• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.33 no.5
• /
• pp.422-433
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristic changes of the Changma season in the 2000s. To accomplish this goal, we have used daily rainfall data collected over nearly 40 years (1971 to 2010). The average summer precipitation data including the Changma season were collected from 16 weather stations that are placed across the three major regions (i.e. central region, southern region, and Jeju region) as Korea Meteorological Administration divided. These precipitation data were analyzed to find out characteristic changes of the Changma season. Results of the precipitation data comparison among the major regions that, monthly average precipitation in the central region was the highest in July; its precipitation tended to increase from May to September. In the southern region, the precipitation amount was lowest in June and tended to increase in May, September, and August. In the Jeju region, the precipitation has been the highest in June and July for the past 30 years, whereas September has been highest month in the last 10 years. The precipitation amount in the Jeju region decreased both in June and July, whereas it tended to grow in May, August and September. A correlation coefficient formula by Karl Pearson has been used to find out correlations between the Changma season and the precipitation of the major regions in 2000s and normal years. It was found that the correlation coefficient has decreased from 0.723 to 0.524 in the 2000s (2001 to 2010) compared to normal years (1971 to 2000).

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.6-12
• /
• 2001

The East Asian monsoon is generally accompanied with the quasi-stationary front along the northern and northwestern periphery of the subtropical anticyclone in the boundary zone of the polar cold air mass and the tropical warm air mass. The rainy season in Korea has been called as Changma since the middle of 1500s. In meteorology, the rainy season with the quasi-stationary front, the Changma front, during the early summer has been defined as the Changma since 1905. The difference of meaning on Changma between meteorologists and the general public sometime does give a confusion. For example, the heavy rainfall event after the retreat of Changma is recognized as Changma by the general public, but not by most of meteorologists. The decision of the onset and retreat dates of Changma among the meteorologists is also ambiguous because of different viewpoints on the definition of Changma. In this study we survey the etymology and definition of Changma.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.30 no.4
• /
• pp.455-462
• /
• 2020

Among the weather conditions on the Korean Peninsula, Changma is a notable phenomenon. This is because substantial amount of the precipitation on the Korean Peninsula tends to happen during the Changma season. But there are times when this tendency falls into whims. That's the case when it doesn't rain or rains only little during the Changma season. The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) describes this phenomenon as 'Dry Changma' - meaning . However, 'Dry Changma' is often regarded as an instance of contradicto in adjecto. Since the general public believe that 'Changma' means . This confusion often leads to distrust in meteorologists. In this paper, we would like to propose a reasonable solution to this conundrum by employing the conceptual resources of contemporary philosophy. First of all, I will make explicit the meaning of 'Changma' that the public and meteorologists think of. And then a brief explanation of the concept of natural kinds will be presented and the argument will be made that Changma is a natural kind. Next, we will discuss a view on natural kind terms advanced by Saul Kripke, a renowned philosopher. We will argue that in Kripke's view, the general public's thought that 'Dry Changma' is contradicto in adjecto is not correct. This will eventually lead to the conclusion that the meteorologist usage of 'Changma' is the correct one, which is thereby to be adopted by the public.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.18-26
• /
• 2005

The East Asian summermonsoon is generally accompanied with the quasi-stationary front along the northern and northwestern periphery of the subtropical Northwest Pacific high. The rainy season in Korea has been called as Changma since the middle of 1500s. Understanding of Changma and heavy rainfall advancing along the Changma front is one of main interesting of Korean meteorologists. This study briefly summarized the descriptive characteristics of Changma and its relatedmechanism, definitions on the Changma period, and etymology of Changma through reviewing the previous studies on Changma.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.192-202
• /
• 2003

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of precipitation distribution of the Korean Peninsula according to the latitudinal location of the front for the Changma season. In the Korean Peninsula there are much rainfalls in the regions near the Changma Front and these regions have much annual mean rainfall. When the front is going north across the latitude of $30^{\circ}N$, precipitation is increased in the whole country and it is the beginning time of Changma. The day which has rainfall less than 10 mm a day appears frequently around the neighborhood of the Gaema plateau in the Changma season. In the basin of the Cheongcheon River the greater part of much mean rainfall of June and July is explained by the precipitation of the cases of no front in $128^{\circ}E$ and that for fronts of the latitude zone of $30{\sim}33^{\circ}N$ which is far from the basin, and this is a different point from the other much rainfall region in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.21 no.12
• /
• pp.1511-1521
• /
• 2012

