• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.93-102
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• 1996

The Korean Peninsula is located on the east coast of monsoon Asia of the midlatitude, where the Pacific polar front moves. As a result variations of spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation occur. A great variation of precipitation during the summer months created frequent droughts and floods. The purpose of this study is to identify distributional characteristics and to analyze synopic characteristics of summer droughts in Korea. The research methods used are ; (1) to identify droughts based on the anomaly of monthly precipitation during summer of 1994. (2) to analyze correlations between drought and weather systems by using the calender of rain days. (3) to compare a synoptic mechanism of summer droughts with that of typical normal summer. The characteristics of summer droughts of 1994 may be summarized as follows ; 1) While most regions were affected by the droughts some regions displayed specific characteristics. The southern part of the Korean Peninsula was severely affected during the month of June. August droughts severely affected east part of the Sobek Mountains, thus showing that the droughts of June and August are highly localized. 2) In the pressure anomaly of surface field. the positive anomaly appears in June around Korean Peninsula, but in July when all parts of the South Korea were under severe droughts, the anomaly changes and becomes negative. 3) Extracyclones occurred less frequently in the summer of 1994. Those that did occur were located in areas far off the Korean Peninsula having little consequences on the drought patterns. 4) The trough of westerly wave at 500hPa height patterns in June is located far from the eastern sea of Korean Peninsula, but in July and August Korean Peninsula belongs to ridge of westerly wave. 5) In June the positive height anomaly at 500hPa surface appears zonally from Siberia to the western Parts of North Pacific Ocean, and in July and August, the strong positive anomaly appears around Korean Peninsula. As a result the zonal index of westerlies at during each month of summer in Korean sector has a large value, which in turn implies that drought will prevails when zonal flow is strong.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.38 no.5
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• pp.659-666
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• 2003

This study is a comparative analysis on the variabilities of spring precipitation and atmospheric circulations of 500hPa surfaces between dry years and wet years over the Korean Peninsula. The distribution of variabilities of precipitation in spring are different from month to month. In March, the pattern is west-high and east-low, in April, north-high and south-low, in May, east-high and west-low respectively. In the distribution of 500hPa geopotential height anomaly, dry years of March show west-high and east-low pattern in that negative anomaly zones are formed around the Korean Peninsula and western coast of the northern Pacific Ocean, and positive anomaly zones are formed in the inland of East Asia centered on Siberia. Consequently, the Korean Peninsula and neighboring regions experience dry season when the zonal flows are strong with the positive anomaly zones of zonal components. On the contrary in the wet years the westerlies are weak since the pattern is east-high and west-low in which the positive anomaly zones are formed over the Korean Peninsula centered on the Aleutian Islands and western coast of the northern Pacific Ocean and the negative anomaly zones are formed in the inland of East Asia centered on Tibet Plateau and Siberia. The dry years of April and May show north-high and south-low patterns in that negative anomaly zones are found from the center of the northern Pacific Ocean to the eastern coast of East Asia, and the positive anomaly zones are found in the center of East Asia extending from Aleutian Islands to Tibet Plateau. On the contrary, in the wet years the patterns show south-high and north-low. This study identified not only that there are contrary atmospheric circulation patterms between dry years and wet years over Korean Peninsua in spring, but also there are different atmosphric circulation patterns between early and late spring.