• Proceedings of The Korean Society of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Conference
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• 2019.08a
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• pp.213-213
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• 2019

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.26 no.7
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• pp.732-743
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• 2005

The characteristics of precipitation over South Korea from 1973 to 2002 were investigated. The synoptic patterns inducing precipitation are classified by 10 categories, according to the associated surface map analysis. The annual mean frequency of the total precipitation, its duration time and amount for 30 years are 179 times, 2.9 hours, and 7.1 mm, respectively. About $59\%$ of the total precipitation events were associated with a synoptic low. The dominant patterns are identified with respect to seasons: A synoptic mobile low pressure pattern is frequent in spring, fall, and winter, whereas low pressure embedded within the Changma and orography induced precipitation are dominant in summer and in winter. For the amount of precipitation, precipitation originated from tropical air associated with typhoon, tropical convergence, and Changma is more significant than that with other pressure patterns. The statistical elapse time reaching to 80 mm, which is the threshold amount of heavy rainfall watch at KMA, takes 12.9 hours after the onset of precipitation. The probability distribution function of the precipitation shows that the maximum probability for heavy rainfall is located at the south-coastal region of the Korean peninsula. It is also shown that the geographical distribution of the Korean peninsula plays an important role in occurrence of heavy rainfall. For example, heavy precipitation is frequently occurred at Youngdong area, when typhoon passes along the coastal region of the back borne mountains in the peninsula. The climatological classification of synoptic patterns associated with heavy rainfall over South Korea can be used to provide a guidance to operational forecast of heavy rainfall in KMA.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.791-803
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• 2016

Recently, frequency of extreme rainfall events in South Korea has been substantially increased due to the enhanced climate variability. Korea is prone to flooding due to being surrounded by mountains, along with high rainfall intensity during a short period. In the past three decades, an increase in the frequency of heavy rainfall events has been observed due to enhanced climate variability and climate change. This study aimed to analyze extreme rainfalls informed by their frequency of occurrences using a long-term rainfall data. In this respect, we developed a Poisson-Generalized Pareto Distribution (Poisson-GPD) based rainfall frequency method which allows us to simultaneously explore changes in the amount and exceedance probability of the extreme rainfall events defined by different thresholds. Additionally, this study utilized a Bayesian approach to better estimate both parameters and their uncertainties. We also investigated the synoptic patterns associated with the extreme events considered in this study. The results showed that the Poisson-GPD based design rainfalls were rather larger than those of based on the Gumbel distribution. It seems that the Poisson-GPD model offers a more reasonable explanation in the context of flood safety issue, by explicitly considering the changes in the frequency. Also, this study confirmed that low and high pressure system in the East China Sea and the central North Pacific, respectively, plays crucial roles in the development of the extreme rainfall in South Korea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.183-193
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• 2020

In this study, Yeongdong cold air damming (YCAD) cases that occur in winters have been selected using automatic weather station data of the Yeongdong region of Korea. The vertical and horizontal scales of YCAD were analyzed using rawinsonde and numerical weather model. YCAD occurred in two typical synoptic patterns such that low pressure and trough systems crossing and passing over Korea (low crossing type: LC and low passing type: LP). When the Siberian high does not expand enough to the Korean peninsula, low pressure and trough systems are likely to move over Korea. Eventually this could lead to surface temperature (3.1℃) higher during YCAD than the average in the winter season (1.6℃). The surface temperature during YCAD, however, was decrease by 1.3℃. The cold air layer was elevated around 120 m~450 m for LP-type. For LC-type, the cold layer were found at less than approximately 400 m and over 1,000 m, which could be thought of combined phenomena with synoptic and local weather forcing. The cross-sectional analysis results indicate the accumulation of cold air on the east mountain slope. Additionally, the north or northeasterly winds turned to the northwesterly wind near the coast in all cases. The horizontal wind turning point of LC-type was farther from the top of the mountain (52.2 km~71.5 km) than that of LP-type (20.0 km~43.0 km).

