• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.495-508
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• 2016

In order to determine the prediction possibility of heavy rainfall, a variety of analyses was conducted by using three-dimensional data obtained from Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS) re-analysis data. Strong moisture convergence occurring around the time of the heavy rainfall is consistent with the results of previous studies on such continuous production. Heavy rainfall occurred in the cloud system with a thick convective clouds. The moisture convergence, temperature and potential temperature advection showed increase into the heavy rainfall occurrence area. The distribution of integrated liquid water content tended to decrease as rainfall increased and was characterized by accelerated convective instability along with increased buoyant energy. In addition, changes were noted in the various characteristics of instability indices such as K-index (KI), Showalter Stability Index (SSI), and lifted index (LI). The meteorological variables used in the analysis showed clear increases or decreases according to the changes in rainfall amount. These rapid changes as well as the meteorological variables changes are attributed to the surrounding and meteorological conditions. Thus, we verified that heavy rainfall can be predicted according to such increase, decrease, or changes. This study focused on quantitative values and change characteristics of diagnostic variables calculated by using numerical models rather than by focusing on synoptic analysis at the time of the heavy rainfall occurrence, thereby utilizing them as prognostic variables in the study of the predictability of heavy rainfall. These results can contribute to the identification of production and development mechanisms of heavy rainfall and can be used in applied research for prediction of such precipitation. In the analysis of various case studies of heavy rainfall in the future, our study result can be utilized to show the development of the prediction of severe weather.

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.381-394
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• 2022

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) National Typhoon Center has been officially releasing reanalyzed best tracks for the previous year's northwest Pacific typhoons since 2015. However, while most typhoon researchers are aware of the data released by other institutions, such as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) and the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) Tokyo, they are often unfamiliar with the KMA products. In this technical note, we describe the best track data released by KMA, and the algorithms that are used to generate it. We hope that this will increase the usefulness of the data to typhoon researchers, and help raise awareness of the product. The best track reanalysis process is initiated when the necessary database of observations-which includes satellite, synoptic, ocean, and radar observations-has become complete for the required year. Three categories of best track information-position (track), intensity (maximum sustained winds and central pressure), and size (radii of high-wind areas)-are estimated based on scientific processes. These estimates are then examined by typhoon forecasters and other internal and external experts, and issued as an official product when final approval has been given.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.441-458
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• 2023

Tropical cyclones frequently occur in the Southwest Pacific Ocean and are considered one of the driving forces for coastal alterations. Therefore, this study investigates the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclonesfrom 2000 to 2021 and their influence on the surface winds and wave conditions around the atoll nation Tuvalu. Cyclone best-track and ERA5 single-level reanalysis data are utilized to analyze the condition of the surface winds, significant wave heights, mean wave direction, and mean wave period. Additionally, the scatterometer-derived wind information was employed to compare wind conditions with the ERA5 data. On average, nine cyclones per year originated here, and the frequency increased to 11 cyclones during the last three years while the intensity decreased by 25 m/s (maximum sustained wind speed). Besides, a total of 14 cyclones were observed around Tuvalu during the period from 2015 to 2021, which showed an increase of 3 cyclones compared to the preceding period of 2001 to 2007. During cyclones, the significant wave height reached the highest 4.8 m near Tuvalu, and the waves propagated in the east-southeast direction during most of the cyclone events (52%). In addition, prolonged swells with a mean wave period of 7 to 11 seconds were generated in the vicinity of Tuvalu, for which coastal alteration can occur. After this preliminary analysis, it was found that the waves generated by cyclones have a crucial impact in altering the coastal area of Tuvalu. In the future, remotely sensed high-resolution satellite data with this wave information will be used to find out the degree of alterations that happened in the coastal area of Tuvalu before and after the cyclone events.

• Atmosphere
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.91-99
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• 2005

This study compares the summer monsoon circulations during a heavy rainfall period over the Korean peninsular from 11 to 18 July 2004, simulated by three widely used regional models; WRF, MM5, and RSM. An identical model setup is carried out for all the experiments, except for the physical option differences in the RSM. The three models with a nominal resolution of about 50 km over Korea are nested by NCEP-DOE reanalysis data. Another RSM experiment with the same cumulus parameterization scheme as in the WRF and MM5 is designed to investigate the importance of the representation of subgrid-scale parameterized convection in reproducing monsoonal circulations in East Asia. All thee models are found to be capable of reproducing the general distribution of monsoonal precipitation, extending northeastward from south China across the Korean peninsula, to northern Japan. The results from the WRF and MM5 are similar in terms of accumulated precipitation, but a slightly better performance in the WRF than in the MM5. The RSM improves the bias for precipitation as compared to those from the WRF and MM5, but the pattern correlation is degraded due to overestimation of precipitation in northern China. In the comparison of simulated synoptic scale features, the RSM is found to reproduce the large-scale features well compared to the results from the MM5 and WRF. On the other hand, the simulated precipitation from the RSM with the convection scheme used in the MM5 and WRF is closer to that from the WRF and MM5 simulations, indicating the significant dependency of simulated precipitation in East Asia on the cumulus parameterization scheme.

• 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.

