• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.157-168
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• 2007

In case there is a need to run the multi-year urban scale air qulaity model, it is a difficult task due to the computational demand, requiring the statistical approach for the long time atmospheric environmental assessment. In an effort to approach toward long term urban assessment, the sixteen synoptic meteorological conditions are statistically classified from the estimated geostrophic wind speeds and directions of 850 hPa geopotential height field during 2000 ~ 2005. The geostrophic wind directions are subdivided into four even intervals (north, east, south, and west), geostrophic wind speeds into two classes(${\leq}5m/s$ and >5m/s), and daily mean cloud amount into 2 classes(${\leq}5/10$ and >5/10), which result into sixteen classes of the synoptic meteorological cases for each season. The frequency distributions for each 16 synoptic meteorological case are examined and some discussions on how these synoptic classifications can be used in the environmental assessment are presented.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.31 no.12
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• pp.999-1012
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• 2022

To investigate the reason for the spatial difference in PM_2.5 (Particulate Matter, < 2.5 ㎛) concentration despite a similar synoptic pattern, a synoptic analysis was performed. The data used for this study were the daily average PM_2.5 concentration and meteorological data observed from 2016 to 2020 in Busan and Seoul metropolitan areas. Synoptic pressure patterns associated with high PM_2.5 concentration episodes (greater than 35 ㎍/m³) were analyzed using K-means cluster analysis, based on the 900 hPa geopotential height of NCEP (National Centers for Environmental Prediction) FNL (Final analysis) data. The analysis identified three sub-groups related to high concentrations occurring only in Busan and Seoul metropolitan areas. Although the synoptic patterns of high PM_2.5 concentration episodes that occur independently in Busan and Seoul metropolitan areas were similar, there was a difference in the intensity of pressure gradient and its direction, which tends to be an important factor determining the movement time of pollutants. The spatial difference in PM_2.5 concentration in the Korean Peninsula is due to the difference and direction of the atmospheric pressure gradient that develops from southwest to northeast direction.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.345-360
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• 2004

The late sea-breeze and its impacts on ozone distributions were investigated during April to September from 1998 to 2002, in the Busan metropolitan area (including surrounding areas) using the surface ozone concentrations (obtained at 9 monitoring sites), local meteorological variables (obtained near the shore), together with synoptic data. The urban scale ozone concentration was also simulated using the MM5/UAM-V to better understand the role of late sea-breeze in Busan. The results from observation study showed that most of the late sea-breeze occurred when weak offshore synoptic flow (northwesterly) suppressed development of sea - breeze, and the ozone concentration level and frequencies exceeding ozone standard increased with the onset time of sea breeze. We also found that the late sea-breeze clearly induces relatively weak wind speed and high temperature during the daytime As a result it enhances the photochemical ozone accumulation and delays the occurrence time of the averaged maximum ozone concentrations. The results of simulation for high ozone episode (24 August, 2001) by MM5/UAM -V revealed that the late sea-breeze interacted with weak offshore synoptic wind can contribute significantly to high ozone concentration in the coastal urban area. The simulated horizontal and vertical distribution of ozone concentration indicated that ozone can be accumulated over the sea under stagnant condition and return to the land in the late afternoon with the sea breeze, suggesting both the relationship between late sea-breeze and recirculation and the importance of late sea -breeze effects influencing severe ozone pollution in Busan.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.343-364
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• 2014