• Journal of Radiation Industry
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.299-307
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• 2023

Given that toxic substances are diffused by the various movements of the atmosphere, it is very important to evaluate the risks associated with this phenomenon. When analyzing the behavioral characteristics of these atmospheric diffusion models, the main input data are the wind speed and wind direction among the meteorological data. In particular, it is known that a certain wind direction occurs in summer and winter in Korea under the influence of westerlies and monsoons. In this study, synoptic meteorological observation data provided by the Korea Meteorological Administration were analyzed from January 1, 2012 to the end of August of 2022 to understand the regional wind characteristics of nuclear power plants and surrounding areas. The selected target areas consisted of 16 weather stations around the Hanbit, Kori, Wolsong, Hanul, and Saeul nuclear power plants that are currently in operation. The analysis was based on the temperature, wind direction, and wind speed data at those locations. Average, maximum, minimum, median, and mode values were analyzed using long-term annual temperature, wind speed, and wind direction data. Correlation coefficient values were also analyzed to determine the linear relationships among the temperature, wind direction, and wind speed. Among the 16 districts, Uljin had the highest wind speed. The median wind speed values for each region were lower than the average wind speed values. For regions where the average wind speed exceeds the median wind speed, Yeongju, Gochang, Gyeongju, Yeonggwang, and Gimhae were calculated as 0.69 m s^-1, 0.54m s^-1, 0.45m s^-1, 0.4m s^-1, and 0.36m s^-1, respectively. The average temperature in the 16 regions was 13.52 degrees Celsius; the median temperature was 14.31 degrees and the mode temperature was 20.69 degrees. The average regional temperature standard deviation was calculated and found to be 9.83 degrees. The maximum summer temperatures were 39.7, 39.5, and 39.3 in Yeongdeok, Pohang, and Yeongcheon, respectively. The wind directions and speeds in the 16 regions were plotted as a wind rose graph, and the characteristics of the wind direction and speed of each region were investigated. It was found that there is a dominant wind direction correlated with the topographical characteristics in each region. However, the linear relationship between the wind speed and direction by region varied from 0.53 to 0.07. Through this study, by evaluating meteorological observation data on a long-term synoptic scale of ten years, regional characteristics were found.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.37-45
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• 2010

I conducted extensive analyses of daily weather data of precipitation and temperature monitored from the Surface Synoptic Meteorological Station in Seoul from 1 October 1907 to 31 December 2009 to understand how the climate is changing and the ecological implications for Seoul, Korea. Statistical analyses of the data, including the lengths of seasons and growing degree-days (GDD), showed a clear warming trend in the Seoul area over the study period. The mean daily temperature in Seoul increased by $2.40^{\circ}C$ over the period of one hundred years, which was about three times faster than the global trend and it was striking to notice that mean daily temperature in Seoul in recent 30 years was increasing with the rate of $5.50^{\circ}C$ per hundred years, which is an extremely fast rate of increase in temperature. In the last 100 years, an increase in the number of summer days was apparent, coupled with a reduction in the average number of winter days for about 27 to 28 days based on the analysis of mean daily temperature. Although the lengths of spring and autumn have not changed significantly over the century, early initiations of spring and late onsets of autumn were quite apparent. Total annual precipitation significantly increased at the rate of 2.67 mm/year over the last 100 years, a trend not apparent if the analysis is confined to periods of 30 to 40 years. The information has the potential to be used not only for better understanding of ecological processes and hydrology in the area, but also for the sustainable management of ecosystems and environment in the region.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.16 no.5
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• pp.487-497
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• 2000

Spring time is a favorable season to be easily observed the Yellow Sand phenomenon in East Asia. In particular most of the phenomenon tend to occur in April. However, Yellow Sand phenomenon was observed from almost the whole country of Korea in winter of 1966, 1977 and 1999. The features of the synoptic weather pattern in the source regions, air stream flow between the source region and Korea, the measurement of TSP concentration, aerosol size distribution, and chemical composition of snow samples associated with Yellow Sand phenomenon were investigated. The result showed the characteristic evolutionary feature of the synoptic system associated with Yellow Sand phenomena, that is, a strong low level wind mobilized the dust within 2 or 3 days before Yellow Sand phenomenon being observed in Seoul. The wind was remarkably intensified in the source region on January 24, 1999 under the strong pressure gradient, A trajectory analysis showed that the Yellow Sand particle could be reached to Korea within 2 days from the source region, Gobi desert, through Loess plateau and Loess deposition region. The TSP concentration at the top of Kwanak mountain during the Yellow Sand phenomenon is abruptly increasing than the monthly mean concentration. The size resolved number concentration of aerosols ranging from 0.3 to 25${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ was analyzed during Yellow Sand episode. It was evident that aerosols were distinguished by particles in the range of 2-3 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ to result in the abrupt increase in January 1999, After Yellow Sand phenomenon, there was heavy snow in Seoul. By the analysis of snow collected during that time, it was observed that both the Ca(sup)2+ concentration and pH were increased abnormally compared to those in the other winter season.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.17 no.7
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• pp.743-753
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• 2008

