• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.143-149
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• 2011

A new multi-timescale analysis method, Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD), is used to diagnose the variation of the MJO activity determined by 850hPa and 200hPa zonal winds from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) Reanalysis data for the 56-yr period from 1950 to 2005. The results show that MJO activity can be decomposed into 9 quasi-periodic oscillations and a trend. With each level of contribution of the quasi-periodic oscillation discussed, the bi-seasonal oscillation, the interannual oscillation and the trend of the MJO activity are the most prominent features. The trend increases almost linearly, so that prior to around 1978 the activity of the MJO is lower than that during the latter part. This may be related to the tropical sea surface temperature(SST). It is speculated that the interdecadal change in the MJO activity appeared in around 1978 is related to the warmer SST in the equatorial warm pool, especially over the Indian Ocean.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.63-72
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• 2005

In order to understand regional wind characteristics and to estimate offshore wind resources, a wind map of the Korean Peninsula was established using remote-sensing data from the satellite, U.S. NASA Quik SCAT which has been deployed for the Sea Winds Project since 1999. According to the linear regression result between the wind map data and in-situ marine-buoy data, the correlation factor was greatly improved up to 0.87 by blending the remote-sensing data of Quik SCAT with U.S. NCEP/NCAR CDAS reanalysis data to eliminate precipitation interference and to increase temporal resolution. It is found from the established wind map that the wind speed in winter is prominent temporally and the South Sea shows spatially high energy density over the wind class 6. The reason is deduced that the north-west winds through the Yellow Sea and the north-east winds through the East Sea derived by the low pressure developed in Japan are accelerated passing through the Korea Channel and formed high wind energy region in the South Sea; the same trends are confirmed from the statistical analysis of the meteorological observation data of KMA.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.39-44
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• 2014

The results of the synoptic meteorological analysis showed that when the cold and dry continental high pressure was extended, heavy snow occurred at dawn when the upper atmosphere cooled. In particular, when the continental high pressure was extended and the upper pressure trough passed through, heavy snow occurred due to the convergence region formed in the west coast area, sometimes in the inland of the Honam area. In addition, it was verified that the changes in the humidity coefficients in the upper and lower layers are important data for the determination of the probability, start/end and intensity of heavy snow. However, when the area was influenced by the middle-latitude low pressure, the heavy snow was influenced by the wind in the lower layer (925 hPa and 850 hPa), the equivalent potential temperature, the convergence field, the moisture convergence and the topography. In Case 2010 (30 December 2010), OSTIA had the best numerical simulation with diverse atmospheric conditions, and the maximum difference in the numerically simulated snowfall between NCEP/NCAR SST and OSTIA was 20 cm. Although there was a regional difference in the snowfall according to the difference in the SST, OSTIA and RTG SST numerical tests, it was not as significant as in the previous results. A higher SST led to the numerical simulation of larger snowfall, and the difference was greatest near Buan in the west coast area.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.721-733
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• 2009

To examine the fluctuations of aerosol number concentration with different size in the boundary layer of marine area during summer season, aerosol particles were assayed in the Ieodo Ocean Research Station, which is located 419 km southwest of Marado, the southernmost island of Korea, from 24 June to 4 July, 2008. The Laser Particle Counter (LPC) was used to measure the size of aerosol particles and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and sounding data were used to analyze the synoptic condition. The distribution of aerosol number concentration had a large variation from bigger particles more than 3 ${\mu}m$ in diameter to smaller particles more than 1 ${\mu}m$ in diameter with wind direction during precipitation. The aerosol number concentration decreased with increasing temperature. An increase (decrease) of small size of aerosol (0.3${\sim}$0.5 ${\mu}m$ in diameter) number concentration was induced by convergence (divergence) of the wind fields. The aerosol number concentration of bigger size more than 3 ${\mu}m$ in diameter after precipitation was removed as much as 89${\sim}$94% compared with aerosol number concentration before precipitation. It is considered that the larger aerosol particles would be more efficient for scavenging at marine boundary layer. In addition, the aerosol number concentration with divergence and convergence could be related with the occurrence and mechanism of aerosol in marine boundary layer.

