• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.267-276
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• 2012

Terminal lakes are widely distributed in the arid and semi-arid Gobi of Mongolia, and serves as important water resource for local people and livestock. However, such lakes are subject to great fluctuations in its size depending on climatic conditions and human water utilization. The Orog Lake is one such example that has shown remarkable fluctuation in recent years. In this study, we investigated the temporal changes of Orog Lake surface area by using 16-day MODIS 250 m NDVI products from 2000 to 2010. The results were compared with climate variability represented by monthly precipitation and temperature. Our results show that the Orog Lake gradually shrank for the period from 2000 to 2010, but with a significant range of seasonal and inter-annual variability. The lake area showed considerable seasonal variations, as it expanded in spring and fall, primarily due to snow melt and summer precipitation, respectively. Extreme drought period from 2000 to 2002 triggered the substantial reduction in lake area, leading to dry-up in year 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2009. After dry-up once occurred in 2005, the lake repeated reappearance and disappearance depending on seasonal and annual precipitation. Our findings implicate that the ground water fluctuated around the lake bottom level since 2005. This suggests the highly vulnerable nature of Orog lake, which greatly depends on future precipitation change.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.50-54
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• 2005

Some basic summer precipitation features over East Asia during the $20^{th}-21^{st}$ century as simulated / projected by the 22 coupled climate models under the IPCC AR4 program are investigated. Keeping in view that these are climate runs without prescribed SSTs, models perform well in simulating the regional annual cycle, spatial patterns (not shown) and the inter-annual variability. The projections under the 1% increase in $CO_2$ compounded until reaching double and held constant thereafter reveal that (a) Precipitation is likely to increase in all the months in particular during the summer monsoon (JJA) months. (b) The mean summer monsoon rainfall can increase from 4.2 to 13.5% and its variability is also likely to increase in the warming world due to increase in $CO_2$ (c) Extreme excess and deficient seasonal monsoons are likely to become more intense (not shown here) (d) Once the increase in $CO_2$ is cut-off, the system will reach a state of equilibrium, and then the rate of increase in precipitation is also expected to remain constant.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.85-95
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• 2016

In this study, we investigated the variabilities of wind speed of 850 hPa and precipitable water over the East Asia region using the NCEP Final Analysis data from December 2001 to November 2011. A large variance of wind speed was observed in northern and eastern China during the winter period. During summer, the regions of the East China Sea, the South Sea of Japan and the East Sea show large variances in the wind speed caused by an extended North Pacific High and typhoon activities. The large variances in the wind speed in the regions are shown to be correlated with the inter-annual variability of precipitable water over the inland region of windward side of the Korean Peninsula. Based on the investigation, sensitivity tests to the domain size were performed using the WRF model version 3.6 for heavy precipitation events over the Korean Peninsula for 26 and 27 July 2011. Numerical experiments of different domain sizes were set up with 5 km horizontal and 50 levels vertical resolutions for the control and the first experimental run, and 9 km horizontal for the second experimental run. We found that the major rainfalls correspond to shortwave troughs with baroclinic structure over Northeast China and extended North Pacific High. The correlation analysis between the observation and experiments for 1-h precipitation indicated that the second experiment with the largest domain had the best performance with the correlation coefficient of 0.79 due to the synoptic-scale systems such as short-wave troughs and North Pacific High.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.509-520
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• 2018

The performance of the newly designed Pusan National University Coupled General Circulation Model (PNU CGCM) Ensemble Forecast System which produce 40 ensemble members for 12-month lead prediction is evaluated and analyzed in terms of boreal winter temperature over South Korea (S. Korea). The influence of ensemble size on prediction skill is examined with 40 ensemble members and the result shows that spreads of predictability are larger when the size of ensemble member is smaller. Moreover, it is suggested that more than 20 ensemble members are required for better prediction of statistically significant inter-annual variability of wintertime temperature over S. Korea. As for the ensemble average (ENS), it shows superior forecast skill compared to each ensemble member and has significant temporal correlation with Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) temperature at 99% confidence level. In addition to forecast skill for inter-annual variability of wintertime temperature over S. Korea, winter climatology around East Asia and synoptic characteristics of warm (above normal) and cold (below normal) winters are reasonably captured by PNU CGCM. For the categorical forecast with $3{\times}3$ contingency table, the deterministic forecast generally shows better performance than probabilistic forecast except for warm winter (hit rate of probabilistic forecast: 71%). It is also found that, in case of concentrated distribution of 40 ensemble members to one category out of the three, the probabilistic forecast tends to have relatively high predictability. Meanwhile, in the case when the ensemble members distribute evenly throughout the categories, the predictability becomes lower in the probabilistic forecast.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.201-218
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• 2012

