• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.1-15
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• 2020

This study analyzed and compared development mechanisms leading to heat waves of 2016 and 2018 in Korea. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis Interim (ERA Interim) dataset and Automated Surface Observing System data are used for synoptic scale analysis. The synoptic conditions are investigated using geopotential height, temperature, equivalent potential temperature, thickness, potential vorticity, omega, outgoing longwave radiation, and blocking index, etc. Heat waves in South Korea occur in relation to Western North Pacific Subtropical High (WNPSH) pressure system which moves northwestward to East Asia during summer season. Especially in 2018, WNPSH intensified due to strong large-scale circulation associated with convective activities in the Philippine Sea, and moved farther north to Korea when compared to 2016. In addition, the Tibetan high near the tropopause settled over Northern China on top of WNPSH creating a very strong anticyclonic structure in the upper-level over the Korean Peninsula. Unlike 2018, WNPSH was weaker and centered over the East China Sea in 2016. Analysis of blocking indices show wide blocking phenomena over the North Pacific and the Eurasian continent during heat wave event in both years. The strong upper-level ridge which was positioned zonally near 60°N, made the WNPSH over the South Korea stagnant in both years. Analysis of heat wave intensity (HWI) and duration (HWD) show that HWI and HWD in 2018 was both strong leading to extreme high temperatures. In 2016 however, HWI was relatively weak compared to HWD. The longevity of HWD is attributed to atmosphere blocking in the surrounding Eurasian continent.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.259-270
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• 2016

Sea Surface Salinity (SSS) observations from the Aquarius satellite in the East Sea show large systematic biases mainly caused by the surrounding lands and Radio Frequency Interferences (RFI) along the descending orbits on which the satellite travels from the Asian continent to the East Sea. To develop a technique for correcting the systematic biases unique to the East Sea, the least square regression between in situ observations of salinity and the reanalyzed salinities by HYCOM is first performed. Then monthly mean reanalyzed salinities fitted to the in situ salinities are compared with monthly mean Aquarius salinities to calculate mean biases in $1^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$ boxes. Mean biases in winter (December-March) are found to be considerably larger than those in other seasons possibly caused by the inadequate correction of surface roughness in the sea surrounded by the land, and thus the mean bias corrections are performed using two bias tables. Large negative biases are found in the area near the coast of Japan and in the areas with islands. In the northern East Sea, data sets using the ascending orbit only (SCIA) are chosen for correction because of large RFI errors on the descending orbit (SCID). Resulting mean biases between the reanalysis salinities fitted to in situ observations and the bias corrected Aquarius salinities are less than 0.2 psu in all areas. The corrected mean salinity distributions in March and September demonstrate marked improvements when compared with mean salinities from the World Ocean Atlas (WOA [2005-2012]). In September, salinity distributions based on the corrected Aquarius and on the WOA (2005-2012) show similar distributions of Changjiang Diluted Water (CDW) in the East Sea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.211-222
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• 2018

Cloud droplet activation process is well described by $K{\ddot{o}}hler$ theory and several parameterizations based on $K{\ddot{o}}hler$ theory are used in a wide range of models to represent this process. Here, we test the two different method of calculating the solute effect in the $K{\ddot{o}}hler$ equation, i.e., osmotic coefficient method (OSM) and ${\kappa}-K{\ddot{o}}hler$ method (KK). To do that, each method is implemented in the cloud droplet activation parameterization module of WRF-CHEM (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry) model. It is assumed that aerosols are composed of five major components (i.e., sulfate, organic matter, black carbon, mineral dust, and sea salt). Both methods calculate similar representative hygroscopicity parameter values of 0.2~0.3 over the land, and 0.6~0.7 over the ocean, which are close to estimated values in previous studies. Simulated precipitation, and meteorological variables (i.e., specific heat and temperature) show good agreement with reanalysis. Spatial patterns of precipitation and liquid water path from model results and satellite data show similarity in general, but on regional scale spatial patterns and intensity show some discrepancy. However, meteorological variables, precipitation, and liquid water path do not show significant differences between OSM and KK simulations. So we suggest that the relatively simple KK method can be a good alternative to the OSM method that requires various information of density, molecular weight and dissociation number of each individual species in calculating the solute effect.

• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.257-276
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• 2020

Faithful evaluation of the meteorological input is a prerequisite for a better understanding of air quality model performance. Despite the importance, the preliminary meteorological assessment has rarely been concerned. In this study, we aim to evaluate the performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model conducting a year-long high-resolution meteorological simulation in 2016 over the Seoul metropolitan area. The WRF model was configured based on a series of sensitivity simulations of initial/boundary meteorological conditions, land use mapping data, reanalysis grid nudging method, domain nesting method, and urban canopy model. The simulated results of winds, air temperature, and specific humidity in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) were evaluated following statistical evaluation guidance using the surface and upper meteorological measurements. The statistical evaluation results are presented. The model performance was interpreted acceptable for air quality modeling within the statistical criteria of complex conditions, showing consistent overestimation in wind speeds. Further statistical analysis showed that the meteorological model biases were highly systematic with systematic bias fractions (f_SB) of 20~50%. This study suggests that both the momentum exchange process of the surface layer and the ABL entrainment process should be investigated for further improvement of the model performance.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.301-319
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• 2016

The evolutionary process of the polar low, which caused the heavy snowfall in the East Coast area on 11~12 February 2011, was investigated to describe in detail using synoptic weather charts, satellite imageries, and ERA (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analysis) -Interim reanalysis data. It was revealed that 1) the polar low was generated over the sea near Busan where a large cyclonic shear in the inverted trough branched from the parent low existed, 2) during the developing and mature stages, there was a convectively unstable region in the lower layer around the polar low and its south side, 3) the polar low was developed in the region where the static stability in the 500~850 hPa layer was the lowest, 4) the result from the budget analysis of the vorticity equation indicated that the increase in the vorticity at the lower atmosphere, where the polar low was located, was dominated mainly by the stretching term, 5) the warm core structure of the polar low was identified in the surface-700 hPa layer during the mature stage, 6) there was a close inverse relationship between a development of the polar low and the height of the dynamic tropopause over the polar low, and 7) for generation and development of the polar low, large-scale circulation systems, such as upper cold low and its combined short wave trough, major low (parent low), and polar air outbreak, should be presented, indicating that the polar low has the nature of the baroclinic disturbance.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.321-336
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• 2016

Damages caused by torrential rain occur every year in Korea and summer time convection can cause strong thunderstorms to develop which bring dangerous weather such as torrential rain, gusts, and flash flooding. On 6 August 2013 a sudden torrential rain concentrated over the inland of Southern Korean Peninsula occurred. This was an event characterized as a mesoscale multicellular convection. The purpose of this study is to analyze the conditions of the multicellular convection and the synoptic and mesoscale nature of the system development. To this end, dynamical and thermodynamic analyses of surface and upper-level weather charts, satellite images, soundings, reanalysis data and WRF model simulations are performed. At the beginning stage there was a cool, dry air intrusion in the upper-level of the Korean Peninsula, and a warm humid air flow from the southwest in the lower-level creating atmospheric instability. This produced a single cell cumulonimbus cloud in the vicinity of Baengnyeongdo, and due to baroclinic instability, shear and cyclonic vorticity the cloud further developed into a multicellular convection. The cloud system moved southeast towards Seoul metropolitan area accompanied by lightning, heavy precipitation and strong wind gusts. In addition, atmospheric instability due to daytime insolation caused new convective cells to develop in the upstream part of the Sobaek Mountain which merged with existing multicellular convection creating a larger system. This case was unusual because the system was affected little by the upper-level jet stream which is typical in Korea. The development and propagation of the multicellular convection showed strong mesoscale characteristics and was not governed by large synoptic-scale dynamics. In particular, the system moved southeast crossing the Peninsula diagonally from northwest to southeast and did not follow the upper-level westerly pattern. The analysis result shows that the movement of the system can be determined by the vertical wind shear.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.277-288
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• 2016

