• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.258-275
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• 2000

The purpose of this study is to investigate diurnal variations of snowstorm occurred along the East Coast of the Korean Peninsula. The snowstorm which occurred on 5${\sim}$7 January 1997 have been analyzed. The pressure patterns were analyzed through surface and upper-air chart(850hPa). Diurnal variations of four areas, i. e. Youngdong, Mt. Taebaek, Youngseo and Kyungbuk regions were analyzed through wind direction and speed, cloud amounts, surface temperature, dewpoint temperature, relative humidity and sea level pressure. And snowfall amounts over four areas were analyzed through regional distribution, daily and temporal variations. The snowfall which occurred on January 5 was caused by the weak low pressure which is located in Kyusu region of Japan. The snowfall of January 6 occurred due to the Siberian high's expansion and instability. And northeasterly wind is one factor of the snowstorm which occurred in Mt. Taebaek region on 7 January. Heavy snowfall was caused by westerly wind but easterly wind occurred weak snowfall in Youngdong area. The precipitation of Kyungbuk region(eapecially, Pohang) was less than that of Youngdong region because the air mass which was not modified had influence on Kyungbuk region on 6${\sim}$7 January, 1997.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.393-408
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• 2014

In this study, the spatio-temporal characteristics of summer extreme precipitation events in the Republic of Korea are examined based on the daily precipitation data observed at approximately 360 sites of both Automatic Weather Station (AWS) and Automated Synoptic Observation System (ASOS) networks by the Korea Meteorological Administration for the recent decade(2002~2011). During the summer Changma period(late June~mid July), both the frequency of extreme precipitation events exceeding 80mm of daily precipitation and their decadal maximum values are greatest at most of weather stations. In contrast, during the Changma pause period (late July~early August), these patterns are observed only in the northern regions of Geyeonggi province and western Kangwon province as such patterns are detected around Mt. Sobaek and Mt. Halla as well as in the southern regions of Geyeonggi province and western Kangwon province during the late Changma period (mid August~early September) due to north-south oscillation of the Changma front. Investigation of their regional patterns confirms that not only migration of the Changma front but also topological components in response to the advection of moistures such as elevation and aspect of major mountain ridges are detrimental to spatio-temporal patterns of extreme precipitation events. These results indicate that each local administration needs differentiated strategies to mitigate the potential damages by extreme precipitation events due to the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of their frequency and intensity during each Changma period.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.791-803
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• 2016

Recently, frequency of extreme rainfall events in South Korea has been substantially increased due to the enhanced climate variability. Korea is prone to flooding due to being surrounded by mountains, along with high rainfall intensity during a short period. In the past three decades, an increase in the frequency of heavy rainfall events has been observed due to enhanced climate variability and climate change. This study aimed to analyze extreme rainfalls informed by their frequency of occurrences using a long-term rainfall data. In this respect, we developed a Poisson-Generalized Pareto Distribution (Poisson-GPD) based rainfall frequency method which allows us to simultaneously explore changes in the amount and exceedance probability of the extreme rainfall events defined by different thresholds. Additionally, this study utilized a Bayesian approach to better estimate both parameters and their uncertainties. We also investigated the synoptic patterns associated with the extreme events considered in this study. The results showed that the Poisson-GPD based design rainfalls were rather larger than those of based on the Gumbel distribution. It seems that the Poisson-GPD model offers a more reasonable explanation in the context of flood safety issue, by explicitly considering the changes in the frequency. Also, this study confirmed that low and high pressure system in the East China Sea and the central North Pacific, respectively, plays crucial roles in the development of the extreme rainfall in South Korea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.219-232
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• 2012

