• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.17-25
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• 2022

As climate change due to global warming continues to be accelerated, various extreme events become more intense, more likely to occur and longer-lasting on a much larger scale. Recent studies show that global warming acts as the primary driver of extreme events and that heat-related extreme events should be attributed to anthropogenic global warming. Among them, both terrestrial and marine heat waves are great concerns for human beings as well as ecosystems. Taking place around the world, one of those events appeared over East Sea in July 2021 with record-breaking high temperature. Meanwhile, climate condition around East Sea was favorable for anomalous warming with less total cloud cover, more incoming solar radiation, and shorter period of Changma rainfall. According to the results of wave activity flux analysis, highly activated meridional mode of teleconnection that links western North Pacific to East Asia caused localized warming over East Sea to become stronger.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.219-229
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• 2009

In order to establish annual variations in the marine ecosystem of the East China Sea, suspended solids (SSs) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were extensively investigated in the northern part of the East China Sea from August 2003 to April 2008. Surface SS concentrations showed large spatial variations in spring and fall, but not in summer. Surface SS concentrations in spring were lower than those in summer and fall. In summer, SSs discharged from Changjiang were mostly deposited in the coastal areas and did not reach our study area which was located about 260 km from the river mouth. High SS concentrations were observed near the bottom, which resulted from resuspension of bottom sediments by the bottom currents. Surface POC concentrations did not exhibited large seasonal variations. Phytoplankton biomass was a main factor controlling surface POC concentrations. POC/chlorophyll ratios showed large seasonal variations, with maximum numbers in summer. POC/PON ratios were higher in summer than the Redefied ratio (6.6), while they were lower in spring and fall. In summer, higher POC/chlorophyll and POC/PON ratios were probably attributed to the high phytoplankton mortality caused by nutrient depletion in surface waters.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.69-82
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• 2022

The Ross Sea, Antarctica plays an important role in the formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) which is the densest water mass in global thermohaline circulation. Of the AABW, 25% is formed in the Ross Sea, and sea ice formation at the polynya (ice-free area) developed in front of ice shelves of the Ross Sea is considered as a pivotal mechanism for AABW production. For this reason, monitoring the Ross Sea variations is very important to understand changes of global thermohaline circulation influenced by climate change. In addition, the Ross Sea is also regarded as a natural laboratory in investigating ice-ocean interactions owing to the development of the polynya. In this article, I introduce characteristics of the Ross Sea described in previous observational studies, and investigate variations that have occurred in the Ross Sea in the past and those taking place in the present. Furthermore, based on these observational results, I outline variations or changes that can be anticipated in the Ross Sea in the future, and make an appeal to researchers regarding the importance and necessity of continuous observations in the Ross Sea.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers Conference
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• 2001.08a
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• pp.1-5
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• 2001

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.115-129
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• 2019

Surface winds over the ocean influence not only the climate change through air-sea interactions but the coastal erosion through the changes in wave height and direction. Thus, demands on a reliable projection of future changes in surface winds have been increasing in various fields. For the future projections, climate models have been widely used and, as a priori, their simulations of surface wind are required to be evaluated. In this study, we evaluate the climatological mean surface winds over the Korean Waters simulated by five regional climate models participating in Coordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) for East Asia (EA), an international regional climate model inter-comparison project. Compared with the ERA-interim reanalysis data, the CORDEX-EA models, except for HadGEM3-RA, produce stronger wind both in summer and winter. The HadGEM3-RA underestimates the wind speed and inadequately simulate the spatial distribution especially in summer. This summer wind error appears to be coincident with mean sea-level pressure in the North Pacific. For wind direction, all of the CORDEX-EA models simulate the well-known seasonal reversal of surface wind similar to the ERA-interim. Our results suggest that especially in summer, large-scale atmospheric circulation, downscaled by regional models with spectral nudging, significantly affect the regional surface wind on its pattern and strength.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.379-386
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• 2010

This study examines changes in the Arctic sea ice associated with global warming by analyzing the climate coupled general circulation models (CGCMs) provided in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We selected nine models for better performance under 20th century climate conditions based on two different criteria, and then estimated the changes in sea ice extent under global warming conditions. Under projected 21st century climate conditions, all models, with the exception of the GISS-AOM model, project a reduction in sea ice extent in all seasons. The mean reduction in summer (-63%) is almost four times larger than that in winter (-16%), resulting an enhancement of seasonal variations in sea ice extent. The difference between the models, however, becomes larger under the 21st century climate conditions than under 20th century conditions, thus limiting the reliability of sea-ice projections derived from the current CGCMs.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.267-275
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• 2013