Polar lows are intense mesoscale cyclones that mainly occur over the sea in polar regions. Owing to their small spatial scale of a diameter less than 1000 km, simulating polar lows is a challenging task. At King Sejong station in West Antartica, polar lows are often observed. Despite the recent significant climatic changes observed over West Antarctica, adequate validation of regional simulations of extreme weather events such as polar lows are rare for this region. To address this gap, simulation results from a recent version of the Polar Weather Research and Forecasting model (Polar WRF) covering Antartic Peninsula at a high horizontal resolution of 3 km are validated against near-surface meteorological observations. We selected a case of high wind speed event on 7 January 2013 recorded at Automatic Meteorological Observation Station (AMOS) in King Sejong station, Antarctica. It is revealed by in situ observations, numerical weather prediction, and reanalysis fields that the synoptic and mesoscale environment of the strong wind event was due to the passage of a strong mesoscale polar low of center pressure 950 hPa. Verifying model results from 3 km grid resolution simulation against AMOS observation showed that high skill in simulating wind speed and surface pressure with a bias of $-1.1m\;s^{-1}$ and -1.2 hPa, respectively. Our evaluation suggests that the Polar WRF can be used as a useful dynamic downscaling tool for the simulation of Antartic weather systems and the near-surface meteorological instruments installed in King Sejong station can provide invaluable data for polar low studies over West Antartica.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.35-45
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• 2016

Initialization of the global seasonal forecast system is as much important as the quality of the embedded climate model for the climate prediction in sub-seasonal time scale. Recent studies have emphasized the important role of soil moisture initialization, suggesting a significant increase in the prediction skill particularly in the mid-latitude land area where the influence of sea surface temperature in the tropics is less crucial and the potential predictability is supplemented by land-atmosphere interaction. This study developed a new soil moisture initialization method applicable to the KMA operational seasonal forecasting system. The method includes first the long-term integration of the offline land surface model driven by observed atmospheric forcing and precipitation. This soil moisture reanalysis is given for the initial state in the ensemble seasonal forecasts through a simple anomaly initialization technique to avoid the simulation drift caused by the systematic model bias. To evaluate the impact of the soil moisture initialization, two sets of long-term, 10-member ensemble experiment runs have been conducted for 1996~2009. As a result, the soil moisture initialization improves the prediction skill of surface air temperature significantly at the zero to one month forecast lead (up to ~60 days forecast lead), although the skill increase in precipitation is less significant. This study suggests that improvements of the prediction in the sub-seasonal timescale require the improvement in the quality of initial data as well as the adequate treatment of the model systematic bias.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.401-413
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• 2012

In this study, an investigation has been carried out to understand 1) temporal variation of rainfall amount in summer over south Korea during the 30-year period of 1979-2008 and 2) the relationship between the variation of rainfall amount and the change of large-scale monsoon circulation around 1993/1994 over East Asia. The analysis of rainfall amount is carried out separately for whole summer (June-August), climatological Changma period of 23 June-23 July, and August to consider variations within summer. To relate the variation of rainfall amount with the change of large-scale circulation, we have considered two 15-year periods of 1979-1993 and 1994-2008. This study has used observations at 58 stations in South Korea and NCEP-NCAR $2.5^{\circ}{\times}2.5^{\circ}$ reanalysis data. The major change in synoptic environment for the Changma period is characterized by the intensified anticyclone over Mongolia during 1994-2008, which results in a weak meridional oscillation of Changma front. As a result, rainfall amount for the Changma period and the frequency of extreme events have significantly increased after 1993/1994. A major change of synoptic environment for August is the significant westward extension of the western Pacific subtropical high, which allows not only more moisture transports but also stronger cyclonic circulation over the Korean peninsula. Rainfall amount for August and frequency of extreme events have also increased after 1993/1994. However, variability of rainfall amount is larger for August than that for the Changma period, with some years showing very dry August (monthly rainfall amount less than 150 mm).

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.141-150
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• 2017

Using the NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis for aerosol optical depth (AOD) and satellite-observed carbon monoxide (CO) data, we examined the basic pattern of AOD variations over the three polar stations of Korea: Jangbogo and King Sejong stations in the Antarctica, and Dasan station in the Arctic area. AOD values at King Sejong and Dasan station show the maximum peaks in spring, which looks associated with the high amount of atmospheric CO emitted from the natural burning and the biomass burning. Jangbogo station shows the much less AOD compared to other two stations, and seems not strongly affected by the transport of airborne particles generated from mid-latitude regions. All three polar stations show the AOD increasing trend in general, indicating that the polar background air quality becomes polluted.