• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.343-364
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• 2014

This study presents local and synoptic conditions associated with extreme heavy snowfall events in the Yeongdong region, as well as the temporal and spatial variability of these conditions. During the last 12 years (2001~2012), 3 extreme snowfall events occurred in the Yeongdong region, which recorded daily snowfall greater than 50 cm, respectively. In these events, one of the noticeable features is the occurrence of heavy hourly snowfall greater than 10 cm. It was reported from satellite analysis that these heavy snowfall may be closely related to mesoscale convective clouds. In this paper the 3 extreme events are examined on their synoptic environments associated with the developments of mesoscale convective system using numerical model output. These 3 events all occurred in strongly forced synoptic environments where 500 and 300 hPa troughs and 500 hPa thermal troughs were evident. From the analysis of diagnostic variables, it was found in all 3 events that absolute vorticity and cold air advection were dominant in the Yeongdong region and its surrounding sea at upper levels, especially at around 500 hPa (absolute vorticity: $20{\sim}60{\times}10^{-5}s^{-1}$, cold air advection: $-10{\sim}-20^{\circ}C$ $12hr^{-1}$). Moreover, the spatial distributions of cold advection showed mostly the shape of a narrow band along the eastern coast of Korea. These features of absolute vorticity and cold advection at 500 hPa were sustained for about 10 hours before the occurrence of maximum hourly snowfall.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.6
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• pp.712-736
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• 2022

To understand the characteristics of low-level clouds (CLs), environmental variables are composited on each CL using individual surface observations and six-hourly upper-air meteorologies around the globe. Individual CLs has its own distinct environmental conditions. Over the eastern subtropical and western North Pacific Ocean in JJA, stratocumulus (CL5) has a colder sea surface temperature (SST), stronger and lower inversion, and more low-level cloud amount (LCA) than the climatology whereas cumulus (CL12) has the opposite characteristics. Over the eastern subtropical Pacific, CL5 and CL12 are influenced by cold and warm advection within the PBL, respectively but have similar cold advection over the western North Pacific. This indicates that the fundamental physical process distinguishing CL5 and CL12 is not the horizontal temperature advection but the interaction with the underlying sea surface, i.e., the deepening-decoupling of PBL and the positive feedback between shortwave radiation and SST. Over the western North Pacific during JJA, sky-obscuring fog (CL11), no low-level cloud (CL0), and fair weather stratus (CL6) are associated with anomalous warm advection, surface-based inversion, mean upward flow, and moist mid-troposphere with the strongest anomalies for CL11 followed by CL0. Over the western North Pacific during DJF, bad weather stratus (CL7) occurs in the warm front of the extratropical cyclone with anomalous upward flow while cumulonimbus (CL39) occurs on the rear side of the cold front with anomalous downward flow. Over the tropical oceans, CL7 has strong positive (negative) anomalies of temperature in the upper troposphere (PBL), relative humidity, and surface wind speed in association with the mesoscale convective system while CL12 has the opposite anomalies and CL39 is in between.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.10 no.S_1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2001

A numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the mechanism of snowfall around the Seoul region during a cold air-outbreak in the winter season. A particular case was selected for this study(Dec. 19, 1999). The inflow directions of the synoptic flow in the upper and lower levels were westerly and north-westerly, respectively. Plus, there was a deep trough and thermal ridge at a level of 500/700/850 hPa over the Bal-Hae region, in the northern part of the Korean peninsula. According to the model results, snowfall occurred around the Seoul region with the simultaneous existence of a strong static instability in the lower atmosphere, northerly or westerly dry air advection, and strong thermal advection toward the Seoul region. There was a strong convergence thereby indicating the existence of convective rolls in the clouds. The main energy source of convection over the Yellow sea was a sensible heat flux. The main moisture source was convection. Radiative cooling in the cloud layer intensified the static instability in the lower atmosphere.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.389-405
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• 2015

