The technique of Brightness Temperature Difference (BTD) between 11 and $12{\mu}m$ separates yellow sand dust from clouds according to the difference in absorptive characteristics between the channels. However, this method causes consistent false alarms in many cases, especially over the desert. In order to reduce these false alarms, we should eliminate the background noise originated from surface. We adopted the Background BTD (BBTD), which stands for surface characteristics on clear sky condition without any dust or cloud. We took an average of brightness temperatures of 11 and $12{\mu}m$ channels during the previous 15 days from a target date and then calculated BTD of averaged ones to obtain decontaminated pixels from dust. After defining the BBTD, we subtracted this index from BTD for the Yellow Sand Index (YSI). In the previous study, this method was already verified using the geostationary satellite, MTSAT. In this study, we applied this to the polar orbiting satellite, MODIS, to detect yellow sand dust over Northeast Asia. Products of yellow sand dust from OMI and MTSAT were used to verify MODIS YSI. The coefficient of determination between MODIS YSI and MTSAT YSI was 0.61, and MODIS YSI and OMI AI was also 0.61. As a result of comparing two products, significantly enhanced signals of dust aerosols were detected by removing the false alarms over the desert. Furthermore, the discontinuity between land and ocean on BTD was removed. This was even effective on the case of fall. This study illustrates that the proposed algorithm can provide the reliable distribution of dust aerosols over the desert even at night.

Going by the research results of the past, of all the uncertainties resulting from the research on climate change, the uncertainty caused by the climate change scenario has the highest degree of uncertainty. Therefore, depending upon what kind of climate change scenario one adopts, the projection of the water resources in the future will differ significantly. As a matter of principle, it is highly recommended to utilize all the GCM scenarios offered by the IPCC. However, this could be considered to be an impractical alternative if a decision has to be made at an action officer's level. Hence, as an alternative, it is deemed necessary to select several scenarios so as to express the possible number of cases to the maximum extent possible. The objective standards in selecting the climate change scenarios have not been properly established and the scenarios have been selected, either at random or subject to the researcher's discretion. In this research, a new scenario selection process, in which it is possible to have the effect of having utilized all the possible scenarios, with using only a few principal scenarios and maintaining some of the uncertainties, has been suggested. In this research, the use of cluster analysis and the selection of a representative scenario in each cluster have efficiently reduced the number of climate change scenarios. In the cluster analysis method, the K-means clustering method, which takes advantage of the statistical features of scenarios has been employed; in the selection of a representative scenario in each cluster, the selection method was analyzed and reviewed and the PDF method was used to select the best scenarios with the closest simulation accuracy and the principal scenarios that is suggested by this research. In the selection of the best scenarios, it has been shown that the GCM scenario which demonstrated high level of simulation accuracy in the past need not necessarily demonstrate the similarly high level of simulation accuracy in the future and various GCM scenarios were selected for the principal scenarios. Secondly, the "Maximum entropy" which can quantify the uncertainties of the climate change scenario has been used to both quantify and compare the uncertainties associated with all the scenarios, best scenarios and the principal scenarios. Comparison has shown that the principal scenarios do maintain and are able to better explain the uncertainties of all the scenarios than the best scenarios. Therefore, through the scenario selection process, it has been proven that the principal scenarios have the effect of having utilized all the scenarios and retaining the uncertainties associated with the climate change to the maximum extent possible, while reducing the number of scenarios at the same time. Lastly, the climate change scenario most suitable for the climate on the Korean peninsula has been suggested. Through the scenario selection process, of all the scenarios found in the 4th IPCC report, principal climate change scenarios, which are suitable for the Korean peninsula and maintain most of the uncertainties, have been suggested. Therefore, it is assessed that the use of the scenario most suitable for the future projection of water resources on the Korean peninsula will be able to provide the projection of the water resources management that maintains more than 70~80% level of uncertainties of all the scenarios.