This study presents local and synoptic conditions associated with extreme heavy snowfall events in the Yeongdong region, as well as the temporal and spatial variability of these conditions. During the last 12 years (2001~2012), 3 extreme snowfall events occurred in the Yeongdong region, which recorded daily snowfall greater than 50 cm, respectively. In these events, one of the noticeable features is the occurrence of heavy hourly snowfall greater than 10 cm. It was reported from satellite analysis that these heavy snowfall may be closely related to mesoscale convective clouds. In this paper the 3 extreme events are examined on their synoptic environments associated with the developments of mesoscale convective system using numerical model output. These 3 events all occurred in strongly forced synoptic environments where 500 and 300 hPa troughs and 500 hPa thermal troughs were evident. From the analysis of diagnostic variables, it was found in all 3 events that absolute vorticity and cold air advection were dominant in the Yeongdong region and its surrounding sea at upper levels, especially at around 500 hPa (absolute vorticity: $20{\sim}60{\times}10^{-5}s^{-1}$, cold air advection: $-10{\sim}-20^{\circ}C$ $12hr^{-1}$). Moreover, the spatial distributions of cold advection showed mostly the shape of a narrow band along the eastern coast of Korea. These features of absolute vorticity and cold advection at 500 hPa were sustained for about 10 hours before the occurrence of maximum hourly snowfall.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.105-113
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• 1991

An investigation is carried out for the role of topography in governign the mesoscale distribution of $SO_2$ concentration in Seoul. The three dimensional wind fields computed for a given synoptic meteorological condition by an atmospheric mesoscale model in the terrain following coordinate have been employed to compute the three dimensional mesoscale distributions of $SO_2$ concentration by the diffusion model in Seoul area. Terrain may affect the mesoscale distributions of $SO_2$ concentration through its influence on the mesoscale wind fields. This study discusses only the terrain effect on the concentration through its modification of the wind. This effect is to produce higher concentration in lower area according to the structure of divergence fields derived from and atmospheric mesoscale model.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.357-365
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• 2005

The typical patterns of surface $O_3$ pollution and their dependence on meteorology were studied in the Greater Seoul Area (GSA) during warm season (April-September) from 1998 to 2002. In order to classify the $O_3$ pollution patterns, two-stage (average linkage then k-means) clustering technique was employed based on daily maximum $O_3$ concentrations obtained from 53 monitoring sites during high $O_3$ events (118 days). The clustering technique identified four statistically distinct $O_3$ pollution patterns representing the different horizontal distributions and levels of $O_3$ in GSA. The prevailed pattern (93 days, $49.5\%$) distinctly showed the gradient of $49.5\%$ concentrations going from west to east in GSA. Very high $49.5\%$ concentrations throughout GSA (24 days, $12.8\%$) were also found as a significant pattern of severe $O_3$ pollution. In order to understand the characteristics of $O_3$ pollution patterns, the relationship between $O_3$ pollution patterns and meteorological conditions were analyzed using both synoptic charts and surface/upper air data. Each pattern was closely associated with surface wind interacted with synoptic background flow allowing to transport and accumulate $O_3$ and its precursor. In particular, the timing and inland penetration of sea-breeze were apparently found to play very important role in determining $O_3$ distributions.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.295-308
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• 2015

Based on the CMIP5 historical simulation datasets, we assessed the performance of state-of-the-art climate models in respect to the relationship between interannual variabilities of the North Pacific synoptic eddy (NPSE) and East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM). Observation (ERA-Interim) shows a high negative correlation (-0.73) between the interannual variabilities of East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) intensity and North Pacific synoptic eddy (NPSE) activity during the period of 1979~2005. Namely, a stronger (weaker) EAWM is related to a weaker (stronger) synoptic eddy activities over the North Pacific. This strong reverse relationship can be well explained by latitudinal distributions of the surface temperature anomalies over East Asian continent, which leads the variation of local baroclinicity and significantly weakens the baroclinic wave activities over the northern latitudes of $40^{\circ}N$. This feature is supported by the distribution of the meridional heat flux (${\overline{{\nu}^{\prime}{\theta}^{\prime}}}$) anomalies, which have negative (positive) values along the latitudes $40{\sim}50^{\circ}N$ for strong(weak) EAWM years. In this study, the historical simulations by 11 CMIP5 climate models (BCC-CSM1.1, CanESM2, GFDL-ESM2G, GFDL-ESM2M, HadGEM2-AO, HadGEM2-CC, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MPI-ESM-LR, MPI-ESM-MR, MRI-CGCM3, and NorESM1-M) are analyzed for DJF of 1979~2005. Correlation coefficient between the two phenomena is -0.59, which is comparable to that of observation. Model-to-model variation in this relationship is relatively large as the range of correlation coefficient is between -0.76 (HadGEM2-CC and HadGEM2-AO) and -0.33 (MRI-CGCM3). But, these reverse relationships are shown in all models without any exception. We found that the multi-model ensemble is qualitatively similar to the observation in reasoning (that is, latitudinal distribution of surface temperature anomalies, variation of local baroclinicity and meridional heat flux by synoptic eddies) of the reverse relationship. However, the uncertainty for weak EAWM is much larger than strong EAWM. In conclusion, we suggest that CMIP5 models as an ensemble have a good performance in the simulation of EAWM, NPSE, and their relationship.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.503-514
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• 2004

