• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2022

Although tropical cyclones with wind speeds weaker than 17 ms^-1 (weak tropical cyclones: WTCs) can cause significant damage, particularly over the Seoul metropolitan area, only a few studies have focused on WTC activity over South Korea. In this study, we found that WTC activity is likely associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). During the negative phases of the PDO, landfall frequency of WTCs increased significantly compared to the positive phases at 95% confidence level. When related to the negative phases of the PDO, a positive relative vorticity anomaly is found in the northern sector of the western North Pacific while a negative relative vorticity anomaly and enhanced vertical wind shear prevail in the southern sector of the WNP. These factors are favorable for the northward shift of the genesis location of tropical cyclones on average, thereby reducing the total lifetime of WTCs. Moreover, a high-pressure anomaly over the Japanese islands would shift a tropical cyclone track westward in addition to the landfall location. Consequently, the effects of the topographical friction and the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water on a tropical cyclone may increase. These conditions could result in a weaker lifetime maximum intensity and landfall intensity, ultimately resulting in WTCs becoming more frequent over South Korea during the negative phases of the PDO.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.721-733
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• 2009

A pattern of tropical cyclone (TC) movement in the western North Pacific area was studied using the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) and the best track data from 1951 to 2007. The independent variable used in this study was defined as the frequency of tropical cyclone passage in 5 by 5 degree grid. The $1^{st}$, $2^{nd}$ and $3^{rd}$ modes were the east-west, north-south and diagonal variation patterns. Based on the time series of each component, the signs of first and second mode changed in 1997 and 1991, respectively, which seems to be related to the fact that the passage frequency was higher in the South China Sea for 20 years before 1990s, and recent 20 years in the East Asian area. When the eigen vectors were negative values in the first and second modes and TC moves into the western North Pacific, TC was formed mainly at the east side relatively compared to the case of the positive eigen vectors. The first mode seems to relate to the pressure pattern at the south of Lake Baikal, the second mode the variation pattern around $30^{\circ}N$, and the third mode the pressure pattern around Japan. The first mode was also closely related to the ENSO and negatively related to the $Ni\tilde{n}o$-3.4 index in the correlation analysis with SST anomalies.