Brightness temperature (BT) difference between sea fog and sea surface is small, because the top height of fog is low. Therefore, it is very difficult to detect sea fog with infrared (IR) channels in the nighttime. To overcome this difficulty, we have developed a new algorithm for detection of sea fog that consists in three tests. Firstly, both stratus and sea fog were discriminated from the other clouds by using the difference between BTs $3.7{\mu}m$ and $11{\mu}m$. Secondly, stratus occurring at a level higher than sea fog was removed when the difference between cloud top temperature and sea surface temperature (SST) is smaller than 3 K. In this process, we used daily SST data from AMSR-E microwave measurements that is available even in the presence of cloud. Then, the SST was converted to $11{\mu}m$ BT based on the regressed relationship between AMSR-E SST and MTSAT-1R $11{\mu}m$ BT at 1733 UTC over clear sky regions. Finally, stratus was further removed by using the homogeneity test based on the difference in cloud top texture between sea fog and stratus. Comparison between the retrievals from our algorithm and that from Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) algorithm, shows that the KMA algorithm often misconceived sea fog as stratus, resulting in underestimating the occurrence of sea fog. Monthly distribution of sea fog over northeast Asia in 2008 was derived from the proposed algorithm. The frequency of sea fog is lowest in winter, and highest in summer especially in June. The seasonality of the sea fog occurrence between East and West Sea was comparable, while it is not clearly identified over South Sea. These results would serve to prevent the possible occurrence of marine accidents associated with sea fog.

In this study, we investigate the effects of elliptical shape of Asian dust particles on the estimation of aerosol optical depth by implementing T-matrix method into WRF/Chem Dust Model. The phase function calculated by assuming elliptical particle shape near $110{\sim}160^{\circ}$ of scattering angle showed about 20 times larger than that calculated by assuming spherical particle shape. Significant difference of extinction efficiency was found with an increase of size parameter and aspect ratio. From the simulations of two Asian dust events occurred on 1 April 2007 and 16 March 2010, we found that the difference of extinction efficiency between elliptical and spherical particle shape was about 5~8%. The aerosol optical depth calculated by assuming elliptical particle shape with 1.6, 1.4 and 1.2 of aspect ratio was about $4.0{\pm}0.5%$, $2.0{\pm}0.2%$, and $1.0{\pm}0.1%$ larger than those estimated by assuming spherical particle shape.

This study investigates the relationship between the Korean temperature and the atmospheric circulation such as Arctic Oscillation, Siberian High and Aleutian Low during the winter (December-January) for the period of 1970-2011. It is found that all indices to represent aforementioned circulations are significantly correlated with Korean winter temperature for the period of 1970 - 2011. There are marked contrasts in such relationship, however, before and after the mid-1980s when a significant regime shift of Korean winter temperature occurred. While Korean winter temperature has a close relationship with Arctic Oscillation after the mid-1980s, its relationship with Siberian High and Aleutian Low is weakened. The composite analysis between a positive and negative phase of Arctic Oscillation before and after the mid-1980s is conducted to examine a recent strengthening of Arctic Oscillation-Korean winter temperature relationship. It is found that the structural changes of low-level wind and the geopotential height at 500 hPa between the two phases of Arctic Oscillation are more effective to influence Korean winter temperature after the mid-1980s. This may induce a close relationship between the Korean winter temperature variability and Arctic Oscillation after the mid-1980s compared to before the mid-1980s.

This study was conducted in order to analyze weather characteristics during the reign of King Sejo in the Chosun Dynasty based on The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty. For this purpose, first of all, we need to determine whether The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty is a reliable material for research on weather characteristics. Thus, we compared weather phenomena during the reign of King Sejo with those in China and Japan in the same period. From the results, it was found that The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty is a useful material at least to grasp macroscopic trends in weather phenomena. Based on this assumption, we analyzed weather characteristics during the reign of King Sejo using data from The Annals of the Chosun Dynasty. During the days of King Sejo, the climate was not changed violently and there were not many disasters caused by abnormal climate such as bad harvests. This suggests that the climate was relatively stable during the period of King Sejo. As a consequence of stable weather, famine decreased markedly. However, this was not only because of stable climate but also because of the government's active efforts to reduce disasters. As droughts and floods were not frequent, social costs for recovery from disasters also decreased considerably and the saved money could be invested in the construction of social safety nets for the prevention of disasters. One of factors supporting the enthronement of King Sejo was a series of heavily damaging bad harvests during the reign of Kings Munjong and Danjong. The prevention of bad harvests was a historical mission given to the regime of King Sejo. During his reign, King Sejo promoted various policies in order to stop bad harvests. Such efforts included the government's active construction of embankments, introduction of seeds suitable for reclaimed lands, and inspiration of the consciousness of forceful farming enduring natural disasters such as floods. As a result, abnormal weathers such as floods and droughts did not lead directly to bad harvests.