In this study, the occurrence circumstances of 3 cases (12 Jan 2006, 11 Jan 2008, 22 Feb 2009) when the freezing rain was observed at more than two observatories in a day with more than three times each observatory, were investigated. Following the advanced study about the same cases, we have tried to find more delicate differences in using the Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS; 5 km reanalysis data) that has the smallest grid scale at current situation. As results, three common characteristics are found: (1) Just before the occurrence of the freezing rain, the wind direction was consistently continuous and the wind speed was constant or gradually increased for at least 3 hr more. (2) Surface air temperature (Relative humidity) was respectively $3.08^{\circ}C$ (28.76%), $0.47^{\circ}C$ (50.07%) and $-3.60^{\circ}C$ (71.07%) 3 hr ago to break out the freezing rain. It means the freezing rain occurs in a wide range of atmospheric environments. However, the closer it got to the occurrence time of the freezing rain, the closer the surface air temperature was to $0^{\circ}C$, and the bigger the humidity of the surface air was. (3) The liquid precipitation formed in the upper atmosphere, met a cold advection bellower than 950 hPa level and suspected to be changed to the super-cooled condition.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.34 no.7
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• pp.645-661
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• 2013

The synoptic, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a heavy snowfall event that occurred in Seoul metropolitan area on 27 to 28 December 2010 was investigated. During this period there was a distinctive case that was identified as a polar low. We analyzed surface and upper level weather charts, snowfall amount, sea surface temperature, satellite imagery, sounding, and the National Center for Environmental Prediction global $1^{\circ}{\times}1^{\circ}$ reanalysis data. The polar low developed in an area where there was strong baroclinicity in the lower level aided by strong conditional instability due to 925 hPa warm air advection and 700 hPa cold air advection. The development mechanism of polar low is due, in part, to the tropopause folding, which advected stratospheric air increasing potential vorticity in mid-level and inducing cyclonic vorticity and convergence in low-level. Eventually clouds developed and there were snowfall total of 10 cm in Seoul metropolitan area and as much as 20 cm in southern parts of Korea. During the snowfall development, there was a $-45^{\circ}C$ cold core at 500 hPa and shortwave maintained $3-5^{\circ}$ separation with surface trough, which favored the development of polar low located in the warm sector and cyclonic advection area. The height of the dynamical tropopause lowered to 700 hPa during the peak development and increase in potential vorticity allowed strong vertical motion to occur. Overall, there was a close relationship between the development of snowfall and tropopause undulation. The heaviest snowfall occurred east of the tropopause folding where strong cyclonic vorticity, vertical motion, and moisture advection all coincided while the polar low was passing through the Korean peninsula.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 2003.11a
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• pp.65-68
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• 2003

A quantitative study of the amount of air transported between the boundary layer and the free atmosphere is important for understanding air quality and upper tropospheric ozone, which is a greenhouse gas. Frontal systems are known to be an effective mechanism for the vertical transport of pollutants. Numerical experiments have been performed with a simple two-dimensional front model to simulate vertical transport of trace gases within developing cold fronts. Three different trace gases experiments have been done numerically according to the different initial fields of trace gases such as aerosol, ozone and $H_2O_2$. Trace gas field tilts to the east while the front tilts to the west. Aerosol simulation shows that pollutants can be transported out of the boundary to altitudes of about 10 km. The stratospheric ozone is brought downwards in a tropopause fold behind of the frontal surface. The meridional gradient in trace gas ($H_2O_2$) can cause a complicate structure in the trace field by the meridional advection.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.31-46
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• 1997

The purposes of this paper are to classify the spatial distribution types of precipitation by making daily isohyetal maps based on the winter daily precipitation and to analyse both the distributional characteristics of precipitation during the winter in South Korea and the synoptic characteristics related to them. Also, the correspondence between the spatial distribution types of precipitation and the synoptic characteristics occuring among them is examined with regards to pressure patterns and then precipitation distribution types. In addition, the characteristics of the pressure fields and temperature fields in 850hPa, 700hPa, and 500hPa level were analysed to find out the difference between the Ullung-do type and the Ullung-do${\cdot}$Honam type, which have similar characteristics on the surface weather map. As a result, the Ullung-do area showed a high frequency of occurrence regardless of precipitation classes, the East Coast area revealed a higher frequency of occurrence in over the 5mm section, while the Honam area had high frequency of occurrence in the 1~5mm section. There are twelve distribution types of precipitation during the winter. These distribution types show clear changes according to the season. The difference in precipitation distribution between the Ullung-do type and the Ullung-do${\cdot}$Honam type has a close relationship with the aspect of the upper cold air advection rather than the direction and the speed of the wind.