This study projected the future ocean wave climate changes based on global climate change scenario using the coupled climate model HadGEM2-AO according to the emission scenarios and using regional wave model. Annual mean significant wave height (SWH) is linked closely to annual mean wind speed during the forthcoming 21st Century. Because annual mean speed decreased in the western North Pacific, annual mean SWH is projected to decrease in the future. The annual mean SWH decreases for the last 30 years of the 21st century relative to the period 1971-2000 are 2~7% for RCP4.5 and 4~11% for RCP8.5, respectively. Also, extreme SWH and wind speed are projected to decrease in the future. In terms of seasonal mean, winter extreme SWH shows similar trend with annual extreme SWH; however, that of summer shows large increasing tendency compared with current climate in the western North Pacific. Therefore, typhoon intensity in the future might be more severe in the future climate.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.34 no.12
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• pp.5081-5092
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• 2021

Paleoproxy records indicate that abrupt changes in thermohaline circulation (THC) were induced by rapid meltwater discharge from retreating ice sheets. Such abrupt changes in the THC have been understood as a hysteresis behavior of a nonlinear system. Previous studies, however, primarily focused on a near-static hysteresis under fixed or slowly varying freshwater forcing (FWF), reflecting the equilibrated response of the THC. This study aims to improve the current understanding of transient THC responses under rapidly varying forcing and their dependency on forcing time scales. The results simulated by an Earth system model suggest that the bifurcation is delayed as the forcing time scale is shorter, causing the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation collapse and recovery to occur at higher and lower FWF values, respectively. The delayed shutdown/recovery occurs because bifurcation is determined not by the FWF value at the time but by the total amount of freshwater remaining over the THC convection region. The remaining freshwater amount is primarily determined by the forcing accumulation (i.e., time-integrated FWF), which is modulated by the freshwater/salt advection by ocean circulations and freshwater flux by the atmospheric hydrological cycle. In general, the latter is overwhelmed by the former. When the forced freshwater amount is the same, the modulation effect is stronger under slowly varying forcing because more time is provided for the feedback processes.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.39 no.3
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• pp.195-203
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• 2017

The purpose of this paper is to estimate the optimal $CO_2$ emission in the maximum economic yield (MEY), maximum sustainable yield (MSY), and open access (OA) using a bioeconomic model. The results are as follows; in the case of $E_{MEY}$, $E_{MSY}$, and $E_{OA}$ levels, $CO_2$ emissions are estimated at $150,704,746CO_2/kg$, $352,211,193CO_2/kg$, and $301,409,492CO_2/kg$ respectively. We show that the $E_{MEY}$ is more efficient than the other levels. That is, the level of $E_{MEY}$ signifies the optimal economic fishing usage as the most economically efficient usage for large purse seine fishery catching mackerel species. The emission of $CO_2$ in $E_{MEY}$ is the lowest level. Also, the impacts of climate changes such as ocean temperature increase, ocean acidification, and the combined impact thereof show that the biomass of mackerel decreases.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.313-324
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• 2008

In order to understand the variation of ENSO-related oceanic environments in the tropical and North Pacific Ocean, spatio-temporal variations of sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) and sea surface height anomaly (SSHA) are analyzed from distributions of complex empirical orthogonal functions (CEOF). Correlations among warm pool variation, southern oscillation index, and ocean surface currents were also examined with respect to interannual variability of the warm pool in western tropical Pacific. Spatio-temporal distributions of the first CEOF modes for SSTA and SSHA indicate that their variabilities are associated with ENSO events, which have a variance over 30% in the North Pacific. The primary reasons for their variabilities are different; SST is predominantly influenced by the change of barrier layer thickness, while SSH fluctuates with the same phase as propagation of an ENSO episode in the zonal direction. Horizontal boundary of warm pool area, which normally centered around $149^{\circ}E$ in the tropics, seemed to be expanded to the middle and eastern tropical regions by strong zonal currents through the mature phase of an ENSO episode.