• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.109-116
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• 2003

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.50-54
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• 2005

Some basic summer precipitation features over East Asia during the $20^{th}-21^{st}$ century as simulated / projected by the 22 coupled climate models under the IPCC AR4 program are investigated. Keeping in view that these are climate runs without prescribed SSTs, models perform well in simulating the regional annual cycle, spatial patterns (not shown) and the inter-annual variability. The projections under the 1% increase in $CO_2$ compounded until reaching double and held constant thereafter reveal that (a) Precipitation is likely to increase in all the months in particular during the summer monsoon (JJA) months. (b) The mean summer monsoon rainfall can increase from 4.2 to 13.5% and its variability is also likely to increase in the warming world due to increase in $CO_2$ (c) Extreme excess and deficient seasonal monsoons are likely to become more intense (not shown here) (d) Once the increase in $CO_2$ is cut-off, the system will reach a state of equilibrium, and then the rate of increase in precipitation is also expected to remain constant.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.40 no.4
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• pp.289-297
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• 2018

This study reconstructs past vegetation changes in southeastern Korea over the last 30 thousand years using plant waxes (i.e. long chain n-alkanes) and their carbon isotopic compositions (${\delta}^{13}C_{alk}$) preserved in marine sediment core (KIODP 12-1) retrieved from the East Sea. Here we show changes in vegetation composition in the Korean peninsula in relation to the strength of the East Asian Summer Monsoon. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), when the summer monsoon weakened, precipitation decreased and $C_3$ grassland expanded. After the LGM, the summer monsoon gradually intensified, increasing rainfall, and thus expanding the forestland coverage. Precipitation climaxed from 10 to 6 kyr BP, which includes the Holocene Climate Optimum. The grassland began to expand since 5 kyr BP due to climate warming and drying towards the present. The ${\delta}^{13}C_{alk}$ values may also have been influenced by agricultural activities, which is known to have begun since the late Neolithic (ca. 7.0~3.0 kyr BP). Our results demonstrate how changes in the global climate state influence regional atmospheric circulation and precipitation distribution, and consequently terrestrial plant composition in southeastern Korea.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.24-24
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• 2023

This presentation highlights the IAHR book, recently published last April, of which the author is the editor-in-chief, on the historical water projects and traditional water technologies of international interest in the Asian region, addressing information on past water projects (mostly before the 20th century) in the regions that are technically and culturally of interest and educationally valuable. The book explores historical water projects in these regions, presenting technologies used at the time, including calculation and forecasting methods, measurement, material, labor, methodologies, and even water culture. Through this book, it is expected that the old Asian wisdom of "reviewing the old and learning the new" would be realized to a certain extent in modern planning and practice of water projects. The book comprises a lead article that the presenter authored and five Parts representing China, Japan, Korea, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, respectively, followed by an invited one from Uzbekistan. Throughout the book, it is found that historically the Asian monsoon, affecting the Indian subcontinent and Southeast and East Asian regions, induced rice cultivation. It fundamentally needs proper irrigation systems, including reservoirs (dams) and canals, water wheels, and even rain gauges. Flood risks have been more common in Asia than Europe under this climate condition, as recognized in history. To utilize and sometimes overcome these climate conditions, people built and managed many historical and grandiose water projects and invented and used localized but sophisticated water-related technologies in the Asian region.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.88-94
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• 2014

The seasonal predictability of the intensity of the Northeast Asian summer monsoon is low while that of the western North subtropical high variability is, when state-of-the-art general circulation models are used, relatively high. The western North Pacific subtropical high dominates the climate anomalies in the western North Pacific-East Asian region. This study discusses the predictability of the western North Pacific subtropical High variability in the National Centers for Environmental Prediction Climate Forecast System (NCEP CFS). The interannual variability of the Northeast Asian summer monsoon is highly correlated with one of the western North Pacific subtropical Highs. Based on this relationship, we suggest a seasonal prediction model using NCEP CFS and canonical correlation analysis for Northeast Asian summer precipitation anomalies and assess the predictability of the prediction model. This methodology provides significant skill in the seasonal prediction of the Northeast Asian summer rainfall anomalies.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.687-696
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• 2016

The western North Pacific subtropical high (WNPSH) in boreal summer has interannual and interdecadal variability, which affects East Asian summer monsoon variability. In particular, it is well known that the intensity of WNPSH is reversely related to that of summer monsoon in North East Asia in association with Pacific Japan (PJ)-like pattern. Many coupled climate models weakly simulate this large-scale teleconnection pattern and also exhibit the diverse variability of WNPSH. This study discusses the inter-model differences of WNPSH simulated by different climate models, which participate in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5). In comparing with reanalysis observation, the 29 CMIP5 models could be assorted into two difference groups in terms of interannual variability of WNPSH. This study also discusses the dynamical or thermodynamics factors for the differences of two groups of the CMIP5 climate models. As results, the regressed precipitation in well-simulating group onto the Nino3.4 index ($5^{\circ}N-5^{\circ}S$, $170^{\circ}W-120^{\circ}W$) is stronger than that in poorly-simulating group. We suggest that this difference of two groups of the CMIP5 climate models would have an effect on simulating the interannual variability of WNPSH.