The intensive observation (ProbeX-2010) was performed to investigate an urban effect on summer rainfall over the Seoul metropolitan area from 13 August to 3 September 2010. Two kinds of urban effect were detected. First, weak rainfall (${\leq}1\;mm\;hr^{-1}$) was observed more frequently in the downwind area of Seoul than any other area of the country. The high frequency of weak rainfall in the downwind area was also confirmed from the recent five years of observational data (2006-2010). Because the high frequency was more apparent in mountainous regions during nighttime, the weak rainfall seems to be caused by a combined effect of urbanization and topography. Second, sporadically, a convective system was developed rapidly in the downwind area of Seoul, causing heavy rainfall (${\geq}10\;mm\;hr^{-1}$). It can be most clearly seen in series of radar images around 1300-1500 KST 27 August 2010. We investigated in detail the synoptic and local weather and upper air conditions. As a result, not only urban-induced high sensible heat but also conditionally unstable atmosphere (especially unstable in low level) and low level moisture were pointed out as important factors that contributed to urban-induced heavy rainfall.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.222-237
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• 2020

A heavy (93 mm hr^-1) rainfall event accompanied by lightning occurred over Gangneung in the Yeongdong region of South Korea on August 6, 2018. This study investigated the underlying mechanism for the heavy rainfall event by using COMS satellite cloud products, surface- and upper-level weather charts, ECMWF reanalysis data, and radiosonde data. The COMS satellite cloud products showed rainfall exceeding 10 mm hr^-1, with the lowest cloud-top temperature of approximately -65℃ and high cloud optical thickness of approximately 20-25. The radiosonde data showed the existence of strong vertical wind shear between the upper and lower cloud layers. Furthermore, a strong inversion in the equivalent potential temperature was observed at a pressure altitude of 700 hPa. In addition, there was a highly developed cloud layer at a height of 13 km, corresponding with the vertical analysis of the ECMWF data. This demonstrated the increased atmospheric instability induced by the vertical differences in equivalent potential temperature in the Yeongdong region. Consequently, cold, dry air was trapped within relatively warm, humid air in the upper atmosphere over the East Sea and adjacent Yeongdong region. This caused unstable atmospheric conditions that led to rapidly developing convective clouds and heavy rainfall over Gangneung.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.71-87
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• 2007

In this study, 14 heavy snow events in Yeongdong area which are local phenomena are analyzed using MODIS cloud products provided from NASA/GSFC. The clouds of Yeongdong area at observed at specific time by MODIS are classified into A, B, C Types, based on the characteristic of cloud properties: cloud top temperature, cloud optical thickness, Effective Particle Radius, and Cloud Particle Phase. The analysis of relations between cloud properties and precipitation amount for each cloud type show that there are statistically significant correlations between Cloud Optical Thickness and precipitation amount for both A and B type and also significant correlation is found between Cloud Top Temperature and precipitation amount for A type. However, for C type there is not any significant correlations between cloud properties and precipitation amount. A-type clouds are mainly lower stratus clouds with small-size droplet, which may be formed under the low level cold advection derived synoptically in the East sea. B-type clouds are developed cumuliform clouds, which are closely related to the low pressure center developing over the East sea. On the other hand, C-type clouds are likely multi-layer clouds, which make satellite observation difficult due to covering of high clouds over low level clouds directly related with Yeongdong heavy snow. It is, therefore, concluded that MODIS cloud products may be useful except the multi-layer clouds for understanding the mechanism of heavy snow and estimating the precipitation amount from satellite data in the case of Yeongdong heavy snow.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.183-200
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• 2019

In this study, the characteristics of seasonal $PM_{2.5}$ behavior in South Korea and other Northeast Asian regions were analyzed by using the $PM_{2.5}$ ground measurement data, weather data, WRF and CMAQ models. Analysis of seasonal $PM_{2.5}$ behavior in Northeast Asia showed that $PM_{2.5}$ concentration at 6 IMS sites in South Korea was increased by long-distance transport and atmospheric congestion, or decreased by clean air inflow due to seasonal weather characteristics. As a result of analysis by applying BFM to air quality model, the contribution from foreign countries dominantly influenced the $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations of Baengnyeongdo due to the low self-emission and geographical location. In the case of urban areas with high self-emissions such as Seoul and Ulsan, the $PM_{2.5}$ contribution from overseas was relatively low compared to other regions, but the standard deviation of the season was relatively high. This study is expected to improve the understanding of the air pollutant phenomenon by analyzing the characteristics of $PM_{2.5}$ behavior in Northeast Asia according to the seasonal weather condition change. At the same time, this study can be used to establish the air quality policy in the future, knowing that the contribution of $PM_{2.5}$ concentration to the domestic and overseas can be different depending on the regional emission characteristics.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.93-101
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• 2017

