obtained from surface observations and reanalysis data. The author also investigates ground- observed air pollution and satellite-retrieved cloud information for recent years. The present results note the presence of the considerable changes in temperature, precipitation, typhoon, and large-scale circulation over East Asia. However, the periods of the utilized data are limited to the past few decades. Thus it remains insoluble whether the changes are due to climate change or climate variation. Using recent data sets of aerosol and rainfall frequency in China, this study has , suggested that climate change is attributed to human activities.

Forecasting Disastrous Weather Systems to Cope with Global Change

Seon K. Park

Despite continued debate, the undeniable global warming seems to cause disastrous weather events that are more frequent and have greater intensities. Disastrous weather systems cause billions of dollars of damage and numerous deaths in the Asian countries every year. The eastern Asian countries are especially susceptible to severe weather related to monsoon, extratropical cyclones and typhoons. To cope with the climate change and associated disastrous weather systems, it is essential to improve the accuracy of forecasting such weather systems.
Some essential factors include: 1) understanding the characteristics of local weather systems in response to climate change; 2) understanding the mechanisms of initiation/development of severe weather systems in local area; and 3) improving numerical weather prediction systems using high-resolution storm-scale modeling and data assimilation.

The Challenge of Understanding Climate Behaviour

Antonello Pasini

Climate is the prototype of a complex system and understanding its behaviour is a challenge for contemporary science. A well-founded knowledge of the climate system is also needed for avoiding its most dangerous changes and their impacts on territories and ecosystems. Direct and indirect observations allow us to find coincidences and correlations among several variables in the climate system, but do not permit to work out quantitative explanations of its complex behaviour. Then, in this talk I present two modelling approaches to the simulation of climate and lead the audience to a journey in the "virtual laboratory" of a modeller. In doing so, I show that the models can be validated on the past climate, they are able to attribute the recent climate changes to some driving causes (forcings) and they lead us to explore future climate scenarios for the next decades. Results about validation, attribution and future projections will be presented. Even if this discussion is mostly founded on a global basis, emphasis will be also devoted to regional scenarios in the Mediterranean basin, which appears as a "hot spot" for future climate change. A brief discussion about vulnerability of territories/ecosystems and possible impacts of the global climate change on lands, agriculture and animals concludes this talk.
 

Regional Responses to the Global Change: The Case of Italy and Europe

Claudio Cassardo

Mean temperatures grew also in Italy in the past 140 years, and IPCC forecasts show ulterior Iincrements in the period 2071-2100. In particular, summers are forecasted 3-5°C warmer than now, thus, at the end of this century, perhaps a summer like the 2003 one, which caused about 50000 fatality excess in Europe, will be considered fresh or just normal. But the most interesting thing to notice is that these increments are not equally distributed on the European territory. Most of central and northern Europe would be affected by a winter warming quite remarked, while the predictions over the Italian territory show higher temperatures during summer and scarce precipitations. During the last few years, a change in the summer precipitation regime in Italy has been already perceived, mainly in the South, with a decrement of the total rainfall and an increase of the precipitation intensity. Such changes, confirmed by the results of the regional model forecasts for the next century (see for instance Prudence project), will cause concrete risks of water supply shortage and desertification in some areas, and conversely of landslides and territory damage in other areas or in other periods (for instance spring and autumn). Also the sea level will show increases, whose consequences could be catastrophic for the coastal areas in which human acti~ity is high (i.n Italy this.problem will affect not only Venice but also other coastal zones). During the seminar, we will also show some other effects of the forecasted climatic variations on the agriculture, on the forests and the animals, with some notes relative to the Italian territory.

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Scientific session speaker's resume

Prof. Rokjin J. Park

Prof. Chang-Hoi Ho

Prof. Seon K. Park

Dr. Antonello Pasini

Prof. Claudio Cassardo

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