• Atmosphere
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.317-338
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• 2008

Analyses of observational data and numerical simulations were performed to understand the mechanism of MCSs (Mesoscale Convective Systems) occurred on 13-14 July 2004 over Jindo area of the Korean Peninsula. Observations indicated that synoptic environment was favorable for the occurrence of heavy rainfall. This heavy rainfall appeared to have been enhanced by convergence around the Changma front and synoptic scale lifting. From the analyses of storm environment using Haenam upper-air observation data, it was confirmed that strong convective instability was present around the Jindo area. Instability indices such as K-index, SSI-index showed favorable condition for strong convection. In addition, warm advection in the lower troposphere and cold advection in the middle troposphere were detected from wind profiler data. The size of storm, that produced heavy rainfall over Jindo area, was smaller than $50{\times}50km^2$ according to radar observation. The storm developed more than 10 km in height, but high reflectivity (rain rate 30 mm/hr) was limited under 6 km. It can be judged that convection cells, which form cloud clusters, occurred on the inflow area of the Changma front. In numerical simulation, high CAPE (Convective Available Potential Energy) was found in the southwest of the Korean Peninsula. However, heavy rainfall was restricted to the Jindo area with high CIN (Convective INhibition) and high CAPE. From the observations of vertical drop size distribution from MRR (Micro Rain Radar) and the analyses of numerically simulated hydrometeors such as graupel etc., it can be inferred that melted graupels enhanced collision and coalescence process of heavy precipitation systems.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.31-49
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• 2015

From the hourly data of 75 Korean weather stations over a 12-year period (2001~2012), this study has chosen three cases (January 12, 2006; January 11, 2008; and February 22, 2009) of multiple freezing rains and investigated the atmospheric circulations that seemed to cause the events. As a result, the receding high pressure type (2006), prevailing high pressure type (2008), and warm front type (2009) are confirmed as synoptic patterns. In all three cases, freezing rain was found in regions with a strong ascending current near the end point of a low-level jet that carried the warm humid air from low latitudes. The strong ascending current resulted from lower-level convergence and upper-level divergence. In 2006 and 2009, the melting process was confirmed. In 2008, the supercooled warm rain process (SWRP) was confirmed. In contrast to existing SWRP theory, it was found that the cool air produced at the middle atmosphere and near the earth's surface led to the formation of freezing rain. The sources of this cool air were supposed to be the evaporative latent heat and the cold advection coming from the northeast. On the other hand, a special case was detected, in which the freezing rain occurred when both the soil surface temperature and surface air temperature were above $0^{\circ}C$. The thickness distributions related to freezing rain in Korea were found to be similar to those in North America. A P-type nomogram was considered for freezing rain forecasting; however, it was not relevant enough to Korea, and few modifications were needed.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.119-134
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• 2023

The synoptic, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a snowfall event that occurred in the Yeongdong region on March 1-2, 2021, were investigated. Surface weather charts, ERA5 reanalysis data, rawinsonde data, GK-2A satellite data, and WISSDOM data were used for analysis. The snow depth, exceeding 10 cm, was observed at four weather stations during the analysis period. The maximum snow depth (37.4 cm) occurred at Bukgangneung. According to the analysis of the weather charts, old and dry air was trapped within relatively warm, humid air in the upper atmosphere over the East Sea and adjacent Yeongdong region. This caused unstable atmospheric conditions that led to developing convective clouds and snowfall over Bukgangneung. In particular, based on the thermodynamic and kinematic vertical analysis, we suggest that strong winds attributable to the vertical gradient of potential temperature in the low layer and the development of convective instability due to cold advection played a significant role in the occurrence of snowfall in the Yeongdong region. These results were confirmed from the vertical analysis of the rawinsonde data.