• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2018.05a
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• pp.170-170
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• 2018

In some case studies, the heavy precipitation events and rapid cyclogenesis in the extratropics can be caused by moist and warm tropical air masses. Tropical Moisture Exports (TME) correspond to the meridional transport of moist air masses, primarily born in tropical oceanic areas, to higher latitudes; and are closely related to flood events, especially in the mid-latitudes. The TME for the region of interest is mostly estimated by the back tracking approach using Lagrangian Analysis Tools (LAGRANTO) from ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA) data. In this study, we aim to estimate the TME that are related to rainfall in Korea. The major moisture sources of the TME that contribute to heavy rainfall and extreme floods in Korea are identified. The TME is found to have significant connection with extreme events in Korea such as heavy rainfall and extreme flood events. The results show the most of the moisture sources comes from the west Pacific during the warm half of the year and it contributes significantly to the annual TME and is linked to the East Asian monsoon.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.615-617
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• 2003

Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the important trace gases because its concentration in the troposphere directly influences the concentrations of tropospheric hydroxyl (OH), which controls the lifetimes of tropospheric trace gases. CO traces the transport of global and regional pollutants from industrial activities and large scale biomass burning. The distributions of CO were analyzed using the MOPITT data for East Asia, which were compared with the ozone distributions. In general, seasonal CO variations are characterized by a peak in the spring, which decrease in the summer. The monthly average for CO shows a similar profile to that for O$_3$. This fact clearly indicates that the high concentration of CO in the spring is possibly due to one of two causes: the photochemical production of CO in the troposphere, or the transport of the CO into East Asia. The seasonal cycles for CO and O$_3$ in East Asia are extensively influenced by the seasonal exchanges of different air mass types due to the Asian monsoon. The continental air masses contain high concentrations of O$_3$ and CO, due to the higher continental background concentrations, and sometimes to the contribution from regional pollution. In summer this transport pattern is reversed, where the Pacific marine air masses that prevail over Korea bring low concentrations of CO and O$_3$, which tend to give the apparent summer minimums.

• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.311-318
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• 2020

Impacts on the atmospheric circulation and ocean system over the Mediterranean during boreal summer are investigated using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) historical simulations (from 1911 to 2005). As the climate warms, global and remote effects lead to a strengthening in descending motion, an increase in sea surface temperature (SST) and surface dryness, but a decrease in marine primary production over the Western Mediterranean. The global effect is estimated from interannual variability over the global mean SST and the remote effect is driven by diabatic forcing generated from the South and East Asian summer monsoons. On the other hand, a local contribution leads to the strengthened descending motion and increased surface dryness over the Eastern Mediterranean, whereas the marine primary production over this region tends to increase due to possibly the urban wastewater and sewage. Our result suggests that particular attention needs to be paid to conserve the marine ecosystem over the Mediterranean.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2023

Oceanic wind waves have been recognized as one of the important indicators of global warming and climate change. It is necessary to study the spatial and temporal variability of significant wave height (SWH) and wave direction in the Yellow Sea and a part of the East China Sea, which is directly affected by the East Asian monsoon and climate change. In this study, the spatial and temporal variability including seasonal and interannual variability of SWH and wave direction in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea were analyzed using European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis 5 (ERA5) data. Prior to analyzing the variability of SWH and wave direction using the model reanalysis, the accuracy was verified through comparison with SWH and wave direction measurements from Ieodo Ocean Science Station (I-ORS). The mean SWH ranged from 0.3 to 1.6 m, and was higher in the south than in the north and higher in the center of the Yellow Sea than in the coast. The standard deviation of the SWH also showed a pattern similar to the mean. In the Yellow Sea, SWH and wave direction showed clear seasonal variability. SWH was generally highest in winter and lowest in late spring or early summer. Due to the influence of the monsoon, the wave direction propagated mainly to the south in winter and to the north in summer. The seasonal variability of SWH showed predominant interannual variability with strong variability of annual amplitudes due to the influence of typhoons in summer.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.509-518
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• 2019

