• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.355-355
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• 2018

Natural hydrology systems, including high flow and low flow events, are important for aquatic ecosystem health and are essential for controlling the structure and function of ecological processes in river ecosystems. Ecosystem responses to flow changes have been studied in a variety of ways, but little attention has been given to how episodic typhoons and atmospheric circulation patterns can change these hydrologic regime-ecological response relationships. In this diagnostic study, we use an empirical approach to investigate the salient features of interactions between atmospheric circulation, climate, and runoff in the five major Korean river basins.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.294-298
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• 2008

Snow cover is a potential water resource for later spring and summer seasons as well as a thermal mirror with high reflectivity causing decreases of surface air temperature during cold winter seasons. In this study, current and future changes in Northern Hemisphere snow extent and their potential linkages with atmospheric circulation are examined. The NOAA AVHRR visible snow extent (1967-2006) data as well as observational (NCEP-DOE 1979-2006) and modeled (GFDL 2.1 2081-2100) pressure and surface air temperature data are used. Analyses of observational data demonstrate that the snow extent in meteorological spring (March to April) and summer (June to August) has significantly decreased since the late 1980s. The offset of snow seasons (the timing of snow melt in spring) have also significantly advanced particularly in Europe, East Asia, and northwestern North America. Analyses of pressure fields reveal that the spatial patterns of the earlier snow melt are associated with changes in atmospheric circulation such as the Arctic Oscillation (AO). In the positive winter AO years, multiple positive pressure departure cores in the upper troposphere (200hPa) are observed over the mid-latitude regions from March to mid-April, while a negative pressure departure core (70hPa) prevails over the Arctic Ocean. The reversed anomaly patterns related to later snow melt occur in negative winter AO years. The comparison between current and future thermal spring onsets suggest that snow melt patterns will intensify with larger greenhouse gas emissions, indicating earlier hydrological spring onset.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.545-561
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• 2018

Over the North East Asia, extreme anomalous precipitation were observed in 2013 and 2014. During 2013 summer the precipitation was found to be higher (two standard deviation) than the climatological mean of the region; whereas during 2014, which was a borderline El Ni?o year, precipitation was found to be lower (one standard deviation). To understand the differences of these two anomalous years the Global/Regional Integrated Model system (GRIMs) has been used. The study found that low landsurface temperature and high sea-surface temperature over ocean caused a smaller land-sea contrast of surface temperature between East Asia and North West Pacific Ocean in 2014, which could have caused an eastward shift of mean monsoon circulation in that year compared to the circulation in 2013. Due to a change in the lower level circulation and wind field over East Asia the evaporation and moisture transport patterns became very different in those two years. In 2013, this study found high latent heat flux over Eastern China, which implies an increased surface evaporation over that region, and the moisture transported to the north by the mean monsoon circulation; whereas, there was no correlated transport of moisture to the North East Asia during 2014. The precipitable water over North East Asia has a stronger correlation with the latent heat flux over southern land region than that from Ocean region in the eastern side in both the years. A new approach is proposed to estimate the sub-grid scale hydrometeors from GRIMs, overestimated in the existing model.

• Atmosphere
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.67-78
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• 2009

A strong negative correlation has been detected between the North Pacific Oscillation Index (NPI) and the Effective Drought Index (EDI) in May over Korea. In May of positive NPI year, anomalous patterns caused a drought in Korea as follows: the anomalous south-low, north-high low-level pressure patterns in the northeast and southeast of Korea have strengthened the anomalous northerlies to Korea. In addition, these anomalous northerlies have prevented western North Pacific (WNP) high from moving northward. As a result, anomalous descending flows have strengthened in the mid-latitude region in East Asia. In the WNP, the anomalous south-high, north-low sea surface temperature (SST) has been widely distributed, which has strengthened anomalous south-low, north-high low-level pressure patterns. These anomalous characteristics of pressure and SST patterns observed in May of positive NPI years have already been detected in previous winter (December-February) and early spring (March, April). In addition, the anomalous negative sea ice concentration in the North Pacific during two seasons has strengthened the anomalous anticyclonic circulation in the same region and in turn made a contribution to formation of anomalous south-low, north-high pressure patterns in May.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.319-341
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• 2010

The purposes of this study are to classify heavy snowfall types in the Republic of Korea based on fresh snowfall data and atmospheric circulation data during the last 36(1973/74-2008/09) snow seasons and to identify typical surface synoptic climate patterns that characterize each heavy snowfall type. Four synoptic climate categories and seventeen regional heavy snowfall types are classified based on sea level pressure/surface wind vector patterns in East Asia and frequent spatial clustering patterns of heavy snowfall in the Republic of Korea, respectively. Composite analyses of multiple surface synoptic weather charts demonstrate that the locations and intensity of pressure/wind vector mean and anomaly cores in East Asia differentiate each regional heavy snowfall type in Korea. These differences in synoptic climatic fields are primarily associated with the surge of the Siberian high pressure system and the appearance of low pressure systems over the Korean Peninsula. In terms of hemispheric atmospheric circulation, synoptic climatic patterns in the negative mode of winter Arctic Oscillation (AO) are also associated with frequent heavy snowfall in the Republic of Korea at seasonal scales. These results from long-term synoptic climatic data could contribute to improvement of short-range or seasonal prediction of regional heavy snowfall.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.374-387
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• 2007

We examined the characteristics of atmospheric circulation over East Asia to find the causes of the unusual warm winter 2006/2007 in Korea. During that time, the anomalous atmospheric conditions are characterized by the weakening of the Siberian High and the Aleutian Low, the enhancement of low-level south easterlies near Korea, and the weakening of upper-level jet to the south of Japan. These patterns are considerably associated with the atmospheric condition of non-blocking year over the Siberia (60-140E). In addition, both El $Ni\widetilde{n}o$ and Arctic Oscillation (AO) are likely to induce those patterns. Therefore, it is suggested that the anomalous atmospheric states related to non-blocking flow, El $Ni\widetilde{n}o$, and the positive phase of AO are responsible for the warmest winter season in 2006/2007 for the period of 1958/1959-2006/2007.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.37-47
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• 2024

