• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
• /
• v.33 no.1_2
• /
• pp.37-48
• /
• 2021

The cold surge is an important extreme weather in East Asia during winter, and is largely affected by behavior of the Siberian high Arctic Oscillation, which represents undulation of large-scale pressure pattern in the Arctic region. Recent studies also revealed that the synoptic low pressure system developing in the eastern boundary of the Asian continent is sensitive to sea surface temperature (SST) and plays an important role in strengthening the cold advection over the Korean Peninsula during cold surges. In this study, we analyzed the Arctic Oscillation affecting the large-scale background of cold surge in East Asia, and the sea surface temperature in the coast of East Asia is examined focusing on its role on synoptic low-inducing cold advection. For the analysis, the days with the bottom 3% of the average daily temperature, measured at five surface stations in Korean Peninsula during 49 years (1969/70-2017/18), were used for the cold surge cases. During the negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation, a strong trough is observed over East Asia, and the inflow of cold air from the polar region is strengthened, which lead to frequent cold surges. In addition, anomalously high SST in the eastern coast of Asia increases sensible and latent heat release from the ocean, therefore, it enlarges the likelihood of synoptic low-inducing extreme cold surges.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.71-79
• /
• 2010

The influence of fines of the frost susceptibility of subgrade soils were established by laboratory freezing system test simulating closely the thermal conditions in the field. During the winter season, the climate is heavily influenced by the cold and dry continental high pressure. Because of siberian air mass, the temperature of January is $-6{\sim}-7^{\circ}C$ on average. This chilly weather generate the frost heaving by freezing the moisture of soil and damage potential of the road structure. In the freezing soil, the ice lenses increase the freeze portion of soil by absorbing the ground water with capillary action. However, the capillary characteristics differ from the sort of soil on the state of freezing condition. In the current design codes for anti-freezing layer, the thickness of anti freezing layer is calculated by freezing depth against the temperature condition. Therefore, they have a tendency of over-design and uniform thickness without the considerations of thermal stability, bearing capacity and frost susceptibility of materials. So, it is essential for studying the appropriateness and bearing capacity besides the seasonal and mechanical properties of pavement materials to take a appropriate and reasonable design of the road structure. In this Paper, the evaluation of frost susceptibility was conducted by means of the mechanical property test and laboratory freezing system apparatus. The temperature, heaving amount, heaving pressure and unfrozen water contents of soil samples, the subgrade soils of highway construction site, were measured to determine the frost susceptibility.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.16 no.1
• /
• pp.33-48
• /
• 2006

A classification of snowfall type based on development mechanism is proposed using previous snowfall studies, operational experiences, etc. Five types are proposed: snowfall caused by 1) airmass transformation (AT type), 2) terrain effects in a situation of expanding Siberian High (TE type), 3) precipitation systems associated with extratropical cyclones (EC type), 4) indirect effects of extratropical cyclones passing over the sea to the south of the Korean peninsula (ECS type), and 5) combined effects of TE and ECS types (COM type). Snowfall events during 1981-2001 are classified according to the 5 types mentioned above. For this, 118 events, with at least one station with daily snowfall depth greater than 20 cm, are selected. For the classification, synoptic weather charts, satellite images, and precipitation data are used. For TE and COM types, local sea-level pressure chart is also used to confirm the presence of condition for TE type (this is done for events in 1990 and thereafter). The classification shows that 109 out of 118 events can be classified as one of the 5 types. In the remaining 8 events, heavy snowfall occurred only in Ullung Island. Its occurrence may be due to one or more of the following mechanism: airmass transformation, mesoscale cyclones and/or mesoscale convergence over the East Sea, etc. Each type shows different characteristics in location of snowfall and composition of precipitation (i.e., dry snow, rain, and mixed precipitation). The AT-type snowfall occurs mostly in the west coast, Jeju and Ullung Islands whereas the TE-type snowfall occurs in the East coast especially over the Young Dong area. The ECS-type snowfall occurs mostly over the southern part of the peninsula and some east cost area (sometimes, whole south Korea depending on the location of cyclones). The EC- and COM-type snowfalls occur in wider area, often whole south Korea. Precipitation composition also varies with the type. The AT-type has a snow ratio (SR) higher than the mean value. The TE- and EC-type have SR similar to the mean. The ECS- and COM-type have SR values smaller than the mean. Generally the SR values at high latitude and mountainous areas are higher than those at the other areas. The SR value informs the characteristics of the precipitation composition. An SR value larger than 10 means that all precipitation is composed of snow whereas a zero SR value means that all precipitation is composed of rain.

