• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.381-394
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• 2022

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) National Typhoon Center has been officially releasing reanalyzed best tracks for the previous year's northwest Pacific typhoons since 2015. However, while most typhoon researchers are aware of the data released by other institutions, such as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) and the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) Tokyo, they are often unfamiliar with the KMA products. In this technical note, we describe the best track data released by KMA, and the algorithms that are used to generate it. We hope that this will increase the usefulness of the data to typhoon researchers, and help raise awareness of the product. The best track reanalysis process is initiated when the necessary database of observations-which includes satellite, synoptic, ocean, and radar observations-has become complete for the required year. Three categories of best track information-position (track), intensity (maximum sustained winds and central pressure), and size (radii of high-wind areas)-are estimated based on scientific processes. These estimates are then examined by typhoon forecasters and other internal and external experts, and issued as an official product when final approval has been given.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.119-134
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• 2023

The synoptic, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a snowfall event that occurred in the Yeongdong region on March 1-2, 2021, were investigated. Surface weather charts, ERA5 reanalysis data, rawinsonde data, GK-2A satellite data, and WISSDOM data were used for analysis. The snow depth, exceeding 10 cm, was observed at four weather stations during the analysis period. The maximum snow depth (37.4 cm) occurred at Bukgangneung. According to the analysis of the weather charts, old and dry air was trapped within relatively warm, humid air in the upper atmosphere over the East Sea and adjacent Yeongdong region. This caused unstable atmospheric conditions that led to developing convective clouds and snowfall over Bukgangneung. In particular, based on the thermodynamic and kinematic vertical analysis, we suggest that strong winds attributable to the vertical gradient of potential temperature in the low layer and the development of convective instability due to cold advection played a significant role in the occurrence of snowfall in the Yeongdong region. These results were confirmed from the vertical analysis of the rawinsonde data.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.205-220
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• 2023

In this study, impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on PM_2.5 mass and its five chemical components (NH₄⁺, NO₃^-, SO₄^2-, OC, EC) in Busan was evaluated, and compared with that of Seoul. The study period over the recent three years was sub-divided into two periods: Pre-COVID (2018~2019) and COVID (2020) periods, and the differences in observed annual and monthly variations between the two periods were explored here. The results indicated that annual mean PM_2.5 mass concentrations decreased during the COVID period by 16% in Seoul and 29% in Busan, and the satellite-observed annual average of aerosol optical depth (AOD) over the Korean Peninsula also decreased by approximately more than 10% compared with that of the Pre-COVID period. All of the five chemical components decreased but no particular changes were found in their fractions occupied during the COVID period. However, over the Lock-down period (2020-March), the sulfate fraction decreased in Seoul, mostly reflecting the recent Chinese trends of aerosol characteristics, whereas the nitrate fraction considerably decreased in Busan, which was attributable to the local emission changes and their variabilities in Busan. Other meteorological characteristics such as higher frequencies of easterly winds in the Busan area during the COVID period were also discussed in comparison with those in the Seoul area.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.7 no.4
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• pp.845-852
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• 2003

This study deals with the relationship between the red tide occurrence and the meteorological and marine factors, the prediction of areas where the red tide is likely to occur based on the information, and the satellite monitoring for the red tide in mid-South Sea of Korea. From 1990 to 2001, the red tide was observed every year and the number of occurrences increased as well. The red tide mostly occurred in July, August, and September. The most important meteorological factor governing the mechanisms of the increase in the number of red tide occurrences is found to be a heavy precipitation. It was found that the favorable marine environmental conditions for the red tide formation are some of marine factors such as the warm water temperature, the low salinity, the high suspended solid, the low phosphorus, and the low nitrogen. The necessary conditions for the red tide occurrence are found to be the heavy precipitation (23.4-54.5 mm) for 2∼4 days, the warm temperature $(24.6∼25.9^{\circ}C)$, proper sunshine (2∼10.3 h), and light winds (2∼4.6 m/s & SW) for the day in red tide occurrence. It was possible to monitor the spatial distributions and concentration of the red tide using the satellite images. It was found that the likely areas for red tide occurrence in August 2000 were Yosu - Dolsan coast, Gamak bay, Namhae coast, Marado coast, Goheung coast, and Deukryang bay.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.323-328
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• 2003

