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High-precision (±0.1 ppm) and high-frequency (hourly averaged) in situ measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) were made for the first time from August 2005 to July 2007 at Yanbian, China using a non-dispersive Infrared (NDIR) analyzer with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/Earth System Research Laboratory (NOAA/ESRL) standards. The results of these measurements are presented in this paper and are used to investigate the regional representativeness of regional background data at Yanbian and determine the CO emission source regions in Northeast Asia. The phase of the monthly variations at Yanbian reflects the special regional characteristics, which were overall in excellent agreement with other observatories in the middle-to-high latitudes in the Northern Hemisphere. Applying a hybrid receptor model to the regional emission source events in cold period (November-April), we estimated the distribution of the major CO emissions in the northeast Asia. The results indicated that the strongest potential emission areas contributing to Yanbian are the Beijing & Tianjin metropolitan areas, southwestern part of Shandong Province including Jinan, and Vladivostok. The results of this study reveal the usefulness of in situ CO measurements at Yanbian in establishing the scientific foundation for monitoring the large CO emission areas in northern China and Russia. Continued monitoring of CO at Yanbian within a regional network should provide significant contributions to both understanding the global/regional carbon cycle and constraining 'top-down' emissions in Northeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]