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

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.37-51
• /
• 2018

In this study, we investigate the performance of Global Seasonal Forecasting System version 5 (GloSea5) in Korea Meteorological Administration on the relationship between El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ and East Asian climate for the period of 1991~2010. It is found that the GloSea5 has a great prediction skill of El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ whose anomaly correlation coefficients of $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ indices are over 0.96 during winter. The eastern Pacific (EP) El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ and the central Pacific (CP) El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ are considered and we analyze for EP El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$, which is well simulated in GloSea5. The analysis period is divided into the developing phase of El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ summer (JJA(0)), mature phase of El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ winter (D(0)JF(1)), and decaying phase of El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ summer (JJA(1)). The GloSea5 simulates the relationship between precipitation and temperature in East Asia and the prediction skill for the East Asian precipitation and temperature varies depending on the El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ phase. While the precipitation and temperature are simulated well over the equatorial western Pacific region, there are biases in mid-latitude region during the JJA(0) and JJA(1). Because the low level pressure, wind, and vertical stream function are simulated weakly toward mid-latitude region, though they are similar with observation in low-latitude region. During the D(0)JF(1), the precipitation and temperature patterns analogize with observation in most regions, but there is temperature bias in inland over East Asia. The reason is that the GloSea5 poorly predicts the weakening of Siberian high, even though the shift of Aleutian low is predicted. Overall, the predictability of precipitation and temperature related to El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ in the GloSea5 is considered to be better in D(0)JF(1) than JJA(0) and JJA(1) and better in ocean than in inland region.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
• /
• v.12 no.2
• /
• pp.13-23
• /
• 2013

The Korean Peninsula is considered as a seasonal frozen area that is thawed in the spring and frozen in the winter. The influence of fines of the frost susceptibility of subgrade soils were established by laboratory freezing tests simulating closely the thermal conditions in the field. During the winter season, the climate is heavily influenced by the cold and dry continental high pressure. Because of siberian air mass, the temperature of January is $-6{\sim}-7^{\circ}C$ on average. This chilly weather generate the frost heaving by freezing the moisture of soil and damage potential of the geotechnical structure. In the freezing soil, the ice lenses increase the freeze portion of soil by absorbing the ground water with capillary action. However, the capillary characteristics differ from the sort of soil on the state of freezing condition. In this study, ten soil samples are prepared. The basic physical property tests were performed by following the Korean Industrial Standard and the soil specimens were classified by the Unified Soil Classification System (USCS). These classified soils are used to perform the laboratory opened systems freezing test in order to determine the frost heaving characteristics of soils such as unfrozen water content, heaving amount, and freezing depth.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.23 no.3
• /
• pp.236-247
• /
• 2011

This study investigates sea level (SL) rise due to global warming in the Northwestern Pacific (NWP) and Seas around the Korean peninsula (KP) using outputs of IPCC AR4 climate models. Particularly, components of the SL rise induced by a local steric effect, which was not considered in most climate models, were computed using model-projected 3-dimensional temperature and salinity data. Analysis of the SL data shows that the ratio of the SL rise in the NWP and KP was about two times higher than that in global mean and particularly the ratio in the Kuroshio extension region was the highest. The SL rises over 100 years estimated from MPI_ECHAM5 and GFDL_CM2.1 model by A1B scenario considering the thermosteric effect were 24 cm and 28 cm for the NWP and 27 cm and 31 cm for the Seas around the KP, respectively. Statistical analysis reveals that these SL rises are caused by the weakening of the Siberian High in winter as well as variations of pressure system in the NWP and by the resultant change of water temperature. It also found that the highest SL rise in the Kuroshio extension region of the NWP was connected with the large increase of water temperature in this area.