The purpose of this study is to investigate climatological variations from the sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a), and phytoplankton size class (PSC), using NOAA AVHRR, SeaWiFS, and MODIS data in the South Sea of Korea (SSK) and East China Sea (ECS). 26-year monthly SST and 13-year monthly Chl-a and PSC data, separated by whole and nine-different areas, were used to understand seasonal and inter-annual variations. SST and Chl-a clearly showed seasonal variations: higher SST and Chl-a were observed during the summer and spring, and lower values occurred during the winter and summer. The annual and monthly SST over 26 years increased by $0.2{\sim}1.0^{\circ}C$. The annual and monthly Chl-a concentration over 13 years decreased by $0.2{\sim}1.1mg/m^3$. To determine more detailed spatial and temporal variations, we used the combined data with monthly SST, Chl-a, and PSC. Between 1998 and 2010, the inter-annual trend of Chl-a decreased, with decreasing micro- and nano-size plankton, and increasing pico-size plankton. In regional analysis, the west region of the study area was spatially and temporally correlated with the area dominated by decreasing micro-size plankton; while the east region was less sensitive to coastal and land effects, and was dominated by increasing pico-size plankton. This phenomenon is better related to one or more forcing factors: the increased stratification of ocean driven by changes occurring in spatial variations of the SST caused limited contributions of nutrients and changed marine ecosystems in the study area.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.583-595
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• 2012

The potential for tropical cyclogenesis in a given oceanic and atmospheric environments can be represented by genesis potential index (GPI). Using the 18 Coupled Model Inter Comparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) models, the annual cycle of GPI and interannual variability of GPI are analyzed in this study. In comparison, the annual cycle of GPI calculated from reanalysis data is revisited. In particular, GPI differences between CMIP5 models and reanalysis data are compared, and the possible reasons for the GPI differences are discussed. ENSO (El Nino and Southern Oscillation) has a tropical phenomenon, which affects tropical cyclone genesis and its passages. Some dynamical interpretations of tropical cyclogenesis are suggested by using the fact that GPI is a function of four large-scale parameters. The GPI anomalies in El Nino or La Nina years are discussed and the most contributable factors are identified in this study. In addition, possible dynamics of tropical cyclogenesis in the Northern Hemisphere Pacific region are discussed using the large-scale factors.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.85-97
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• 2018

This study evaluates the performance of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model in reproducing the present-day (1981~2005) precipitation over Far East Asia and South Korea. The WRF model is configured with 25-km horizontal resolution within the context of the COordinated Regional climate Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) - East Asia Phase 2. The initial and lateral boundary forcing for the WRF simulation are derived from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast Interim reanalysis. According to our results, WRF model shows a reasonable performance to reproduce the features of precipitation, such as seasonal climatology, annual and inter-annual variabilities, seasonal march of monsoon rainfall and extreme precipitation. In spite of such model's ability to simulate major features of precipitation, systematic biases are found in the downscaled simulation in some sub-regions and seasons. In particular, the WRF model systematically tends to overestimate (underestimate) precipitation over Far East Asia (South Korea), and relatively large biases are evident during the summer season. In terms of inter-annual variability, WRF shows an overall smaller (larger) standard deviation in the Far East Asia (South Korea) compared to observation. In addition, WRF overestimates the frequency and amount of weak precipitation, but underestimates those of heavy precipitation. Also, the number of wet days, the precipitation intensity above the 95 percentile, and consecutive wet days (consecutive dry days) are overestimated (underestimated) over eastern (western) part of South Korea. The results of this study can be used as reference data when providing information about projections of fine-scale climate change over East Asia.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1465-1469
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• 2006