This study deals with the relationship between the red tide occurrence and the meteorological and marine factors, the prediction of areas where the red tide is likely to occur based on the information, and the satellite monitoring for the red tide in mid-South Sea of Korea. From 1990 to 2001, the red tide was observed every year and the number of occurrences increased as well. The red tide mostly occurred in July, August, and September. The most important meteorological factor governing the mechanisms of the increase in the number of red tide occurrences is found to be a heavy precipitation. It was found that the favorable marine environmental conditions for the red tide formation are some of marine factors such as the warm water temperature, the low salinity, the high suspended solid, the low phosphorus, and the low nitrogen. The necessary conditions for the red tide occurrence are found to be the heavy precipitation (23.4∼54.5 mm) for 2∼4 days, the warm temperature (24.64-25.85 $^{\circ}C$), proper sunshine (2∼10.3 h), and light winds (2∼4.6 m/s & SW) for the day in red tide occurrence. It was possible to monitor the spatial distributions and concentration of the red tide using the satellite images. It was found from this study that the likely areas for red tide occurrence in August 2000 were Yosu ∼ Dolsan coast, Gamak bay, Namhae coast, Marado coast, Goheung coast, and Deukryang bay.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 2004

The mechanism of cold core eddy formation was investigated using boundary conditions between the East China coastal cold water and the Kuroshio Warm Current, wind data related to the monsoon which was measured by QuikSCAT, and the bottom topography of the East China Sea. When winds blow from the southeast at an intensity comparable to that in the winter period in 1999 and 2003, the warm Kuroshio and Tsushima Current became stronger, and temperatures were considerably higher than those of the extended cold water of the coast of the East China. At that time, the cold water was captured by warm water from the Kuroshio and the Tsushima Current. This facilitated the formation of mesoscale cold core eddies with diameter of 150km in the East China Sea in May, 1999 and February, 2003. The cold core eddy which was detected by NOAA, SeaWiFS and QuikSCAT satellites. The East China Sea is considered to be important not only as a good fishing ground but also nursery and spawning area for many kinds of fishes. Therefore, it would be worth studying spatio-temporal variations of the cold core eddy in the environmental conditions of the northwestern East China Sea using systematic remote sensing techniques.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.39 no.6
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• pp.555-567
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• 2018

In order to identify the characteristics of sea surface temperature (SST) differences between microwave SST from GCOM-W1/AMSR2 and in-situ measurements in the western coast of Korea, a total of 6,457 collocated matchup data were produced using the in-situ temperature measurements from marine buoy stations (Deokjeokdo, Chilbaldo, and Oeyeondo) from July 2012 to December 2017. The accuracy of satellite microwave SSTs was presented by comparing the ocean buoy data of Deokjeokdo, Chilbaldo, and Oeyeondo stations with the AMSR2 SST data more than five years. The SST differences between the microwave SST and the in-situ temperature measurements showed some dependence on environmental factors, such as wind speed and water temperature. The AMSR2 SSTs were tended to be higher than the in-situ temperature measurements during the daytime when the wind speed was low ($<6ms^{-1}$). On the other hand, they showed positive deviation increasingly as the wind speed increased for nighttime. In addition, increasing tendency of SST differences was related to decreasing sensitivity of microwave sensors at low temperatures and data contamination by land. A monthly analysis of the SST difference showed that unlike the previous trend, which was known to be the largest in winter when strong winds were blowing, the SST difference was largest in summer in Deokjeokdo and Chilbaldo buoy stations. This seemed to be induced by differential tidal mixing at the collocated matchup points. This study presented problems and limitations of the use of microwave SSTs with high contribution to the SST composites in the western coastal region off the Korean peninsula.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_3
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• pp.1383-1398
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• 2018

