• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.92-101
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• 2020

To prevent and mitigate damage to farms due to heavy snowfall, snow weight information should be provided in addition to snow depth. This study reviews four formulae regarding snow density and weight used in extant studies and applies them in Suwon area to estimate snow weight in Korea. We investigated the observed snow depth of 94 meteorological stations and automatic weather stations (AWS) data over the past 30 years (1988-2017). Based on the spatial distribution of snow depth by area in Korea, much of the fresh snow cover, due to heavy snowfall, occurred in Jeollabuk-do and Gangwon-do. Record snowfalls occurred in Gyeongsangbuk-do and Gangwon-do. However, the most recent heavy snowfall in winter occurred in Gyeonggi-do, Gyeongsangbuk-do, and Jeollanam-do. This implies that even if the snow depth is high, there is no significant damage unless the snow weight is high. The estimation of snow weight in Suwon area yielded different results based on the calculation method of snow density. In general, high snow depth is associated with heavy snow weight. However, maximum snow weight and maximum snow depth do not necessarily occur on the same day. The result of this study can be utilized to estimate the snow weight at other locations in Korea and to carry out snow weight prediction based on a numerical model. Snow weight information is expected to aid in establishing standards for greenhouse design and to reduce the economic losses incurred by farms.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.465-480
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• 2018

On 20 January 2017, the fresh snow cover which is more than 20 cm, accompaning with lightning occurred over Yeongdong coastal region for the first 3-hour of the heavy snowfall event. This study analyzed sounding observations in the heavy snow period which were including the measurements of wind profiler, radiometer and rawinsonde. The features examined from the vertical wind and temperature data at the two adjacent stations, Bukgangneung and Gangneung-Wonju National University, are summarized as follows: 1) The strong (30-40 kts) north-east winds were observed in the level from 2 to 6 km. The Strong atmospheric instability was found from 4 to 6 km, in which the lapse rate of temperature was about $-18^{\circ}C\;km^{-1}$. These features indicate that the deep convective cloud develops up to the height of 6 km in the heavy snowfall period, which is shown in the satellite infrared images. 2) The cooling was observed in the level below 1 km. At this time, the surface air temperature at Bukgangneung station decreased by $4^{\circ}C$. The narrow cooling zone estimated from AWS and buoy data was located in east-west direction. These are the features observed in the cold front of extratropical cyclone. The distributions of radar echo and lightning also show the same shape in east-west direction. Therefore, the results indicate that the Yeongdong thundersnow event was the combined precipitation system of deep convective cloud and cold frontal precipitation.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.395-403
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• 2005

This study is focused on the relationship between snowfall and the Bowen’s Ratio (sensible heat flux/latent heat flux) through calculation of heat exchange between air and sea for snowfall events in Jeju Island from 1993 to 2003. The four weather stations for this study are located at Jeju, Seoguipo, Seongsanpo and Gosan in Jeju Island. In order to improve the reliability of snowfall forecast, the Bowen’s Ratio for snowfall, which includes influences from the atmosphere such as wind, is compared with the temperature difference between air and sea for snowfall. As a results, in the case for fresh snowfall, the minimum temperature differences between air and sea were 10, 12.3, 11.5, and $14.3^{\circ}C$ at Jeju, Seoguipo, Seongsanpo and Gosan, respectively. The probabilities of fresh snowfall were 26, 29, 13, and $23\%$, respectively, when the temperature differences were higher than the previous values. On the other hand, the minimum Bowen ratios were 0.59, 0.60, 0.65 and 0.65 at Jeju, Seoguipo, Seongsanpo and Gosan, respectively. The probabilities of fresh snowfall were 33, 70, 31 and $58\%$ respectively, when the Bowen ratio is higher than those. The reason for this is because the probability of fresh snowfall with the Bowen ratio was higher than the probability with temperature difference between air and sea. This result occurred because heat exchange by wind increased the probability of snowfall, along with the temperature difference between air and sea, and the Bowen ratio. Therefore, snowfall forecast of Jeju Island is significantly influenced by the sea, whereas forecast with Bowen ratio seems to have higher reliability than that with the temperature difference between air and sea. The data analysis for the ten-year period $(1993\~2002)$ showed that when each fresh snowfall was within 0.0 to 0.9cm, the average Bowen’s ratio was 0.63 to 0.67, and when each fresh snowfall was 1.0 to 4.9 cm, the average Bowen’s ratio was over 0.72. Therefore, fresh snowfall shows a proportional relationship with the Bowen’s ratio during snowfall.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2014

This study presents spatial characteristics of cloud using satellite image in the extreme heavy snowfall of the Yeongdong region. 3 extreme heavy snowfall events in the Yeongdong region during the recent 12 years (2001 ~ 2012) are selected for which the fresh snow cover exceed 50 cm/day. Spatial characteristics (minimum brightness temperature; Tmin, cloud size, center of cloud-cell) of cloud are analyzed by tracking main cloud-cell related with these events. These characteristics are compared with radar precipitation in the Yeongdong region to investigate relationship between cloud and precipitation. The results are summarized as follows, selected extreme heavy snowfall events are associated with the isolated, well-developed, and small-scale convective cloud which is developing over the Yeongdong region or moving from over East Korea Bay to the Yeongdong region. During the period of main precipitation, cloud-cell Tmin is low ($-40{\sim}-50^{\circ}C$) and cloud area is small (17,000 ~ 40,000 $km^2$). Precipitation area (${\geq}$ 0.5 mm/hr) from radar also shows small and isolated shape (4,000 ~ 8,000 $km^2$). The locations of the cloud and precipitation are similar, but in there centers are located closely to the coast of the Yeongdong region. In all events the extreme heavy snowfall occur in the period a developed cloud-cell was moving into the coastal waters of the Yeongdong. However, it was found that developing stage of cloud and precipitation are not well matched each other in one of 3 events. Water vapor image shows that cloud-cell is developed on the northern edge of the dry(dark) region. Therefore, at the result analyzed from cloud and precipitation, selected extreme heavy snowfall events are associated with small-scale secondary cyclone or vortex, not explosive polar low. Detection and tracking small-scale cloud-cell in the real-time forecasting of the Yeongdong extreme heavy snowfall is important.