A Numerical Case Study Examining the Orographic Effect of the Northern Mountain Complex on Snowfall Distribution over the Yeongdong Region

북한 지역의 산맥군이 영동 지역의 겨울철 강설 분포에 미치는 영향에 관한 수치 연구

Numerical experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model were done to identify the role of the mountain ranges in the northern part of the Peninsula (referred as "the northern mountain complex"), in the occurrence of two heavy snowfall events over the Yeongdong region on 7-8 December 2002 and 20-21 January 2008. To this end, control simulations with the topography of the northern mountain complex and other simulations without the topography of the mountain complex were performed. It was revealed that the amount of snowfall over the Yeongdong region from the control simulation much more exceeded that of the simulation without the topography of the mountain complex. This increase of the snowfall amount over the Yeongdong region can be explained as follows: As the upstream flow approached the northern mountain complex, it deflected around the northern mountain complex due to the blocking effect of the mountains with a low Froude number less than ~0.16. This lead to the strengthening of northeasterly over the East Sea and over the Yeongdong region. The strong northeasterly is accompanied with much more snowfall over the Yeongdong region by intensifying air-mass modification over the sea and the orographic effect of the Taeback mountains. Thus, it was concluded that the topography of the northern mountain complex is one of the main factors in determining the distribution and amount of precipitation in the Yeongdong region when there is an expansion of the Siberian High toward the East Sea.