Geologic evidence and general circulation model experiments show that the monsoon climates respond very strongly to insolation changes induced by orbital variations. Pleoclimate data from northeast Asia and northwest Pacific Ocean suggest that these terrestrial and marine environments, influenced by northeast Asian monsoon, respond to global climate changes in a complex way that varies temporally and geographically. Using high resolution terrestrial, marine, and atmospheric climatic information generated from analyses of pollen, radiolaria, oxygen isotopes, and mineralogy of sediments from marine cores, the regional response to late Pleistocene climate variations will be examnined. The changes in the intensity and duration of the northeast Asian monsoon through two complete glaciation to deglaciation cycles will be determined. This work is important because it will enable construction of an empirically based conceptual model of northeast Asian monsoon; an independent model to compare with simulations based on numerical general circulation models.