• Atmosphere
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.37-51
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• 2009

Kinematic characteristics of a heavy rainfall event occurred in Changma front are analyzed using synoptic weather charts, satellite imagery and NCEP(National Centers for Environmental Prediction) / NCAR(National Centers for Atmospheric Research) reanalysis data. The heavy rainfall is accompanied with mesoscale rain clouds developing over the Southwest region of Korea during the period from 0300 LST to 2100 LST 25 June 2006. The surface cyclone in the Changma front is generated and developed rapidly when it meets following vertical conditions: The maximum value of relative vorticity is appeared at 700 hPa and is extended gradually near the surface. It is thought that the vertical structure of relative vorticity is closely related with the descent of strong wind zone exceeding $10ms^{-1}$. The jet core at 200 hPa is shifted southward and extended downward and the low-level jet stream associated with upper-level jet stream appeared at 850 hPa. Kinematic features of heavy rainfall system at cyclone-generating point are as follows: In the generating stage of cyclone, the relative vorticity below 850 hPa increased and the convergence below 850 hPa and the divergence at 400 hPa are intensified by southward movement of jet core at 200 hPa. The heavy rainfall system seems to locate to the south of the exit region of upper-level jet streak; In the developing stage of cyclone, the relative vorticity below 850 hPa and the convergence near surface are further strengthened and upward vertical velocity between 850 hPa and 200 hPa is increased.

• Atmosphere
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.9-36
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• 2009

Two heavy snowfall events occurred in Yeongnam and Yeongdong regions of the Korean Peninsula during the period from 4 to 6 March 2005 are analyzed. The events were developed by two different meso-scale snow clouds associated with an extratropical low passing over the Western Pacific. Based on synoptic data, GOES-9 satellite images, and precipitation amount data, the events were named as Sokcho and Busan cases, respectively. We analyzed the development mechanism of the events using meterological variables from the NCEP(National Centers for Environmental Prediction) /NCAR(National Centers for Atmospheric Research) reanalysis data such as potential vorticity(PV), divergence, tropopause undulation, static stability, and meridional wind circulation. The present analyses show that in the case of Sokcho, the cyclonic circulation in the lower atmosphere in the strong baroclinic region induced the cyclonic circulation in the upper atmosphere. The cyclonic circulation in the lower and upper atmosphere caused a heavy snowfall in the Sokcho region. In the case of Busan, the strong cyclonic circulation in the upper atmosphere was initiated by the stratospheric air intrusion with the high positive PV into the troposphere during the tropopause folding. The upper strong cyclonic circulation enhanced the cyclonic circulation in the lower disturbed atmosphere due to the extratropical low. This lower cyclonic circulation in turn, intensified the upper cyclonic circulation, that caused a heavy snowfall in the Busan region.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.475-487
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• 2010

Sea surface wind field was retrieved from high-resolution SIR-C SAR data by using CMOD algorithms off the east coast of Korea. In order to extract wind direction information from SAR data, a two-dimensional spectral analysis method was applied to the normalized radar cross section of the image. An $180^{\circ}$-ambiguity problem in the determination of wind direction was solved by selecting a direction nearest to the wind vector of the ECMWF reanalysis data. Comparison of the wind retrieval patterns with the ECMWF and NCEP/NCAR dataset showed RMS errors in the range of 1.30 to $1.72\;ms^{-1}$. In contrast, comparison of wind directions revealed large errors of greater than $60^{\circ}$, which is enormously higher than the permitted limit of about $20^{\circ}$ for satellite scatterometer winds. Compared with wind speed results from different algorithms, wind vectors based on commonly-used CMOD4 algorithm showed good agreement with those derived by other algorithms such as CMOD_IFR2 and CMOD5, particularly at medium winds from 4 to $8\;ms^{-1}$. However, apparent discrepancy appeared at low winds (< $4\;ms^{-1}$). This study also addressed an importance of accurate wind direction data to improve the accuracy of wind speed retrieval and discussed potential causes of wind retrieval errors from SAR data.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.237-250
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• 2005

