The Asian climate system is dominated by the interplay of two of the most globally significant components of the general circulation, the Siberian high pressure cell, which forms during the northern hemispheric winter, and the Tibetan low pressure cell, which forms during the northern hemispheric summer. The Siberian high, centered near Lake Baikal, and its associated atmospheric processes, cause both the low-altitude winter dust storms that are primarily responsible for dust transport to the Chinese loess plateau and the high-altitude spring dust storms that transport dust for long distances over the North Pacific Ocean. The Tibetan low forms over the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau, and it controls the atmospheric processes that determine the intensity of the Indian monsoon and the magnitude of the eolian dust flux to the Arabian Sea.
Recent studies that utilize magnetic-property stratigraphy in the Arabian Sea [ deMenocal et al., 1991; Bloemendal et al., 1993; deMenocal and Bloemendal, in press], in the northwest Pacific Ocean [ Hovan et al., 1991; Polgreen et al., 1993; Rack et al., in press], and in Lake Baikal [ Peck et al., 1994], in addition to the previously discussed research on the Chinese loess-paleosol sequence, have significantly increased our understanding of the Asian climate system. The long record of monsoonal dust deposition obtained from the magnetic-susceptibility record of the Arabian Sea has provided a major breakthrough in our understanding of the factors that control monsoon intensity [ deMenocal et al., 1991; Bloemendal et al., 1993; deMenocal and Bloemendal, in press]. Variance is concentrated at Milankovitch periodicities for the entire 7.2 Ma record. Prior to about 2.8 Ma, the magnetic susceptibility data vary almost purely in the 23-19 kyr precessional band. These eolian variations are interpreted to reflect variations in monsoon intensity forced by low-latitude orbital insolation variations [ deMenocal et al., 1991; deMenocal and Bloemendal, in press]. After 2.8 Ma, however, there is a dramatic increase in variance at the 41-kyr obliquity period, and after 0.9 Ma an increase in variance at the 100-kyr eccentricity period. Both shifts in variance after 2.8 Ma are coincident with the behavior of Northern Hemisphere ice sheet cycles, which were dominated by the 41-kyr obliquity variations between the onset of glaciation at 2.8 Ma and 0.9 Ma and then by the 100-kyr eccentricity variations after about 0.9 Ma [ deMenocal et al., 1991; deMenocal and Bloemendal, in press]. These studies and general circulation model (GCM) sensitivity experiments strongly indicate that both African and Arabian dust source areas are sensitive to changes in high-latitude climate and that strong linkages exist between high-latitude climate (ice sheets) and low-latitude climate (monsoons) in the Milankovitch band.
Similarities in Milankovitch periodicities between the
Chinese loess-paleosol sequences and marine dust fluxes have been
demonstrated by Clemens and Prell [1990], from the Arabian
Sea, and by Hovan et al. [1991], from the northwest Pacific
Ocean. The study by Hovan et al. [1991] also included
matches to the 
O record of global ice volume.
Moreover, several major changes in dust deposition observed in
the loess plateau record appear to occur in long dust records
from the northwest Pacific [ Rack et al., in press]. The
susceptibility record of dust deposition in Lake Baikal [
Peck et al., 1994] is also coherent in the Milankovitch band to
both the 
O global ice volume record and the record
from the Chinese loess plateau.
Despite these advances we still lack firm understanding
about the long-term evolution of the Asian climate system and the
timing of the continental and marine climate changes. Because
the dating resolution of most records of Asian climate is
low---at best a few thousand years---and the accumulation rates
are low (1-4 cm/kyr), it has been difficult to make a
high-resolution comparison of dust deposition in China and adjacent
marine areas. Nevertheless, comparisons between the results from
more rapidly deposited marine sediments (5-7 cm/kyr) in the
northwest Pacific Ocean [ Rea and Leinen, 1988] and a
Chinese loess record indicated a poor correlation in rates of
dust deposition during the last 30,000 years [ Pye and Zhou,
1989]. The poor correlation was attributed to the dominance of
different wind systems in the transport of dust to the Chinese
loess plateau and the northwest Pacific. Cold, low-altitude
northwesterly winds transport dust to the loess plateau in
winter, whereas strong vertical motions associated with frontal
depressions in the spring lift the dust up to the strong
upper-level westerlies, which transport the dust over the Pacific
[ Pye and Zhou, 1989]. These studies strongly suggest that
sub-Milankovitch periods in the Asian climate system are not very
coherent. In addition, a statistical treatment showed
differences between the magnetic susceptibility from the Chinese
loess plateau and 
O profiles from deep-sea cores from
the northwest Pacific back to 2.45 Ma [ Wang et al., 1992].
These disparities may reflect different ways by which these proxy
recorders respond to climatic variations or differences between
continental and oceanic climates [ Wang et al., 1992].