Extreme heavy snowfall episodes have been investigated in case of accumulated snowfall amount larger than 50 cm during the past ten years, in order to understand the association of low-level stability with heavy snowfall in the Yeongdong region. In general, the selected 4 events have similar synoptic setting such as the Siberian High extended to East Sea along with the Low passing by the southern Korean Peninsula, eventually inducing easterly in the Yeongdong region. Specifically moist-adiabatically neutral layer has been observed during the heavy snowfall period, which was easily identified using vertical profiles of equivalent potential temperature observed at Sokcho, whereas convective unstable layer has been formed over the East sea due to relatively warm sea surface temperature (SST) about $8{\sim}10^{\circ}C$ and lower temperature around 1~2 km above the surface, obtained from RDAPS. Difference of equivalent potential temperature between 850 hPa and surface as well as difference between air and sea temperatures altogether gradually increased before the snowfall period. Instability-induced moisture supply to the atmosphere from the East sea, being cooled and saturated by the upper cold surge, would make low-level ice cloud, and eventually move inland by the easterly flow. Heavy snowfall will be enhanced in association with low-level convergence by surface friction and upslope wind against Taebaek mountains. This study emphasizes the importance of low level stability in the Yeongdong region using the radiosonde sounding and RDAPS data, which should quantitatively be examined through numerical model as well as heat and moisture supply from the ocean.

Representative Concentration Pathways (RCP) are the latest emission scenarios recommended to use for the fifth assessment report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This study investigates the projection of extreme precipitation in South Korea during the forthcoming 21st Century using the generalized extreme value (GEV) analysis based on two different RCP conditions i.e., RCP 4.5 and 8.5. Maximum daily precipitation required for GEV analysis for RCP 4.5 and 8.5 are obtained from a high-resolution regional climate model forced by the corresponding global climate projections, which are produced within the CMIP5 framework. We found overall increase in frequency of extreme precipitation over South Korea in association with climate change. Particularly, daily extreme precipitation that has been occurred every 20 years in current climate (1980~2005) is likely to happen about every 4.3 and 3.4 years by the end of 21st Century (2070~2099) under the RCP 4.5 and 8.5 conditions, respectively.

The Barnes scheme is used in Digital Forecast System (DFS) of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) for real-time analysis. This scheme is an objective analysis scheme with a distance-dependent weighted average. It has been widely used for mesoscale analyses in limited geographic areas. The isotropic Gaussian weight function with a constant effective radius might not be suitable for certain conditions. In particular, the analysis error can be increased for stations located near mountains. The terrain of South Korea is covered with mountains and wide plains that are between successive mountain ranges. Thus, it is needed to consider the terrain effect with the information of elevations for each station. In order to improve the accuracy of the temperature objective analysis, we modified the weight function which is dependent on a distance and elevation in the Barnes scheme. We compared the results from the Barnes scheme used in the DFS (referred to CTL) with the new scheme (referred to EXP) during a year of 2009 in this study. The analysis error of the temperature field was verified by the root-mean-square-error (RMSE), mean error (ME), and Priestley skill score (PSS) at the DFS observation stations which is not used in objective analysis. The verification result shows that the RMSE and ME values are 1.68 and -0.41 in CTL and 1.42 and -0.16 in EXP, respectively. In aspect of spatial verification, we found that the RSME and ME values of EXP decreased in the vicinity of Jirisan (Mt. Jiri) and Taebaek Mountains. This indicates that the new scheme performed better in temperature verification during the year 2009 than the previous scheme.