To investigate the air mass modification related with Yeongdong Heavy snowfall events, we examined sensible and latent heat fluxes on the East Sea, the energy exchange between atmosphere and ocean in this study. Sensible and latent heats were calculated by a bulk aerodynamic method, in which NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and NOAA/AVHRR weekly SST data with high resolution were used. Among winter precipitation events in the Yeongdong region, 19 heavy precipitation events $(1995{\sim}2001)$ were selected and classified into three types (mountain, cold-coastal, and warm types). Mountain-type precipitation shows highly positive anomalies of sensible and latent heats over the southwestern part of the East Set When separating them into the two components due to variability of wind and temperature/ specific Humidity, it is shown that the wind components are dominant. Cold-coastal-type precipitation also shows strong positive anomalies of sensible and latent heats over the northern part and over the central-northern part of the East Sea, respectively. It is shown that the sensible heat anomalies are caused mostly by the decrease of surface air temperature. So it can be explained that cold-coastal-type precipitation is closely related with the air mass modification due to cold air advection over warm ocean surface. But in warm-type precipitation, negative anomalies are found in the sensible and latent heat distributions. From this result, it may be postulated that warm-type precipitation is affected by the internal process of the atmosphere rather than the atmosphere-ocean interaction.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-71
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• 2012

Influences of orographic and ocean effect, which depend on the detailed geographic characteristics, upon winter time (December-February) precipitation in the Yeongdong region are investigated. Most of precipitation events in the Yeongdong region during the wintertime are associated with moist northeasterly (coming from the northeast direction) winds and also the spatial distribution of precipitation shows a great difference between Mountain area (Daegwallyeong) and Coastal area (Gangneung). The linear correlation coefficient between the meteorological variables obtained from NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis Data and precipitation amount for each precipitation type is calculated. Mountain type precipitation is dominated by northeasterly wind speed of the low level (1000 hPa and 925 hPa) and characterized with more precipitation in mountain area than coastal area. However, Coastal type precipitation is affected by temperature difference between ocean and atmosphere, and characterized with more precipitation in coastal area than mountain area. The results are summarized as follows; In the case of mountain type precipitation, the correlation coefficient between wind speed at 1000 hPa (925 hPa) and precipitation amount at Daegwallyeong is 0.60 (0.61). The correlation is statistical significant at 1% level. In the case of coastal type precipitation, the correlation coefficient of temperature difference between ocean and 925 hPa (850 hPa) over the East sea area and precipitation amount at Gangneung is 0.33 (0.34). As for the mountain type precipitation, a detailed analysis was conducted in order to verify the relationship between precipitation amount at Daegwallyeong and low level wind speed data from wind profiler in Gangneung and Buoy in the East Sea. The results also show the similar behavior. This result indicates that mountain type precipitation in the Yeongdong region is closely related with easterly wind speed. Thus, the statistical analysis of the few selected meteorological variables can be a good indicator to estimate the precipitation totals in the Yeongdong region in winter time.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.377-394
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• 2012

To elucidate the mechanism associated with the development of heavy precipitation system, a field experiment was carried out in Jejudo (or Jeju Island) and Marado, Korea from 22 June to 12 July 2006. The synoptic atmospheric conditions were analyzed using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction-National Center for Atmospheric Research's (NCEP/NCAR) reanalyzed data, weather maps, and sounding data. The kinematic characteristics of each precipitation system were investigated by dual Doppler radar analysis. During the field experiment, data of four precipitation events with more than 20 mm rainfall were collected. In F case (frontal precipitation), a typical Changma front was dominant and the observation field was fully saturated. However there was no convective instability near the surface. LF case (low pressure accompanied with Changma front) showed strong convective instability near the surface, while a strong convergence corresponded to the low pressure from China accompanied with Changma front. In FT case (Changma front indirectly influenced by typhoon), the presence of a convective instability indicated the transport of near surface, strong additional moisture from the typhoon 'EWINIAR'. The convergence wind field was ground to be located at a low level. The convective instability was not significant in T case (precipitation of the typhoon 'EWINIAR'), since the typhoon passed through Jejudo and the Changma front was disappeared toward the northeastern region of the Korean peninsula. The kinematic (convergence and divergence) characteristics of wind fields, convective instability, and additional moisture inflow played important roles in the formation and development of heavy precipitation.