• Atmosphere
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.49-59
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• 2023

Blocking refers to a class of weather phenomena appearing in the mid and high latitudes, whose characteristics are blocked airflow of persistence. Frequently found over the Pacific and Atlantic regions of the Northern Hemisphere, blocking affects severe weather in the surrounding areas with different mechanisms depending on the type of blocking patterns. Along with lots of studies about persistent weather extremes focusing on the specific types of blocking, a new categorization using Rossby wave breaking has emerged. This study aims to apply this concept to the classification of blockings over the Pacific and examine how different wave breakings specify the associated cold weather in the Korean peninsula. At the same time, we investigate a strongly developing ridge around the Pacific by designing a new detection algorithm, where a reversal method is modified to distinguish ridge-type blocking patterns. As result, Kamchatka blocking (KB) and strong ridge over the Central Pacific are observed the most frequently during 20 years (2001~2020) of the studied period, and anomalous low pressures with cold air over the Korean Peninsula are accompanied by blocking events. When it considers the Rossby wave breaking, cyclonic wave-breaking is dominant in KB, which generates low-pressure anomalies over the Korean Peninsula. However, KB with anticyclone wave breaking appears with the high-pressure anomalies over the Korean Peninsula and it generates the warm temperature anomaly. Lastly, the low-pressure anomalies are also generated by the strong ridge over the Central Pacific, which persists for approximately three days and give a significant impact on cold surge on the Korean Peninsula.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.43-56
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• 1998

The purpose of this study is to identify distributional characteristics of climatic elements and to analyze synoptic characteristics on the pressure fields for spring droughts in Korea. In the distributions of minimum temperature during the spring droughts, positive anomalies and negative anomalies are mixed up, but in March the negative anomaly areas are widely distributed in Korea. It implies that the droughts of March have more frequent occurrences of the west-high, east-low pressure patterns. In the maximum air temperatures, the positive anomalies appear in Korea. It indicates that the spring droughts have rain days, cloud amount and humidities less than normal. As a result, the amount of evaporation is increased in Korea. In the pressure anomaly of surface pressure fields, the positive anomalies appear in the west, negative anomalies in the east in March, but in May the positive anomalies appeared zonally around the Korean peninsula. It indicates that March droughts have more frequent occurrences of the west-high. east-low patterns, but in May the Korean Peninsula has more frequent recurrences of the migratory anticyclone patterns. The height anomaly patterns of 500hPa pressure surface in spring droughts are similarly shown to those of surface fields. In March droughts, the positive height anomalies appear in the west, the negative height anomalies in the east, but in April the negative height anomaly areas are extended to the west part. In May the positive anomalies appear zonally around the Korean Peninsula, and strong positive height anomalies appear around the Kamchatka Peninsula and the sea of Okhotsk. These are the result of circulations that inhibit the eastward movement of westerlies and that has persistent anticyclone circulation patterns around the Korean Peninsula. As a result, the zonal indices of westerlies during March and April droughts are lower than normal, but higher in May. These data indicate that early spring droughts are associated with weak zonal flow, but the late spring droughts are obviously related with strong zonal flow. In addition, during early spring droughts the abnormally deep trough over the west coast of the North Pacific Ocean that accompanied the anticyclone was associated with frequent advection of air from the dry regions in the Central Asia into the Korean Peninsula. The atmospheric circulation patterns at the height of the 500hPa pressure surface in May was quite different from March and April circulation patterns. Instead of the abnormal ridge in the west and trough in the east, the circulation pattern in May was characterized by a much stronger than normal anticyclone over the Korean Peninsula. Also, the zonal indices of westerlies in May are higher than normal. The occurrences of drought in early spring, therefore, have mechanism different from those of late spring.