• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2020

Recently, a heavy rainfall with high spatial variation occurred frequently in the Korean Peninsula. The meteorological event that occurred in Busan on 3 May 2016 is characterized by heavy rain in a limited area. In order to clarify the reason of large spatial variation associated with mountain height and location of low level jet, several numerical experiments were carried out using the dynamic meteorological Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. In this case study, the raised topography of Mount Geumjeong increased a barrier effect and air uplifting due to topographic forcing on the windward side. As a result, wind speed reduced and precipitation increased. In contrast, on the downwind side, the wind speed was slightly faster and since the total amount of water vapor is limited, the precipitation on the downwind side reduced. Numerical experiments on shifting the location of the lower jet demonstrated that if the lower jet is close to the mountain, its core becomes higher due to the effect of friction. Additionally, the water vapor convergence around the mountain increased and eventually the precipitation also increased in the area near the mountain. Hence, the location information of the lower jet is an important factor for accurately predicting precipitation.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.635-647
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• 2016

The effects of sea surface temperature (SST) gradient induced by the previous typhoon on the following typhoon motion over East Asia have been investigated using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model for the previous Typhoon Bolaven (1215) and following Typhoon Tembin (1214). It was observed that Typhoon Bolaven remarkably reduced SST by about $7^{\circ}C$ at Yellow Sea buoy (YSbuoy). Using the WRF experiments for the imposed cold wake over West of Tembin (WT) and over East of Tembin (ET), this study demonstrates that the effects of eastward SST gradient including cold wake over WT is much significant rather than that over ET in relation to unexpected Tembin's eastward deflection. This difference between two experiments is attributed to the fact that cold wake over WT increases the magnitude of SST gradient under the eastward SST gradient around East Asia and the resultant asymmetric flow deflects Typhoon Tembin eastward, which is mainly due to the different atmospheric response to the SST forcing between ET and WT. Therefore, it implies that the enhanced eastward SST gradient over East Asia results in larger typhoon deflection toward the region of warmer SST according to the location of the cold wake effect. This result can contribute to the improvement of track prediction for typhoons influencing the Korean Peninsula

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.575-585
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• 2018

In the case study of this paper, sensitivity experiments are carried out using the mesoscale non-hydrostatic Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to investigate the impact of tropical cyclone (TC) Soudelor (2003) on the East Asian subtropical upper-level jet (EASJ) before TC Soudelor transformed into an extratropical cyclone. The physical mechanism for changes in the EASJ intensity and position caused by TC Soudelor is explored. Results indicate that TC Soudelor would warm the air in the middle and upper troposphere over the Japan Sea and the adjacent areas through stimulating northward propagating teleconnection pattern as well as releasing large amounts of latent heat, which led to increase (decrease) the meridional air temperature gradient to the south (north) below the EASJ axis. As a result, the geopotential height abnormally increased in the upper troposphere, resulting in an anomalous anticyclonic circulation belt along the EASJ axis. Correspondingly, the westerly winds to the north (south) of the EASJ axis intensified (weakened) and the EASJ axis shifted northward by one degree. The case study also suggests that before the extratropical cyclone transition of TC Soudelor, the TC activities had exerted significant impacts on the EASJ through thermodynamic processes.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.578-593
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• 2023

Intense convective activity and heavy precipitation inundated Seoul and its metropolitan area on July 15, 2017. This study investigated the synoptic-scale meteorological drivers of cold cloud genesis of this event. The WRF-Chem (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry) model was employed to explore the intricate interplay between meteorological factors and the indirect effects of PM_2.5 aerosols originating from eastern China. The PM_2.5 aerosols' indirect effect was quantified by contrasting outcomes between the comprehensive Aerosol Radiation Interaction experiment (encompassing aerosol radiation feedback, cloud chemistry processes, and wet scavenging in the WRF-Chem model) and ACR (Aerosol Cloud Radiation interaction) experiment. The ACR experiment specifically excluded aerosol radiation feedback while incorporating only cloud chemistry processes and wet scavenging. Results indicated that in the early hours of July 15, 2017, a convergence of warm, moisture-laden airflow originating from southeast China and the East China Sea unfolded over the Yellow Sea. This convergence was driven by the juxtaposition of a low-pressure system over the Chinese mainland and Northwest Pacific high. Notably, at approximately 12 km altitude, the resultant convective clouds were characterized by the presence of ice crystals, a hallmark of continental-origin cold clouds. The WRF-Chem model simulations elucidated the role of PM_2.5 aerosols from eastern China, attributing 5.7, 10.4, and 10.8% to cloud water, ice crystal column, and liquid water column formation, respectively, within the developing cold clouds. Thus, this study presented a meteorological mechanism elucidating the formation of deep convective clouds over the Yellow Sea and the indirect effects of PM_2.5 aerosols originating from eastern China.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.283-302
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• 2022

