• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.2 no.4
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• pp.237-251
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• 2011

This study presents a review on the recent climate change over the Korean peninsula, which has experienced a significant change due to the human-induced global warming more strongly than other regions. The recent measurement of carbon dioxide concentrations over the Korean peninsula shows a faster rise than the global average, and the increasing trend in surface temperature over this region is much larger than the global mean trend. Recent observational studies reporting the weakened cold extremes and intensified warm extremes over the region support consistently the increase of mean temperature. Surface vegetation greenness in spring has also progressed relatively more quickly. Summer precipitation over the Korean peninsula has increased by about 15% since 1990 compared to the previous period. This was mainly due to an increase in August. On the other hand, a slight decrease in the precipitation (about 5%) during Changma period (rainy season of the East Asian summer monsoon), was observed. The heavy rainfall amounts exhibit an increasing trend particularly since the late 1970s, and a consecutive dry-day has also increased primarily over the southern area. This indicates that the duration of precipitation events has shortened, while their intensity became stronger. During the past decades, there have been more stronger typhoons affecting the Korean peninsula with landing more preferentially over the southeastern area. Meanwhile, the urbanization effect is likely to contribute to the rapid warming, explaining about 28% of total temperature increase during the past 55 years. The impact of El Nino on seasonal climate over the Korean peninsula has been well established - winter [summer] temperatures was generally higher [lower] than normal, and summer rainfall tends to increase during El-Nino years. It is suggested that more frequent occurrence of the 'central-Pacific El-Nino' during recent decades may have induced warmer summer and fall over the Korean peninsula. In short, detection and attribution studies provided fundamental information that needed to construct more reliable projections of future climate changes, and therefore more comprehensive researches are required for better understanding of past climate variations.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.34 no.6_2
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• pp.1299-1310
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• 2018

In this study, we analyzed distribution and movement trends using in-situ observations and particle tracking methods to understand the movement of the drift ice in the Arctic Ocean. The in-situ movement data of the drift ice in the Arctic Ocean used ITP (Ice-Tethered Profiler) provided by NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) from 2009 to 2018, which was analyzed with the location and speed for each year. Particle tracking simulates the movement of the drift ice using daily current and wind data provided by HYCOM (Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model) and ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, 2009-2017). In order to simulate the movement of the drift ice throughout the Arctic Ocean, ITP data, a field observation data, were used as input to calculate the relationship between the current and wind and follow up the Lagrangian particle tracking. Particle tracking simulations were conducted with two experiments taking into account the effects of current and the combined effects of current and wind, most of which were reproduced in the same way as in-situ observations, given the effects of currents and winds. The movement of the drift ice in the Arctic Ocean was reproduced using a wind-imposed equation, which analyzed the movement of the drift ice in a particular year. In 2010, the Arctic Ocean Index (AOI) was a negative year, with particles clearly moving along the Beaufort Gyre, resulting in relatively large movements in Beaufort Sea. On the other hand, in 2017 AOI was a positive year, with most particles not affected by Gyre, resulting in relatively low speed and distance. Around the pole, the speed of the drift ice is lower in 2017 than 2010. From seasonal characteristics in 2010 and 2017, the movement of the drift ice increase in winter 2010 (0.22 m/s) and decrease to spring 2010 (0.16 m/s). In the case of 2017, the movement is increased in summer (0.22 m/s) and decreased to spring time (0.13 m/s). As a result, the particle tracking method will be appropriate to understand long-term drift ice movement trends by linking them with satellite data in place of limited field observations.