The Asian dust (Hwangsa) forecasting model, Asian Dust Aerosol Model (ADAM) has been modified by using satelliate monitoring of surface vegetation, which enables to simulate dusts occuring not only in springtime but also for all-year-round period. Coupled with the Unified Model (UM), the operational weather forecasting model at KMA, UM-ADAM2 was implemented for operational dust forecasting since 2010, with an aid of development of Meteorology-Chemistry Interface Processor (MCIP) for usage UM. The performance analysis of the ADAM2 forecast was conducted with $PM_{10}$ concentrations observed at monitoring sites in the source regions in China and the downstream regions of Korea from March to December in 2010. It was found that the UM-ADAM2 model was able to simulate quite well Hwangsa events observed in spring and wintertime over Korea. In the downstream region of Korea, the starting and ending times of dust events were well-simulated, although the surface $PM_{10}$ concentration was slightly underestimated for some dust events. The general negative bias less than $35{\mu}g\;m^{3}$ in $PM_{10}$ is found and it is likely to be due to other fine aerosol species which is not considered in ADAM2. It is found that the correlation between observed and forecasted $PM_{10}$ concentration increases as forecasting time approaches, showing stably high correlation about 0.7 within 36 hr in forecasting time. This suggests the possibility that there is potential for the UM-ADAM2 model to be used as an operational Asian dust forecast model.

This study investigates the reason why the barotropic vorticity structure prevails vertically in response to the enhanced convection associated with the boreal summer intraseasonal oscillation over the central Indian Ocean. The relative vorticity tendency analysis for a 2.5-layer simplified model demonstrates that the barotopic vorticity structure is predominant due to the following two factors: 1) vertical easterly shear on the meridional gradient of barotropic divergence (which induces generation of barotropic vorticity twice larger than that of baroclinic vorticity); and 2) vertical easterly shear on the meridional gradient of baroclinic divergence (which appears only in relation to the generation of barotropic vorticity). The percentage of contribution by each term to barotropic and baroclinic vorticity tendency equations is presented.

The objectives of this study are to develop a real-time drought monitoring and prediction system on the East Asia domain and to evaluate the performance of the system by using past historical drought records. The system is mainly composed of two parts: drought monitoring for providing current drought indices with meteorological and hydrological conditions; drought outlooks for suggesting future drought indices and future hydrometeorological conditions. Both parts represent the drought conditions on the East Asia domain (latitude $21.15{\sim}50.15^{\circ}$, longitude $104.40{\sim}149.65^{\circ}$), Korea domain (latitude $30.40{\sim}43.15^{\circ}$, longitude $118.65{\sim}135.65^{\circ}$) and South Korea domain (latitude $30.40{\sim}43.15^{\circ}$, longitude $118.65{\sim}135.65^{\circ}$), respectively. The observed meteorological data from ASOS (Automated Surface Observing System) and AWS (Automatic Weather System) of KMA (Korean Meteorological Administration) and model-driven hydrological data from LSM (Land Surface model) are used for the real-time drought monitoring, while the monthly and seasonal weather forecast information from UM (Unified Model) of KMA are utilized for drought outlooks. For the evaluation of the system, past historical drought records occurred in Korea are surveyed and are compared with the application results of the system. The results demonstrated that the selected drought indices such as KMA drought index, SPI (3), SPI (6), PDSI, SRI and SSI are reasonable, especially, the performance of SRI and SSI provides higher accuracy that the others.

The weighing precipitation gauge with auto-empting capability was developed in the R&D project organized by the Research Agency for Climate Science (RACS) and supported by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). This project was initiated in line with the KMA's plan executed since 2010 to introduce the weighing precipitation gauges partly into of their Automatic Weather Station (AWS) network in order to upgrade the quality of precipitation data. The innovative feature of this research is that the auto-empting in weighing precipitation gauge is realized by abrupt rotation of receiving container. The prototype was tested in compliance with the relevant standards of KMA. The results of performance test on rainfall measurement in laboratory verified that the accuracies for 20 mm and 100 mm reference rainfall amount were 0.1 mm and 0.4 mm, respectively in both conditions of auto-empting and no-empting. During the rotation of container for auto-empting, the data was extrapolated smoothly by applying the same precipitation intensity of the previous 10 sec. Consequently, it was found that the auto-empting precipitation gauge developed in this research is quite enough to be used for the operational purpose of accurate measurement with 0.1 mm resolution, regardless of the precipitation intensity.