In Seoul metropolitan area, nocturnal variation of surface ozone concentrations observed at 27 monitoring sites from 1998 to 2002 showed that high ozone levels occurred frequently during the spring. Frequency distributions for nighttime ozone indicated that elevated concentrations in spring were influenced by advection of different air mass compared to other seasons. Surface wind analysis during the spring revealed that relatively strong southwesterly winds were associated with nocturnal ozone enhancement, which can be attributed to the regional transport of ozone. In order to identify the origin of nocturnal ozone enhancement in spring, 3-day backward trajectories were calculated by HYSPLIT 4 for the episode days and then classified. The results showed that NW, W, and SW flows, indicating influence of polluted air masses from the China continent, have 51% in a]1 the episode days, which suggest that the nocturnal ozone enhancement can occur under the effect of long-range transport of ozone-laden air mass on a regional scale. Case study of nocturnal ozone maxima associated with long-range transport was discussed in more detail in the light of meteorological conditions. Southwesterly synoptic flow along the outer edge of moving high-pressure system was found to be the important cause of nocturnal ozone maxima in Seoul. This flow could lead to be long-range transport of ozone that had effectively accumulated in the stagnating portion of the system located eastern coast of China. Low atmosphere soundings, backward trajectories, and elevated ozone and CO levels at the back-ground tiles gave evidence for regional effects on nocturnal ozone enhancement In Seoul.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.429-439
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• 2005

The propose of this study is to identify distributional characteristics of winter droughts through occurrence frequencies and to analyze synoptic characteristics on the sea level pressure fields and 500hPa levels in Korea. The regional distributions of winter droughts in occurrence frequency vary according to the monthly regional distributions of the variabilities of precipitation in Korea. In January and December, the eastern parts of Korea where the variabilities of precipitation show high, have high rate of drought frequencies, while the western parts have low rate of it. It means that the regional distribution of the drought frequencies in January and December shows the east-high and west-low pattern, In February the frequencies show the north-high and south-low pattern. In the distributions of the sea-level pressure and 500hPa level height anomalies, the positive anomalies appear around Korean Peninsula and Siberian high area, the negative anomalies on the Aleutian low area and the western parts of North Pacific Ocean during the drought period in January and February. The droughts appear when the inflow of warm and humid air from the south eastern parts blocked by the prevailing pressure patterns of the west-high and east-low. Therefore, the zonal wind of the Korean Peninsula is strong. The droughts of December reflect not only low frequencies of cyclone occurrence, also small inflow of warm and humid air from the southern parts stemming from positive anomalies over whole middle latitude of eastern parts of Asia including Korean Peninsula.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.78-81
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• 2003

The present study illustrates a method for monitoring the urban vegetation around Shaoxing city, Monitoring spatiotemporal changes in urban areas will become increasingly important as the number and proportion of urban residents continues to increase. The synoptic view of urban land cover provided by satellite and airborne sensors is an important complement to in situ measurements of physical, environmental and socioeconomic variables in urban settings. The results obtained have revealed a notable change in the vegetation cover in and around the City premises. In this study, we discussed methodology for measurement of urban vegetation and vegetation distributions based on band ratioing in Shaoxing city using Land sat TM imageries. A systematic analysis of the spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation in urban areas is required to ensure a healthy sustainable environment.