수문순환 과정은 기상현상과 밀접한 관련을 가지고 서로 연관되어 있다. 이러한 연관성을 규명하여 수자원관리에 위험도를 감소시키려는 노력은 많은 분야에서 이루어지고 있으며, 주요 연구 주제가 되고 있다. 이러한 기상현상 중에서 가뭄은 여러 가지 요소가 복합되어 발생되는 것으로 알려지고 있으나 이를 설명하기에는 여전히 부족한 면이 존재한다. 가뭄을 발생시키는 몇 가지 가능한 원인으로는 E1 Nino-Southern Oscillation(ENSO)현상으로 잘 알려져 있는 비정상적인 해수면 온도의 변화나 기후 시스템의 비선형적 거동을 들 수 있다. 특히, 기후 시스템은 대개 경년 변화(inter-annual variability) 및 10년 이상의 주기(decadal variability) 특성을 가지고 있으며 가뭄 또한 경년변화의 주기 특성을 나타내고 있는 것으로 알려지고 있다. 이러한 관점에서 수문시계열을 특정 주파수(frequency)에서 고립시킨 후, 분석이 가능한 분해방법(decomposition method)을 통해 보다 해석적으로 접근하는 것이 가능하다. 이를 위해 본 연구에서는 Wavelet Transform분석을 도입하였으며 통계적으로 유의한 성분을 시계열로부터 추출하여 가뭄과 기상인자와의 변동성 분석을 실시하였다.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.268-272
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• 2010

The research presented here represents a collaborative effort with the SFWMD on developing scenarios for future climate for the SFWMD area. The project focuses on developing methodology for simulating precipitation representing both natural quasi-oscillatory modes of variability in these climate variables and also the secular trends projected by the IPCC scenarios that are publicly available. This study specifically provides the results for precipitation modeling. The starting point for the modeling was the work of Tebaldi et al that is considered one of the benchmarks for bias correction and model combination in this context. This model was extended in the framework of a Hierarchical Bayesian Model (HBM) to formally and simultaneously consider biases between the models and observations over the historical period and trends in the observations and models out to the end of the 21st century in line with the different ensemble model simulations from the IPCC scenarios. The low frequency variability is modeled using the previously developed Wavelet Autoregressive Model (WARM), with a correction to preserve the variance associated with the full series from the HBM projections. The assumption here is that there is no useful information in the IPCC models as to the change in the low frequency variability of the regional, seasonal precipitation. This assumption is based on a preliminary analysis of these models historical and future output. Thus, preserving the low frequency structure from the historical series into the future emerges as a pragmatic goal. We find that there are significant biases between the observations and the base case scenarios for precipitation. The biases vary across models, and are shrunk using posterior maximum likelihood to allow some models to depart from the central tendency while allowing others to cluster and reduce biases by averaging. The projected changes in the future precipitation are small compared to the bias between model base run and observations and also relative to the inter-annual and decadal variability in the precipitation.

• Korean Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.38 no.3 s.113
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• pp.412-419
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• 2005

The dynamics of zooplankton community and its relationship with environments were studied at the middle stretch (Waekwan, RK; river kilometer; above 175 km from the estuary dam) of large regulated river, Nakdong River from 1998 to 2002. There were distinct inter-annual variations and seasonal changes in total zooplankton abundance in the study site (ANOVA, p<0.01), displaying similar pattern in three years from 1999 to 2001 except 1998 and 2002. The annual average rotifers abundance during the study period was 43${\pm}76 ind. $L^{-1}$ (mean${\pm}$s.d., n = 118), followed by adult copepodids (1.6${\pm}$4.8 ind. $L^{-1}$), and small cladocerans (0.4${\pm}$1.2 ind. $L^{-1}$). Among the rotifers, Brachionus spp. Polyarthra spp., Colurella spp., Keratella spp.·, and Trichocerca spp. were the most common taxa. These species occupied more than 80% of the total rotifer abundance throughout the study period. Total zooplankton abundance rapidly increased in spring and fall and remained low throughout the winter. During summer, zooplankton dynamics seemed to be largely affected by hydrological parameters. Overall, rather the external factors (hydrological factors of the river) than internal factors (food condition for zooplankton such as phytoplankton biomass) appear to be responsible for changes in zooplankton dynamics in the middle stretch of the river.