Despite the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown in China since January 23, 2020, haze days with high PM₁₀ levels of 88-98 ㎍ m^-3 occurred on February 1 and 2, 2020. During these haze days, the East Asian region was affected by a warm and stagnant air mass with positive air temperature anomalies and negative zonal wind anomalies at 850 hPa. The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) was used to analyze the variation of regional PM₁₀ aerosol transport in Korea due to decreased anthropogenic emissions in East Asia. The base experiment (BASE), which applies the basic anthropogenic emissions in the WRF-Chem model, and the control experiment (CTL) applied by reducing the anthropogenic emission to 50%, were used to assess uncertainty with ground-based PM₁₀ measurements in Korea. The index of agreement (IOA) for the CTL simulation was 0.71, which was higher than that of BASE (0.67). A statistical analysis of the results suggests that anthropogenic emissions were reduced during the COVID-19 lockdown period in China. Furthermore, BASE and CTL applied to zero-out anthropogenic emissions outside Korea (BASE_ZEOK and CTL_ZEOK) were used to analyze the variations of regional PM₁₀ aerosol transport in Korea. Regional PM₁₀ transport in CTL was reduced by only 10-20% compared to BASE. Synthetic weather variables may be another reason for the non-linear response to changes in the contribution of regional transport to PM₁₀ in Korea with the reduction of anthropogenic emissions in East Asia. Although the regional transport contribution of other inorganic aerosols was high in CTL (80-90%), sulfate-nitrate-ammonium (SNA) aerosols showed lower contributions of 0-20%, 30-60%, and 30-60%, respectively. The SNA secondary aerosols, particularly nitrates, presumably declined as the Chinese lockdown induced traffic.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.359-370
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• 2006

Terrain height variance spectra for the Korean mountain region are calculated in order to determine an adequate grid size required to resolve terrain forcing on mesoscale model simulation. One-dimensional spectral analysis is applied to specifically the central-eastern part of the Korean mountain region, where topographical-scale forcing has an important effect on mesoscale atmospheric flow. It is found that the terrain height variance spectra in this mountain region has a wavelength dependence with the power law exponents of 1.5 at the wavelength near 30 km, but this dependence is steeply changed to 2.5 at the wavelength less than 30 km. For the adequate horizontal grid size selection on mesoscale simulation two-dimensional terrain height spectral analysis is also performed. There is no directionality within 50% of spectral energy region, so one-dimensional spectral analysis can be reasonably applied to the Korea Peninsula. According to the spectral analysis of terrain height variance, the finer grid size which is higher than 6 km is required to resolve a 90% of terrain variance in this region. Numerical simulation using WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting Model) was performed to evaluate the effect of different terrain resolution in accordance with the result of spectral analysis. The simulated results were quantitatively compared to observations and there was a significant improvement in the wind prediction across the mountain region as the grid space decreased from 18 km to 2 km. The results will provide useful guidance of grid size selection on mesoscale topographical simulation over the Korean mountain region.

• Atmosphere
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.131-141
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• 2013

Many studies have related the recent variations of wildfire regime such as the increasing number of occurrances, their patterns and timing changes, and the severity of their extreme cases with global warming. However, there are only a few numbers of wildfire studies to assess how the future wildfire regime will change in the interactions between land and atmosphere with climate change especially over East Asia. This study was performed to estimate the future changing aspect of wildfire danger with global warming, using Haines Index (HI). Calculated from atmospheric instability and dryness, HI is the potential of an existing fire to become a dangerous wildfire. Using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, two separated 5-year simulations of current (1995~1999) and far future (2095~2099) were performed and analyzed. Community Climate System Model 3 (CCSM3) model outputs were utilized for the model inputs for the past and future over East Asia; future prediction was driven under the IPCC A1B scenario. The results indicate changes of the wildfire danger regime, showing overall decreasing the wildfire danger in the future but intensified regional deviations between north and south. The overall changes of the wildfire regime seems to stem from atmospheric dryness which is sensitive to soil moisture variation. In some locations, the future wildfire danger overall decreases in summer but increases in winter or fall when the actual fire occurrence are generally peaked especially in South China.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.488-496
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• 2017

