• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.227-241
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• 2016

This study investigated the cause of the heavy snowfall that occurred in the East Coast of Korea from 6 February to 14 February 2014. The synoptic conditions were analyzed using blocking index, equivalent potential temperature, potential vorticity, maritime temperature difference, temperature advection, and ground convergence. During the case period, a large blocking pattern developed over the Western Pacific causing the flow to be stagnant, and there was a North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system over the Korean Peninsula because of this arrangement. The case period was divided into three parts based on the synoptic forcing that was responsible for the heavy snowfall; detailed analyses were conducted for the first and last period. In the first period, a heavy snowfall occurred over the entire Korean Peninsula due to strong updrafts from baroclinic instability and a low pressure caused by potential vorticity located at the mid-troposphere. In the lower atmosphere, a North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system over the Eastern Korea intensified the easterly airflow and created a convergence zone near the ground which strengthened the upslope effect of the Taebaek Mountain range with a cumulative fresh snowfall amount of 41 cm in the East Coast region. In the last period, the cold air nestled in the Maritime Province of Siberia and Manchuria strengthened much more than that in the first half and extended to the East Sea. The temperature difference between the 850 hPa air and the SST was large and convective clouds developed over the sea. The highest cumulative fresh snow amount of 39.7 cm was recorded in the coastal area during this period. During the entire period, vertically oriented equivalent potential temperature showed neutral stability layer that helped the cloud formation and development in the East Coast. The 2014 heavy snowfall case over the East Coast provinces of Korea were due to: 1) stagnation of the system by blocking pattern, 2) the dynamic effect of mid-level potential vorticity of 1.6 PVU, 3) the easterly air flow from North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system, 4) the existence of vertically oriented neutral stable layer, and 5) the expansion of strong cold air into the East Sea which created a large temperature difference between the air and the ocean.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.126-138
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• 1996

The characteristics of rapid development of the low pressure system over the East Sea from 06 to 08 Nov., 1995 has been analyzed in detail by the synoptic numerical products and satellite observations. The Low system was initially triggered the development of the baroclinic leaf cloud over the border of the northern part of Korea and China and moved eastward and then developed explosively com-ma or lambda type cloud system over the East Sea. To forecast well the general development and movement of the coastal winter cyclone over the East Sea popularly in a numerical simulation by several scientists, the large baroclinicity, continuous support of water vapor, and sequential cold outbreak over the warm sea surface have been more commonly concerned about. The cyclone which the central surface pressure was dropped 40hPa within 24 hours has often accompanied strong wind and heavy snow- or rain-fall in the winter season. In all successive observations with 12-hourly satellite imagery and analyzed meteorological variables in this period, the centers of the sea-level pressure and 500hPa geopotential height associated with this cyclone were typically illustrated by moving farther eastward using GMS combined enhanced IR images. The maxi-mum wind sustained by this system with the intensity and central pressure of tropical storm was about 60 knots with the center pressure drop of 44hPa/day similar to the North American cyclonic bomb and Atlantic storm.

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.103-118
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• 2022

This study evaluates the simulated meteorological fields with a particular focus on the low-level wind, which plays an important role in air pollutants dispersion, under the varying synoptic environment. Additionally, the effects of subgrid-scale orography parameterization and improved topography/land-use data on the simulated low-level wind is investigated. The WRF model version 4.1.3 is utilized to simulate two cases that were affected by different synoptic environments. One case from 2 to 6 April 2012 presents the substantial low-level wind speed over the Korean peninsula where the synoptic environment is characterized by the baroclinic instability. The other case from 14 to 18 April 2012 presents the relatively weak low-level wind speed and distinct diurnal cycle of low-level meteorological fields. The control simulations of both cases represent the systematic overestimation of the low-level wind speed. The positive bias for the case under the baroclinic instability is considerably alleviated by applying the subgrid-scale orography parameterization. However, the improvement of wind speed for the other case showing relatively weak low-level wind speed is not significant. Applying the high-resolution topography and land-use data also improves the simulated wind speed by reducing the positive bias. Our analysis shows that the increased roughness length in the high-resolution topography and land-use data is the key contributor that reduces the simulated wind speed. The simulated wind direction is also improved with the high-resolution data for both cases. Overall, our study indicates that wind forecasts can be improved through the application of the subgrid-scale orography parameterization and high-resolution topography/land-use data.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.38 no.3
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• pp.87-100
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• 2003

The monthly observations of hydrography in the Cheju Strait from September 1995 to June 1998 show that the Cheju Strait is occupied mostly by Tsushima Current Water in winter and coastal waters in summer. In summer, the Yangtze Coastal Water appears in the upper layer and cold water in the lower layer. Especially, the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water appears in August 1997, and the clockwise flow of warm water along the northwestern coasts of Cheju Island is disturbed by an eastward expansion of the cold water from the northwest. The cold water expansion seems to be partly associated with strong southeasterly winds. Current measurements in the Cheju Strait suggest that there exists steady eastward barotropic component of about 5 cm/sec, which corresponds to 0.2 Sv barotropic transport in the Cheju Strait. Geostropic transport (baroclinic component) ranges from 0.1 Sv in winter to 0.4 Sv in summer. By adding the barotrophic component of 0.2 Sv, the total transport varies from 0.3 Sv to 0.6 Sv, which is consistent with previous estimations. The transport increase in summer seems to be caused by the expansion of coastal water to the Cheju Strait.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.223-242
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• 2001