The distribution of inter-annual variation in temperature would help evaluate the likelihood of a climatic risk and assess suitable zones of crops under climate change. In this study, we evaluated two methods to estimate the standard deviation of temperature in the areas where weather information is limited. We calculated the monthly standard deviation of temperature by collecting temperature at 0600 and 1500 local standard time from 10 automated weather stations (AWS). These weather stations were installed in the range of 8 to 1,073m above sea level within a mountainous catchment for 2011-2015. The observed values were compared with estimates, which were calculated using a geospatial correction scheme to derive the site-specific temperature. Those estimates explained 88 and 86% of the temperature variations at 0600 and 1500 LST, respectively. However, it often underestimated the temperatures. In the spring and fall, it tended to had different variance (e.g., increasing or decreasing pattern) from lower to higher elevation with the observed values. A regression analysis was also conducted to quantify the relationship between the standard deviation in temperature and the topography. The regression equation explained a relatively large variation of the monthly standard deviation when lapse-rate corrected temperature, basic topographical variables (e.g., slope, and aspect) and topographical variables related to temperature (e.g., thermal belt, cold air drainage, and brightness index) were used. The coefficient of determination for the regression analysis ranged between 0.46 and 0.98. It was expected that the regression model could account for 70% of the spatial variation of the standard deviation when the monthly standard deviation was predicted by using the minimum-maximum effective range of topographical variables for the area.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.265-275
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• 2006

This study represents the mechanism of progressive succession and potential natural vegetation on the forest vegetation in and surrounding Daegu. As a result of DCA, the feature of community was determined by an altitude and humid gradients. The soil moisture, contents of organic matter and total nitrogen increased as the community developed. In the interspecific association analysis, the forest vegetation was divided into two species groups and they were influenced by temperature and soil moisture. Especially, each two groups showed different stages of vegetation development according to the progressive succession and life form composition supported those results. It was predicted that Quercus variabilis, Q. acutissima, Q. dentata and Pinus densiflora communities would develop into Q. serrata community or Q. mongolica community depending on their location or species composition. In the study area, the potential natural vegetation was divided into 3 communities by biogeographical gradients such as species composition, soil environment, and geographical features: 1)Q. mongolica community in the middle-upper area of the mountain, 2)Q. serrata community in the middle-lower area of the mountain and 3)Carpinus cordata-Acer mono community in the cove area. It is suggested that the Q.mongolica and C.cordata-A.mono communities become actual vegetation and potential natural vegetation. But it is also suggested that the P. densiflora community would be changed into the potential natural vegetation of the Q. mongolica community and Q. serrata community on the basis of the present species composition.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.157-168
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• 2014

From a complex systems perspective, ecohydrological systems in forests may be characterized with (1) large networks of components which give rise to complex collective behaviors, (2) sophisticated information processing, and (3) adaptation through self-organization and learning processes. In order to demonstrate such characteristics, we applied the recently proposed 'process networks' approach to a temperate deciduous forest in Gwangneung National Arboretum in Korea. The process network analysis clearly delineated the forest ecohydrological systems as the hierarchical networks of information flows and feedback loops with various time scales among different variables. Several subsystems were identified such as synoptic subsystem (SS), atmospheric boundary layer subsystem (ABLS), biophysical subsystem (BPS), and biophysicochemical subsystem (BPCS). These subsystems were assembled/disassembled through the couplings/decouplings of feedback loops to form/deform newly aggregated subsystems (e.g., regional subsystem) - an evidence for self-organizing processes of a complex system. Our results imply that, despite natural and human disturbances, ecosystems grow and develop through self-organization while maintaining dynamic equilibrium, thereby continuously adapting to environmental changes. Ecosystem integrity is preserved when the system's self-organizing processes are preserved, something that happens naturally if we maintain the context for self-organization. From this perspective, the process networks approach makes sense.