• Particle and aerosol research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.141-150
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• 2017

Using the NASA's Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Applications, version 2 (MERRA-2) reanalysis for aerosol optical depth (AOD) and satellite-observed carbon monoxide (CO) data, we examined the basic pattern of AOD variations over the three polar stations of Korea: Jangbogo and King Sejong stations in the Antarctica, and Dasan station in the Arctic area. AOD values at King Sejong and Dasan station show the maximum peaks in spring, which looks associated with the high amount of atmospheric CO emitted from the natural burning and the biomass burning. Jangbogo station shows the much less AOD compared to other two stations, and seems not strongly affected by the transport of airborne particles generated from mid-latitude regions. All three polar stations show the AOD increasing trend in general, indicating that the polar background air quality becomes polluted.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.819-827
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• 2009

Kim et al. (2006) analyzed the donation data surveyed by Voluneteer 21 in year 2002 at South Korea using a Poisson regression based on the mixture of two Poissons and detected significant variables for affecting the number of donations. However, noting the large deviation between the predicted and the actual frequencies of zero, we developed in this note a Poisson regression model based on a distribution in which zero inflated Poisson was added to the mixture of two Poissons. Thus the population distribution is now a mixture of three Poissons in which one component is concentrated on zero mass. We used the EM algorithm for estimating the regression parameters and detected the same variables with Kim et al's for significantly affecting the response. However, we could estimate the proportion of the fixed zero group to be 0.201, which was the characteristic of this model. We also noted that among two significant variables, the income and the volunteer experience(yes, no), the second variable could be utilized as a strategric variable for promoting the donation.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.237-250
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• 2005

To investigate the air mass modification related with Yeongdong Heavy snowfall events, we examined sensible and latent heat fluxes on the East Sea, the energy exchange between atmosphere and ocean in this study. Sensible and latent heats were calculated by a bulk aerodynamic method, in which NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and NOAA/AVHRR weekly SST data with high resolution were used. Among winter precipitation events in the Yeongdong region, 19 heavy precipitation events $(1995{\sim}2001)$ were selected and classified into three types (mountain, cold-coastal, and warm types). Mountain-type precipitation shows highly positive anomalies of sensible and latent heats over the southwestern part of the East Set When separating them into the two components due to variability of wind and temperature/ specific Humidity, it is shown that the wind components are dominant. Cold-coastal-type precipitation also shows strong positive anomalies of sensible and latent heats over the northern part and over the central-northern part of the East Sea, respectively. It is shown that the sensible heat anomalies are caused mostly by the decrease of surface air temperature. So it can be explained that cold-coastal-type precipitation is closely related with the air mass modification due to cold air advection over warm ocean surface. But in warm-type precipitation, negative anomalies are found in the sensible and latent heat distributions. From this result, it may be postulated that warm-type precipitation is affected by the internal process of the atmosphere rather than the atmosphere-ocean interaction.

• Environmental Sciences Bulletin of The Korean Environmental Sciences Society
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• v.10 no.S_4
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• pp.197-206
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• 2001

The long-range transport mechanisms of Asian dust were analyzed based on the synoptic weather system and numerical simulation by using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis and TOMS data during the periods of 1996-2001. We classified the whole weather types of eastern Asia during spring and created the representative weather types during the yellow sand events using cluster analysis and weather charts for the last 6 years(1996~2001). These long-range transport mechanisms were related to various pressure patterns including high and low, trough and ridge, and upper-level fronts. Case studies of the yellow sand events have performed by the simulation of MM5 with meteorological elements such as the horizontal wind of u and v component, potential temperature, potential vorticity, and vertical circulation during the episodic days(2~8 March 2001). In addition, the origin of the long-range transport was examined with the estimation of backward trajectory using HYSPLIT4 Model. In this paper, we concluded that three weather types at 1000 hPa, 850 hPa, 500 hPa, and 300 hPa levels were classified respectively. The dominant features were the extending continental outflow from China to Korea at 1000 hPa and 850 hPa levels, the deep trough passage and cold advection at 500 hPa and 300 hPa levels during the yellow sand events. And also, we confirmed the existence of pola $r_tropical jets in the upper-level, the behavior of potential vorticity over Korea, the estimation of potential vorticity through vertical cross section, and the transport of yellow sand through backward trajectories.es.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.45-60
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• 2021

The synoptic structures and precipitation impact of extratropical cyclones (ETCs) influencing on the three adjacent megacities in East Asia, i.e., Beijing (Beijing ETCs), Seoul (Seoul ETCs) and Tokyo (Tokyo ETCs), are analyzed using ERA-interim reanalysis data from 1979 to 2018. Individual ETC tracks are identified with the automated tracking algorithm applied to 850-hPa relative vorticity field. Among four seasons, ETCs are the most frequent in spring. In this season, Beijing ETCs are mainly generated at the leeside of Altai-Sayan Mountains and primarily develop through interaction between the upper-level trough and lower-level cyclonic circulation. For Seoul ETCs, the leesides of Altai-Sayan Mountains (Seoul-N ETCs) and Tibetan Plateau (Seoul-S ETCs) are main genesis regions and the features of ETCs are different according to the genesis regions. While Seoul-N ETCs mainly develope by the same mechanism of Beijing ETCs, strong diabatic heating due to vapor transport is responsible for the genesis of Seoul-S ETCs. Tokyo ETCs are originated from the leesides of Tibetan Plateau and Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension regions, and strong diabatic heating as well as interaction between upper and lower levels determines the genesis of these ETCs. The precipitation impact resulting from ETCs become strong in the order of Beijing ETCs, Seoul-N ETCs, Seoul-S ETCs, and Tokyo ETCs and accounts for up to 40%, 27%, 52%, and 70% of regional precipitation, respectively.