• Atmosphere
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.55-68
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• 2007

Future climate changes over East Asia are projected by anthropogenic forcing of greenhouse gases and aerosols using ECHO-G/S (ECHAM4/HOPE-G). Climate simulation in the 21st century is conducted with three standard SRES scenarios (A1B, B1, and A2) and the model performance is assessed by the 20th Century (20C3M) experiment. From the present climate simulation (20C3M), the model reproduced reliable climate state in the most fields, however, cold bias in temperature and dry bias of summer in precipitation occurred. The intercomparison among models using Taylor diagram indicates that ECHO-G/S exhibits smaller mean bias and higher pattern correlation than other nine AOGCMs. Based on SRES scenarios, East Asia will experience warmer and wetter climate in the coming 21st century. Changes of geographical patterns from the present to the future are considerably similar through all the scenarios except for the magnitude difference. The temperature in winter and precipitation in summer show remarkable increase. In spite of the large uncertainty in simulating precipitation by regional scale, we found that the summer (winter) precipitation at eastern coast (north of $40^{\circ}N$) of East Asia has significantly increased. In the 21st century, the warming over the continents of East Asia showed much more increase than that over the ocean. Hence, more enhanced (weakened) land-sea thermal contrast over East Asia in summer (winter) will cause strong (weak) monsoon. In summer, the low pressure located in East Asia becomes deeper and the moisture from the south or southeast is transported more into the land. These result in increasing precipitation amount over East Asia, especially at the coastal region. In winter, the increase (decrease) of precipitation is accompanied by strengthening (weakening) of baroclinicity over the land (sea) of East Asia.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-21
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• 1995

The characteristics of the Asian summer monsoon have been investigated for the periods of 1993/1994, the contrasting years in a view of the summer monsoon precipitation. In order to investigate the monsoon features over the eastern Asian monsoon region, the cloudiness(using the extensive data derived by the geostationary meteorological satellite), the condition of underlying surface including sea-surface temperature, and the summer rainfall are analyzed and some comparisons with 1993 and 1994 are also made and the characteristic differences are discussed. An analysis of the 2-degree latitude-longitude gridded 5-day mean high cloud amount data shows the detailed movement and persistence of the convective activities. In order to describe the spatial and temporal structures of the intraseasonal oscillation for the movement and evolution of the monsoon cloud, the extended empirical orthogonal fnction analysis with the twenty-day window size is used for the each year. Also, in order to find out the periodicity of the equatorial convective cluster, Fourier harmonic analysis is applied to the each year. The most prevailing intraseasonal oscillations of high cloud amount are 61 day mode and 15day mode in the equatorial and the subtropical oceans. However it was found that the most prevailing modes over the equatorial western Pacific and Indian Ocean were different for each year, hence raising the possibillity that the contrasting monsoon presipitation may be more fundamentally related to the interaction of intraseasonal oscillations and seasonal variation of convective activities over the lower latitude ocean.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.45-67
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• 2008

Ocean climate variables ($1900{\sim}2005$), time series of catches ($1910{\sim}2005$) and body size data were used to assess the year-to-year and decadal scale fluctuations in abundance of the fish populations (Japanese sardine, anchovy, jack mackerel, chub mackerel, Pacific saury and common squid) that have spawning grounds in the East China Sea and its adjacent regions. A negative correlation between the abundance of pelagic fishes (e.g. jack mackerel) in the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC) region and the Kuroshio-Oyashio Current (KOC) region was attributed to the climatic modulation of larval transport and recruitment, which depends on the winter monsoon-induced drift, current systems, and spawning season and site. The changes in abundance and alternation of dominant fish populations in the two regions in the 1930s, 1970s, and late 1980s mirrored changes in the climate indices (ALPI, AOI and MOI). Oscillations in the decadal climate shifts between the two regions led to zonal differences in larval transport and recruitment, and hence differences in the abundance of the pelagic fish populations. During deep Aleutian Lows, as in the 1980s, larval transport from the East China Sea to the KOC region increases in association with the strong winter Asian monsoon, cool regime and increased volume transport of the Kuroshio Current systems, whereas during a weak Aleutian Low (as in the 1990s), larval transport to the TWC region increased in association with a weak winter Asian monsoon, a warm regime, and increased volume transport of the Tsushima current system. We postulate that the increased chub mackerel abundance in the TWC region and the decreased abundance in the KOC region in the 1990s are partly attributed to changes in recruitment and availability to the fishing fleets under the warm regime in the spawning and nursery grounds in the East China Sea in association with the quasi-steady state of mild winter monsoon in the 1990s. The fluctuations in chub mackerel and jack mackerel abundance are under the environment-dependant growth form, although the tropicalization was identified in the TWC region. The density-dependant growth form was found in Japanese sardine populations, but no tropicalization by fishing was identified in the long ($10{\sim}15$ year) periods of abundance despite their short ($3{\sim}4$ year) generation time, suggesting that the environment-dependant growth form drove the changes in abundance. Year-to-year and decadal scale variations in abundance and population structure of the Pacific saury responded to climate regime shifts (1976/1977, 1988/1989), suggesting that the fish is a key bio-indicators for changes in the ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.593-607
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• 2015

This study examined the Holocene environmental changes by OSL dating and magnetic susceptibility (MS) in 12 sediment cores from estuarine tidal flat, Mosan Bay Estuary, west coast of Korea. For the complexity of the geomorphic characteristics of estuaries, it is difficult to obtain a series of data. The following significant results were derived using relatively simple methods. First, MS data shows sensitive changes in pattern according to the precipitation change during mid to late Holocene. Second, MS data show periodicity of 250 yr. when they were wavelet transformed. This periodicity is related with the intensifying of solar intensity, the East Asian Summer Monsoon and ENSO. Thus, MS data from estuarine sediments are valuable data which can explain mechanism of climate change in East Asia and worthy as proxy data.