An attempt is made to analyse characteristic features of heavy rainfalls which occur at the metropolitan area of the Korean peninsular the on- and off- Changma season. For this, two representative heavy rainfall episodes are selected; one is the on-Changma season wherein a torrential rain episode happened at Goyang city on 12 July 2006, and the other is the off-Changma season, a heavy rainfall event in Seoul on 21 September 2006. Both recorded considerable amounts of precipitation, over 250mm in a half-day, which greatly exceeded the amount expected by numerical prediction models at those times, and caused great damage to property and life in the affected area. Similarities in the characteristics of both episodes were shown by; the location of upper-level jet streak and divergence fields of the upper wind over heavy rainfall areas, significantly high equivalent potential temperatures in the low atmospheric layer due to the entrainment of hot and humid air by the low-level jet, and the existence of very dry air and cold air pool in the middle layer of the atmosphere at the peak time of the rainfall events. Among them, differences in dynamic features of the low-level jet and the position of rainfall area along the low-level jet are remarkable.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
• /
• v.45 no.6
• /
• pp.748-765
• /
• 2010

This study aims to investigate the difference of synoptic characteristics over East Asia according to the persistence of rainfall in Korea during the Changma season (June and July). In the cases of consecutive rainfall which lasts four or more days, there are developed ridges in 850hPa level east of the Korean peninsula which introduce stagnation of the synoptic cyclone over Korea. An cold area in 850hPa level moves southward from the Northern China in one day before the beginning the rainfall day in Korea and it aids the development of the stationary front in East Asia. When rainfall lasts a day or two, cyclones pass over Korea in rainy day and the stationary front in East Asia is not intensified. In both cases the synoptic cyclones near the Korean peninsula shows a deep-baroclinic structure, while in the former cases over the southwestern part of Japan a subtropical frontal zone which has a shallow structure appears near Japan. In latter cases the frontal structures are same near Korea and Japan. So, this means that the Changma is not necessarily similar to the Baiu of Japan in all cases.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.109-121
• /
• 2011

This study revisits the definition of Changma, which is the major rainy season in Korea and corresponds to a regional component of the East Asian summer monsoon system. In spite of several decades of researches on Changma, questions still remain on many aspects of Changma that include its proper definition, determination of its onset and retreat, and relevant large-scale dynamical and thermodynamical features. Therefore, this study clarifies the definition of Changma (which is a starting point for the study of interannual and interdecadal variability) using a basic concept of air mass and front by calculating equivalent potential temperature (${\theta}_e$) that considers air temperature and humidity simultaneously. A negative peak in the meridional gradient of this quantity signifies the approximate location of Changma front. This front has previously been recognized as the boundary between the tropical North Pacific air mass and cold Okhotsk sea air mass. However, this study identifies three more important air masses affecting Changma: the tropical monsoon air mass related to the intertropical convergence zone over Southeast Asia and South China Sea, the tropical continental air mass over North China, and intermittently polar continental air mass. The variations of these five air masses lead to complicated evolution of Changma and modulate intensity, onset and withdrawal dates, and duration of Changma on the interannual time scale. Importantly, use of ${\theta}_e$, 500-hPa geopotential height and 200 hPa zonal wind fields for determining Changma onset and withdrawal dates results in a significant increase (up to~57%) in the hindcast skill compared to a previous study.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.150-166
• /
• 2011

This study aims to investigate the differences of synoptic characteristics and frontal structures over East Asia according to the main path types of water vapor flux (WVF) of 850hPa surface in cases of the heavy rainfall in the south coastal region of Korea during the Changma season (June and July), In the cases of type A in which the main path of WVF is running from the South china Sea via the South china to the South Sea of Korea, the North Pacific subtropical anticyclone (NPSA) expands to the South China and strong cyclones appear in the Yellow Sea. In cases of type B and C in those the main paths of WVF are running from the South China Sea via the Western Pacific Ocean near Taiwan to the South Sea and from the Western North Pacific Ocean to the South Sea respectively, tropical cyclones appear frequently near Taiwan and the NPSA shifts northward. In the case of type D in which the main path of WVF appear only near the South Sea, strong cyclones appear near the Yellow Sea. In all cases upper jets are intensified in the northern part of the heavy rainfall region and low-level jets appear near the main paths of WVF. In the view of frontal structure, deep active-type of the Changma front is identified in most cases of all types. In this point the Changma season is different from the Baiu season in Western Japan where many cases of shallow active-type of the Baiu front appear.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
• /
• v.30 no.3
• /
• pp.247-256
• /
• 1997

Some climatological features of summer precipitation in Korea were studyed using the precipitation data of 15 stations of Korea Meteorological Administration where more than 30 years data since 1961 are available. The study included statistical analysis of precipitation by climatological normal values, and comparison of inter-annual variation of annual precipitation, summer precipitation and precipitation during the Changma. The relationships between them were also analyzed. It was revealed that, in Korea, more than half of annual precipitation was concentrated in summer season (June to August), and it was usually influenced by the Changma. The ratio of summer and Changma precipitation to the annual precipitation showed that effect of Changma was bigger in the central inland area, while comparatively smaller in the east coastal area and Cheju Island due to topographical effects. It was also shown that the fluctuation of the annual precipitation was less variable than those of summer and Changma precipitations. Thus, it was suggested that understanding the variation features of summer precipitation associated with monsoon activities was very important to figure out the change of annual precipitation for the national water resources planning.