Analyses with various Sea Surface Temperature (SST) products indicate that the interannual variability of the area-averaged SST in the East/Japan Sea (EJS) is well correlated to that of Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) during 1979-2018, especially in the autumn. The regression analysis with the wind vectors at 200 hPa, where the strongest jet stream flows, suggests that the long-term variability of the intensity as well as the meridional movement of the jet stream are related to the coupling of the autumn EJS SST and PDO. When the axis of the jet stream moves poleward (equatorward) with its weakening (strengthening), both the EJS SST and North Pacific SST increase (decrease). This suggests that both the intensity and meridional movement of the jet stream are possibly related to the coupling of the autumn EJS SST and PDO. However, effects of a weak jet stream during the summer and the strong East Asian winter monsoon make weak coupling between the EJS SST and PDO.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.35 no.3 s.99
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• pp.160-171
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• 2002

The impact of summer monsoon on water quality of the lower Nakdong River was evaluated during the summer (June-August) in 1997. Several limnological variables were measured in the interval of $1{\sim}3$ day using an automatic monitoring system (Hydrolab $Recorder^{TM}$) to detect water quality changes caused by rainfall on onehour basis. During the monsoon period (from late June to mid July), 5 times of major rainfall events of >50 mm were recorded in the river basin. Dynamic changes of water quality were observed during the monsoon, and the first rainfall event (June$25{\sim}27$) had a significant influence on the water quality at the lower part of the river. All Parameters were largely changed due to the first rain event, and the changed level was maintained until the end of monsoon period. Nutrient concentrations and turbidity increased and values of the other parameters were declined as a result of water dilution. This rainfall event, Changma, is a meteorological phenomenon caused by the East-Asian monsoon climate. The magnitude and frequency of the rainfall during the early monsoon play an important role in change of water quality and ecosystem characteristics of large river systems.

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

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.435-447
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• 2015

This study explores the synoptic characteristics of cold days over South Korea and their relationship with large-scale climate variability. The cold day, which is different from cold surge, is defined when daily-mean surface air temperature, averaged over 11 KMA stations, is colder than 1-percentile temperature in each year by considering its long-term trend over 1960~2012. Such event is detected by quantile regression and the related synoptic patterns are identified in reanalysis data. Composite geopotential height anomalies at 500 hPa show that cold days are often preceded by positive anomalies in high latitudes and negative anomalies in midlatitudes on the west of Korea. While the formers are quasi-stationary and quasi-barotropic, and often qualified as blocking highs, the latters are associated with transient cyclones. At cold days, the north-south dipole in geopotential height anomalies becomes west-east dipole in the lower troposphere as high-latitude anticyclone expands equatorward to the Northern China and mid-latitude cyclone moves eastward and rapidly develops over the East Sea. The resulting northerlies cause cold days in Korea. By performing composite analyses of large-scale climate indices, it is further found that the occurrence of these cold days are preferable when the Arctic Oscillation is in its negative phase and/or East Asian monsoon circulation and Siberian high are anomalously strong.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.373-377
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• 2002

The Measurement of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) instrument is an eight-channel gas correlation radiometer launched on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra spacecraft in 1999. Its main objectives are to measure carbon monoxide (CO) and methane (CH4) concentrations in the troposphere. This work analyzes tropospheric carbon monoxide distributions using MOPITT data in East Asia and compared ozone distributions. In general, seasonal CO variations are characterized by a spring peak and decreased in the summer. Also, this work revealed that the seasonal cycles of CO are spring maximum and summer minimum with averaged concentrations ranging from 118ppbv to 170ppbv. The CO monthly means show a similar profiles to those of O3. This fact clearly indicates that the high concentration of CO in spring is caused by two possible causes: the photochemical CO production in the troposphere, transport of the CO in the northeast Asia. The CO and O3 seasonal cycles in northeast Asia are influenced extensively by the seasonal exchange of the different types of air mass due to the Asian monsoon. The continental air masses contain high concentrations of O3 and CO due to higher continental background concentrations and sometimes due to the contribution of regional pollution. In summer the transport pattern is reversed. The Pacific marine air masses prevail over Korea, so that the marine air masses bring low concentrations of CO and O3, which tend to give the apparent minimum in summer.