Gwangyang Bay is often severely confronted by photochemical pollutants due to its location and dense emissions. It is located in a basin on the south coast of the Korean peninsula and is crossed by a remarkable cluster of hills and mountains of a small horizontal scale that forms a channel. Clearly, the air flow field has a great influence on the dispersion of air pollutants. The characteristics of the wind flow patterns have an important effect on the dispersion of pollutants emitted. In these situations, the distribution of the ozone concentration is extremely complicated because of the superposition of circulations of the air flow fields, especially in complex coastal region. In this study, we examined the distribution of the high level ozone on Gwangyang Bay particularly during the episode day (for 5 years). Among these days, A high level ozone was induced by the development of a sea/land breeze local circulation system, as well as by an anabatic/catabatic flow from the mountains and valley with weakening of the synoptic wind. High level ozone distribution pattern(6 types) on Gwangyang bay is analyzed and the comparison of each pattern reveals substantial localized differences in intensity and distribution of ozone concentration from the site coherence and UPA analysis of ozone concentration. The observed VOC concentration had much difference in concentrations and daily variations between Jungdong and Samil.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.177-189
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• 2020

We analyzed the recent characteristics of Particulate Matter (PM) including PM₁₀ (PM with diameter of less than 10 ㎛) and PM_2.5 (PM with diameter of less than 2.5 ㎛) observed in Busan metropolitan area, and compared them with those measured in Seoul metropolitan area. This analysis includes the monthly, seasonal, and annual variations and differences, in emissions and chemical compositions observed in both Busan and Seoul areas. Synoptic meteorological conditions were investigated at the time when high PM concentrations occurred in each of the two areas. The results showed clearly decreasing trends of annual mean concentrations with strong seasonal variations: lower in summer and higher in winter in both areas. In comparison with Seoul, the seasonal variation in Busan demonstrated relatively lower, but showed greater summer fluctuations than in Seoul metropolitan area. This is implying the importance of secondary generation of PM in summer via active photochemical reaction in Busan area. In high concentration days, Busan's chemical composition of sulfate was higher than that of nitrate in summer, whereas nitrate was higher than sulfate in Seoul. The ratios of NO₃^- to SO₄^2-(N/S ratio) showed lower in Busan approximately by a factor of 1/2(half of N/S ratio) in Busan compared with that in Seoul. Others such as synoptic characteristics and emission differences were also discussed in this study.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.321-336
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• 2016

Damages caused by torrential rain occur every year in Korea and summer time convection can cause strong thunderstorms to develop which bring dangerous weather such as torrential rain, gusts, and flash flooding. On 6 August 2013 a sudden torrential rain concentrated over the inland of Southern Korean Peninsula occurred. This was an event characterized as a mesoscale multicellular convection. The purpose of this study is to analyze the conditions of the multicellular convection and the synoptic and mesoscale nature of the system development. To this end, dynamical and thermodynamic analyses of surface and upper-level weather charts, satellite images, soundings, reanalysis data and WRF model simulations are performed. At the beginning stage there was a cool, dry air intrusion in the upper-level of the Korean Peninsula, and a warm humid air flow from the southwest in the lower-level creating atmospheric instability. This produced a single cell cumulonimbus cloud in the vicinity of Baengnyeongdo, and due to baroclinic instability, shear and cyclonic vorticity the cloud further developed into a multicellular convection. The cloud system moved southeast towards Seoul metropolitan area accompanied by lightning, heavy precipitation and strong wind gusts. In addition, atmospheric instability due to daytime insolation caused new convective cells to develop in the upstream part of the Sobaek Mountain which merged with existing multicellular convection creating a larger system. This case was unusual because the system was affected little by the upper-level jet stream which is typical in Korea. The development and propagation of the multicellular convection showed strong mesoscale characteristics and was not governed by large synoptic-scale dynamics. In particular, the system moved southeast crossing the Peninsula diagonally from northwest to southeast and did not follow the upper-level westerly pattern. The analysis result shows that the movement of the system can be determined by the vertical wind shear.