In the summer of 2018, the Korea-Japan (KJ) region experienced an extremely severe and prolonged heatwave. This study examines the GloSea6 model's prediction performance for the 2018 KJ heatwave event and investigates how its prediction skill is related to large-scale circulation patterns identified by the k-means clustering method. Cluster 1 pattern is characterized by a KJ high-pressure anomaly, Cluster 2 pattern is distinguished by an Eastern European high-pressure anomaly, and Cluster 3 pattern is associated with a Pacific-Japan pattern-like anomaly. By analyzing the spatial correlation coefficients between these three identified circulation patterns and GloSea6 predictions, we assessed the contribution of each circulation pattern to the heatwave lifecycle. Our results show that the Eastern European high-pressure pattern, in particular, plays a significant role in predicting the evolution of the development and peak phases of the 2018 KJ heatwave approximately two weeks in advance. Furthermore, this study suggests that an accurate representation of large-scale atmospheric circulations in upstream regions is a key factor in seasonal forecast models for improving the predictability of extreme weather events, such as the 2018 KJ heatwave.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.423-433
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• 2018

Particulate matter air pollution is a serious problem affecting human health and visibility. The variations in $PM_{10}$ concentrations are influenced by not only local emission sources, but also atmospheric circulation conditions. In this study, we investigate the temporal features of $PM_{10}$ concentrations in South Korea and the atmospheric circulation patterns associated with high concentration episodes of $PM_{10}$ during winter (December-January-February) 2001-2016. Based on those analyses, a Korea Particulate matter Index (KPI) is developed to represent the large-scale atmospheric pattern associated with high concentration episodes of $PM_{10}$. The atmospheric patterns are characterized by persistent high-pressure anomalies, weakened lower-level north-westerly anomalies, and northward shift of the upper-level meridional wind anomalies near the Korean Peninsula. To evaluate the change in occurrence of high concentration episodes of $PM_{10}$ under a possible future warmer climate, we apply KPI analysis to CMIP5 climate simulations. Here, historical and two representative concentration pathway (RCP) scenarios (RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5) are used. It is found that the occurrence of atmospheric conditions favorable for high $PM_{10}$ concentration episodes tends to increase over South Korea in response to climate change. This suggests that large-scale atmospheric circulation changes under future warmer climate can contribute to increasing high $PM_{10}$ concentration episodes in South Korea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.79-91
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• 2017

It is imperative to understand the characteristics of atmospheric circulation patterns under the climate system due to its impact on climatic factors. Thus this study focused on analyzing the impact of the atmospheric circulation on the relationship between precipitation and temperature regionally. Here we used monthly gridded observational data (i.e., CRU-TS3.2, NOAA-20CR V2c) and HadGEM2-AO climate model by RCP8.5, for the period of 1960~1999 and 2060~2099. The experiment results indicated that the negative relationship was presented over East Asia and Europe during summer. On the other hand, at around Korea (i.e. EA1: $31^{\circ}N{\sim}38^{\circ}N$, $126^{\circ}E{\sim}140^{\circ}E$) and Northwestern Europe (i.e. EU1: $48^{\circ}N{\sim}55^{\circ}N$, $0^{\circ}E{\sim}16^{\circ}E$) in winter, strong positive relationship dominate due to warm moist advection come from ocean related to intensity variation of the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), respectively. It was found that values of positive relation in EA1 and EU1 at the end of the 21st century is regionally greater than at the end of 20th century during winter since magnitude of variation of the EAWM and NAO is projected to be greater in the future as result of simulation with RCP 8.5. Future summer, the negative correlations are weakened in EA1 region while strengthened in EU1 region. For better understanding of correlations with respect to RCP scenarios, a further study is required.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.33 no.1_2
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• pp.25-35
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• 2021

In this study, we identified characteristics of heatwaves on the Korean Peninsula and related atmospheric circulation patterns using data on the daily maximum temperature (TMX) and reanalysis data for the past 42 years (1979-2020) and analyzed their connection to the Arctic oscillation (AO). The heatwave on the Korean Peninsula showed to be stronger and more frequent in the 2000s. The recent strong and frequent heatwaves on the Korean Peninsula are mainly affected by abnormal high-pressure over the Korean Peninsula on the middle/upper-level atmosphere and the strengthening of the North Pacific high pressure. Interestingly, composite difference of sea level pressure showed very similar results to the positive AO pattern. The correlation coefficients between the summertime AO and the TMX and HWD of the Korean Peninsula were 0.407 and 0.437, respectively, which showed a statistical significance in 1%, and showed a clear relationship with the abnormal high-pressure over the Korean Peninsula and the strengthening of the North Pacific high pressure. In addition, in the positive AO phase, the TMX and HWD of the Korean peninsula were approximately 30.1 ℃ and 14.6 days, which were about 1.2 ℃ and 8.8 days higher than in the negative AO phase, respectively. As a result of the 15-year moving average correlation analysis, the relationship between the heatwave and AO on the Korean Peninsula has increased significantly since 2003, and the linear relationship between them has become more apparent. Moreover, after the 2000s, when the relationship developed, AO had more strongly induced the atmospheric circulation pattern to be more favorable to the occurrence of heatwaves in the Korean Peninsula. This study implies that understanding the AO, which is the large-scale variability in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Arctic-mid latitude teleconnection, can improve the performance of global climate models and help predict the seasonality of the summer heatwave on the Korean Peninsula.