Emissions of pollutants from ship-based sources are controlled by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Since pollutants emitted from ship may be dispersed to the land, controlling emissions from ships is necessary for efficient air quality management in Incheon, where exposure to ship-based pollution is frequent. It has been noted that the ratios of air pollutant emissions from coastal areas to inland areas are about 14% for NOx and 10% for SOx. The air quality of coastal urban areas is influenced by the number of ships present and the dispersion pattern of the pollutants released depending on the local circulation system. In this study, the dispersion of pollutants from ship-based sources was analyzed using the numerical California Puff Model (CALPUFF) based on a meteorological field established using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF). Air pollutant dispersion modeling around coastal urban regions such as Incheon should consider point and line sources emitted from both anchored and running ships, respectively. The total average NOx emissions from 82-84 ships were 6.2 g/s and 6.8 g/s, entering and leaving, respectively. The total average SOx emissions from 82-84 ships, entering and leaving, were 3.6 g/s and 5.1 g/s, respectively. The total average emissions for NOx and SOx from anchored ships were 0.77 g/s and 1.93 g/s, respectively. Due to the influence of breezes from over land, the transport of pollutants from Incheon Port to inland areas was suppressed, and the concentration of NOx and SOx inland were temporarily reduced. NOx and SOx were diffused inland by the sea breeze, and the concentration of NOx and SOx gradually increased inland. The concentration of pollutants in the area adjacent to Incheon Port was more influenced by anchored ship in the port than sea breezes. We expect this study to be useful for setting emission standards and devising air quality policies in coastal urban regions.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.25-34
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• 2014

In winter 2013, extreme air pollution by fine particulate matter ($PM_{2.5}$) in China attracted much public attention. In order to simulate the $PM_{2.5}$ pollution, the Community Multiscale Air Quality model driven by the Weather Research and Forecasting model was applied to East Asia in a period from 1 January 2013 to 5 February 2013. The model generally reproduced $PM_{2.5}$ concentration in China with emission data in the year 2006. Therefore, the extreme $PM_{2.5}$ pollution seems to be mainly attributed to meteorological (weak wind and stable) conditions rather than emission increases in the past several years. The model well simulated temporal and spatial variations in $PM_{2.5}$ concentrations in Japan as well as China, indicating that the model well captured characteristics of the $PM_{2.5}$ pollutions in both areas on the windward and leeward sides in East Asia in the study period. In addition, contribution rates of four anthropogenic emission sectors (power generation, industrial, residential and transportation) in China to $PM_{2.5}$ concentration were estimated by conducting zero-out emission sensitivity runs. Among the four sectors, the residential sector had the highest contribution to $PM_{2.5}$ concentration. Therefore, the extreme $PM_{2.5}$ pollution may be also attributed to large emissions from combustion for heating in cold regions in China.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.287-306
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• 2010

An ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is applied for Typhoon Wukong (200610) to investigate the performance of ensemble forecasts depending on experimental configurations of the EnKF. In addition, the ensemble sensitivity analysis is applied to the forecast and analysis ensembles generated in EnKF, to investigate the possibility of using the ensemble sensitivity analysis as the adaptive observation guidance. Various experimental configurations are tested by changing model error, ensemble size, assimilation time window, covariance relaxation, and covariance localization in EnKF. First of all, experiments using different physical parameterization scheme for each ensemble member show less root mean square error compared to those using single physics for all the forecast ensemble members, which implies that considering the model error is beneficial to get better forecasts. A larger number of ensembles are also beneficial than a smaller number of ensembles. For the assimilation time window, the experiment using less frequent window shows better results than that using more frequent window, which is associated with the availability of observational data in this study. Therefore, incorporating model error, larger ensemble size, and less frequent assimilation window into the EnKF is beneficial to get better prediction of Typhoon Wukong (200610). The covariance relaxation and localization are relatively less beneficial to the forecasts compared to those factors mentioned above. The ensemble sensitivity analysis shows that the sensitive regions for adaptive observations can be determined by the sensitivity of the forecast measure of interest to the initial ensembles. In addition, the sensitivities calculated by the ensemble sensitivity analysis can be explained by dynamical relationships established among wind, temperature, and pressure.