Sea surface wind is one of the most fundamental variables for understanding diverse marine phenomena. Although scatterometers have produced global wind field data since the early 1990's, the data has been used limitedly in oceanic applications due to it slow spatial resolution, especially at coastal regions. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is capable to produce high resolution wind field data. KOMPSAT-5 is the first Korean satellite equipped with X-band SAR instrument and is able to retrieve the sea surface wind. This study presents the validation results of sea surface wind derived from the KOMPSAT-5 backscattering coefficient data for the first time. We collected 18 KOMPSAT-5 ES mode data to produce a matchup database collocated with buoy stations. In order to calculate the accurate wind speed, we preprocessed the SAR data, including land masking, speckle noise reduction, and ship detection, and converted the in-situ wind to 10-m neutral wind as reference wind data using Liu-Katsaros-Businger (LKB) model. The sea surface winds based on XMOD2 show root-mean-square errors of about $2.41-2.74m\;s^{-1}$ depending on backscattering coefficient conversion equations. In-depth analyses on the wind speed errors derived from KOMPSAT-5 backscattering coefficient data reveal the existence of diverse potential error factors such as image quality related to range ambiguity, discrete and discontinuous distribution of incidence angle, change in marine atmospheric environment, impacts on atmospheric gravity waves, ocean wave spectrum, and internal wave.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.386-404
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• 2022

From April 29 to 30, 2011, under the influence of Asian dust originated from Mongolia, a high concentration of Asian dust was observed nationwide for 4 days in Korea. This study investigated the causes and characteristics of and weather conditions associated with Asian dust at high concentrations at its source in Mongolia. For analysis, Asian dust weather data, Asian dust monitoring tower data, satellite data, backward trajectory data, observation data (PM₁₀ and OPC data), and ECMWF reanalysis data were used. In the synoptic analysis, it was observed that the intervals of isobars were densely distributed in the central region of Mongolia and the pressure gradient force was strong. It could be inferenced that Asian dust occurred due to strong winds. The temperature was relatively high, above 10℃, just before the occurrence of Asian dust, and it decreased sharply at the onset of the dust. The relative humidity had a low value of less than approximately 40%. After the occurrence of Asian dust, it increased sharply to over 50% and then showed a tendency to decrease. In the aerosol index shown by the COMS satellite, a high concentration value of over 25 was detected in Inner Mongolia, and it was consistent with the observations made with naked eyes. In the 72-hour backward trajectory, the northwest airflow streamed into Korea, and on May 2, Heuksando showed the highest PM₁₀ concentration of 1,025 ㎍ m^-3(times the average). Especially, in kinematic vertical analysis, it was observed that low pressure on the ground was strengthened by cyclonic relative vorticity developed in the upper layer. Also, the vertical velocity development is considered to have played a major role in the occurrence of high concentration Asian dust.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.261-270
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• 2015

Characteristics of snowfall and snow crystal habits have been investigated in the campaign of Experiment on Snow Storms At Yeongdong (ESSAY) using radiosonde soundings, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and a digital camera with a magnifier for taking a photograph of snowfall crystals. The analysis period is 6 to 14 February 2014, when the accumulated snowfall amount is 192.8 cm with the longest snowfall duration of 9 days. The synoptic situations are similar to those of the previous studies such as the Low pressure system passing by the far South of the Korean peninsula along with the Siberian High extending to northern Japan, which eventually results in the northeasterly or easterly flows and the long-lasting snowfall episodes in the Yeongdong region. In general, the ice clouds tended to exist below around 2~3 km with the consistent easterly flows, and the winds shifted to northerly~northwesterly above the clouds layer. The snow crystal habits observed in the ESSAY campaign were mainly dendrite, consisting of 70% of the entire habits. The rimed habits were frequently captured when two-layered clouds were observed, probably through the process of freezing of super-cooled droplets on the ice particles. The homogeneous habit such as dendrite was shown in case of shallow clouds with its thickness of below 500 m whereas various habits were captured such as dendrites, rimed dendrites, aggregates of dendrites, plates, rimed plates, etc in the thick cloud with its thickness greater than 1.5 km. The dendrites appeared to be dominant in the condition of cloud top temperature specifically ranging $-12{\sim}-16^{\circ}C$. However, the association of snow crystal habits with temperature and super-saturation in the cloud could not be examined in the current study. Better understandings of characteristics of snow crystal habits would contribute to preventing breakdown accidents such as a greenhouse destruction and collapse of a temporary building due to heavy snowfall, and traffic accidents due to snow-slippery road condition, providing a higher-level weather information of snow quality for skiers participating in the winter sports, and estimating more accurate snowfall amount, location, and duration with the fallspeed of solid precipitation.