This paper presents the depth-mean monthly variation in the circulation of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea computed using a robust diagnostic model. The mixed three-dimensional finite-difference Galerkin function model developed by Lee et at. (2000, 2001) has been extended to take into account baroclinic effects and then used to calculate the depth-mean flow fields as part of the results. In addition to M2 tide and oceanic flows previously considered, the model has been driven by the monthly mean wind stresses from Na and Seo (1998), the density gradient calculated based on by GDEM data set released by US Navy. Model results are very encouraging in that many of observed features including Jeju Cyclonic Gyre and frontal eddies along the shelfside of the Kuroshio main stream and west of Kyushu, are satisfactorily reproduced and are expected to be of value in interpreting observations in various oceanograhic disciplines.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.41-49
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• 2008

Internal waves and internal tides occur frequently along the eastern coast of Korea. During the spring-tide period in April 2003, the East Korean Warm Current (EKWC) flowed near the Korean East Coast Farming Forecast System (KECFFS; a moored oceanographic measurement system), creating a strong thermocline at the intermediate layer. Weakened stratification and well-mixed water appeared frequently around the KECFFS, with duration of approximately 1 day. The results suggest the following scenario. Baroclinic motion related to the internal tide generated high frequency internal waves around the thermocline. The breaking of those waves then created turbulence around the thermocline. After well-mixed water appeared, a current component with perpendicular direction to the EKWC appeared within the inertial period. The change in stratification around the KECFFS locally broke the geostrophic balance as a transient state. This local vertical mixing formed an ageostrophic current within the inertial period.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.105-112
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• 1999

Density and temeprature fronts are common features of the ocean. However, frontal dynamics are not quasi-geostrophic because the isopycnal deflections associated with fronts are large compared with the scale height of the hydrostatic geopotential. The frontal geostrophic model, developed by Cushman-Roisin et al.(1992) is generally used fro describing the dynamics of surface-density ocean fronts, whereas the two-layer frontal geostrophic model is used for fronts on a sloping continental shelf. This paper investigates the baroclinic nonlinear stability of surface-density ocean fronts and fronts on a sloping continental shelf using the two-layer frontal geostrophic model mentioned above. Nonlinear stability criteria for the two kinds of fronts are obtained using Arnol'd's (1965; 1969) variational principle and a prior estimate method. This is the first time a nonlinear stability criterion for surface ocean fronts has been established, furthermore, the results obtained for fronts on a sloping bottom are superior to any previous ones.

• Atmosphere
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.249-266
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• 2008

The tendencies for teleconnection with a time lag and other characteristics of Korean summer droughts have been investigated and some clues to predict the drought occurrences several months before have been found. First, the May and June droughts in Korea are simultaneous with those over the northwestern part of Korea owing to the relation with the baroclinic wave. However, the July and August droughts occur over the mid-latitudes or southern part of Korea owing to the relation with the Changma front. Second, several months before the MJJA droughts in Korea, it is found that the effective drought index (EDI) over particular areas (hereafter, referred to as the omen areas) is large. Thailand, Carolina Island, Mongolia, and Central Bengal Bay were selected as the omen areas. Third, when the monthly minimum EDI (MME) of the omen area in winter is more than 0.7, it signifies that the precipitation is above normal, Korea has almost always experienced a summer drought. However, the droughts occurring with this type of relationship only represent half of the MJJA droughts in Korea. Fourth, the relationships between the Korean drought and the precipitation over omen areas in low latitudes are not valid over all the eight precipitation areas in Korea, but only over Areas I, II, and III, where heavy rains occur during spring and summer.

• Atmosphere
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.387-398
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• 2023

The double Fourier series (DFS) spectral dynamical core is evaluated for the two idealized test cases in comparison with the spherical harmonics (SPH) spectral dynamical core. A new approach in calculating the meridional expansion coefficients of DFS, which was recently developed to alleviate a computational error but only applied to the 2D spherical shallow water equation, is also tested. In the 3D deformational tracer transport test, the difference is not conspicuous between SPH and DFS simulations, with a slight outperformance of the new DFS approach in terms of undershooting problem. In the baroclinic wave development test, the DFS-simulated wave pattern is quantitatively similar to the SPH-simulated one at high resolutions, but with a substantially lower computational cost. The new DFS approach does not offer a salient advantage compared to the original DFS while computation cost slightly increases. This result suggests that the current DFS spectral method can be a practical and alternative dynamical core for high-resolution global modeling.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.159-174
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• 2022

Flow prediction was carried out through observational survey and three dimensional multi-layered numerical diagnostic model experiment to clarify the time and spatial structure of tidal current and residual flow dominant in the sea exchange and material circulation of the waters around Geumo Islands in the southern waters of Korea. The horizontal variation of tidal current is so large that it causes asymmetric tidal mixing due to horizontal eddies and the topographical effect creating convergence and dispersion of flow direction and velocity. Due to strong tidal currents flowing northwest-southeast, counterclockwise and clockwise eddies are formed on the left and right sides of the south of Sori Island. These topographical eddies are created by horizontal turbulence and bottom friction causing nonlinear effects. Baroclinic density flows are less than 5 cm/s at coastal area in summer and the entire sea area in winter. The wind driven currents assuming summer and winter seasonal winds are also less than 5 cm/s and the current flow rate is high in winter. Density current in summer and wind driven current in winter have a relatively greater effect on the net residual flows (tidal residual current + density current + density driven current) around Geumo Islands Sea area.