[1] The Himalayas are an integral part of the Indian monsoon dynamics. In this paper we examine the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 40-year Reanalysis (ERA40) data set in order to quantify the importance of Himalayan rainfall in terms of vorticity generation. We find that Himalayan rainfall is a powerful source of vorticity due to the multiplicative effect of steep vertical gradients in latent heating combined with a large Coriolis parameter. ERA40 shows a maximum in columnintegrated and near-surface vorticity generation in the monsoon region over the southern slopes of the Himalayas. We estimate that the total generation of vorticity over the Himalayan region as a whole is at least half that over the Bay of Bengal. Thus Himalayan rainfall is likely to play a central role in amplifying the circulation of the monsoon. Citation: Kennett, E. J., and R. Toumi (2005), Himalayan rainfall and vorticity generation within the Indian summer monsoon, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L04802,

[1] In this study, the temperature dependence of atmospheric moisture lifetime is investigated using the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts 40-year Reanalysis (ERA40) dataset. ERA40 shows that atmospheric moisture lifetimes can vary by greater than a factor of 4 within the column. Globally, the shortest lifetimes occur at temperatures of about À40°C, with mean lifetimes of just over a day at this level. Lifetimes derived independently from aircraft microphysical measurements in cirrus clouds confirm the rapid loss of moisture at about À40°C. This can be understood to result from changes in the rate of nucleation and size distribution of ice particles with decreasing temperature. A similar temperature dependence is observed in water vapor scale height, with relative humidity increasing with decreasing temperature below about À40°C. The variability of atmospheric moisture lifetime with temperature is found to be a fundamental microphysical control on the distribution of water vapor. Citation: Kennett, E. J., and R. Toumi (2005), Temperature dependence of atmospheric moisture lifetime,

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The paper reviews the findings of a recent international study to characterise the waste arising from the decommissioning of dumps in the Industrial Zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the Exclusion Zone. Studied sites included the Industrial Zone outside the Sarcophagus, three engineered disposal sites (the so-called PZRO), non-engineered near surface trench dumps (PVLRO), contaminated soil and sites of ‘unauthorised’ disposal within the Exclusion Zone. The paper summarises the inventory of wastes, the management options, which have been considered for various dumps, and the resulting estimates of the volumes of waste streams, as well as the approach that was used in the decision-making process.

[1] Changes in upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) are important in understanding the climatic response to increased anthropogenic forcing. This paper explores the asymmetry and non-linearity in the response of subtropical UTH to tropical intraseasonal forcing. During northern winter, subtropical UTH anomalies, varying on intraseasonal timescales, propagate eastwards from northern Africa to the central Pacific. There is a discontinuity in the propagation of moist anomalies over the Tibetan Plateau, whilst dry anomalies show reduced propagation in the lee. This is consistent with the expected evolution of cyclones and anticyclones incident on high topography. Correlations of five-day mean UTH show no significant linear correlation between moist anomalies over Indonesia and subtropical anomalies to the north. This appears to be explained by the limitation of dry anomalies in the region of low ambient vorticity south of the East Asian Jet Stream.