This study analyzed and compared development mechanisms leading to heat waves of 2016 and 2018 in Korea. The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis Interim (ERA Interim) dataset and Automated Surface Observing System data are used for synoptic scale analysis. The synoptic conditions are investigated using geopotential height, temperature, equivalent potential temperature, thickness, potential vorticity, omega, outgoing longwave radiation, and blocking index, etc. Heat waves in South Korea occur in relation to Western North Pacific Subtropical High (WNPSH) pressure system which moves northwestward to East Asia during summer season. Especially in 2018, WNPSH intensified due to strong large-scale circulation associated with convective activities in the Philippine Sea, and moved farther north to Korea when compared to 2016. In addition, the Tibetan high near the tropopause settled over Northern China on top of WNPSH creating a very strong anticyclonic structure in the upper-level over the Korean Peninsula. Unlike 2018, WNPSH was weaker and centered over the East China Sea in 2016. Analysis of blocking indices show wide blocking phenomena over the North Pacific and the Eurasian continent during heat wave event in both years. The strong upper-level ridge which was positioned zonally near 60°N, made the WNPSH over the South Korea stagnant in both years. Analysis of heat wave intensity (HWI) and duration (HWD) show that HWI and HWD in 2018 was both strong leading to extreme high temperatures. In 2016 however, HWI was relatively weak compared to HWD. The longevity of HWD is attributed to atmosphere blocking in the surrounding Eurasian continent.

KMA performed the special observation program to provide information about severe weather and to monitor typhoon PRAPIROON using the ship which called the Gisang 1 from 29 June 2018 to 4 July 2018 (UTC). For this period, upper-air was observed 21 times with 6 hour intervals using rawinsonde in the Gisang 1. We investigated the impact of upper-air observation data from the Gisang 1 on the performance of the operational convective scale model (we called LDAPS). We conducted two experiments that used all observation data including upper-air observation data from the Gisang 1 (OPER) and without it (EXPR). For a typhoon PRAPIROON case, track forecast error of OPER was lower than EXPR until forecast 24 hours. The intensity forecast error of OPER for minimum sea level pressure was lower than EXPR until forecast 12 hours. The intensity forecast error of OPER for maximum wind speed was mostly lower than EXPR until forecast 30 hours. OPER showed good performance for typhoon forecast compared with EXPR at the early lead time. Two precipitation cases occurred in the south of the Korean peninsula due to the impact of Changma on 1 July and typhoon on 3 July. The location of main precipitation band predicted from OPER was closer to observations. As assimilating upper-air data observed in the Gisang 1 to model, it showed positive results in typhoon and precipitation cases.

The aircraft observation campaign was performed to investigate thermodynamic conditions of snowfall cloud over the East Sea of Korean peninsula from 2 February to 16 March 2018. During this period, four snowfall events occurred in the Yeongdong region and three cases were analyzed using dropsonde data. Snowfall cases were associated with the passage of southern low-pressure (maritime warm air mass) and expansion of northern high-pressure (continental polar air mass). Case 1 and Case 2a were related to low-pressure systems, and Case 2b and Case 3 were connected with high-pressure systems, respectively. And their thermodynamic properties and horizontal distribution of snowfall cloud were differed according to the influence of the synoptic condition. In Case 1 and Case 2a, atmospheric layers between sea surface and 350 hPa contained moisture more than 15 mm of TPW with multiple inversion layers detected by dropsonde data, while the vertical atmosphere of Case 2b and Case 3 were dry as TPW 5 mm or less with a single inversion inversion layer around 750~850 hPa. However, the vertical distributions of equivalent potential temperature (θ_e) were similar as moist-adiabatically neutral condition regardless of the case. But, their values below 900 hPa were about 10 K higher in Case 1 and Case 2a (285~290 K) than in Case 2b and Case 3 (275~280 K). The difference in these values is related to the characteristics of the incoming air mass and the location of the snowfall cloud.

In this study, the climatological spatio-temporal variation of strong wind and gust wind in Korea during the period from 1993 to 2018 was analyzed using daily maximum wind speed and daily maximum instantaneous wind speed data recorded at 61 observations. Strong wind and gust wind were defined as 14 m s^-1 and 20 m s^-1, which are the same as the KMA's criteria of special weather report. The frequency of strong wind and gust wind occurrence was divided into regions with the higher 25 percent (Group A) and the lower 75 percent (Group B). The annual frequency of strong wind and gust wind occurrence tended to be decreased in most parts of the Korean peninsula. In Group A with stations located at coastal region, strong wind and gust wind occurred most frequently in winter with higher frequency at 1200~1600 LST and 2300~2400 LST due to influence of East Asian winter monsoon. In addition, a marked decreasing trend throughout the four seasons was shown at Daegwallyeong, Gunsan and Wando observations. In contrast, it can be found in Group B that the monthly frequency of strong wind and wind gust occurrence was higher in August and September by effect of typhoon and hourly frequency was higher from 1200 LST to 1800 LST.

The characteristics of solar resources in South Korea were analyzed by comparing the solar irradiance derived from COMS (Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite) with in-situ ground observation data (Pyranometer). Satellite-derived solar irradiance and in-situ observation showed general coincidence with correlation coefficient higher than 0.9, but the satellite observations tended to overestimate the radiation amount compared to the ground observations. Analysis of hourly and monthly irradiance showed that relatively large discrepancies between the satellite and ground observations exist after sunrise and during July~August period which were mainly attributed to uncertainties in the satellite retrieval such as large atmospheric optical thickness and cloud amount. But differences between the two observations did not show distinct diurnal or seasonal cycles. Analysis of regional characteristics of solar irradiance showed that differences between satellite and in-situ observations are relatively large in metrocity such as Seoul and coastal regions due to air pollution and sea salt aerosols which act to increase the uncertainty in the satellite retrieval. It was concluded that the satellite irradiance data can be used for assessment and prediction of solar energy resources overcoming the limitation of ground observations, although it still has various sources of uncertainty.

Current in-situ airborne probes that measure the sizes of ice crystals smaller than 50 ㎛ are based on the concept that the measured intensity of light scattered by a particle in the forward and/or backward direction can be converted to particle size. The relationship between particle size and scattered light used in forward scattering probes is based on Mie theory, which assumes the refractive index of particle is known and all particles are spherical. Not only are small crystals not spherical, but also there are a wide variety of non-spherical shapes. Although it is well known that the scattering properties of non-spherical ice crystals differ from those of spherical shapes, the impacts of non-sphericity on derived in-situ particle size distributions are unknown. Thus, precise relationships between the intensity of scattered light and particle size and shape are required, as based on accurate calculations of scattering properties of ice crystals. In this study, single-scattering properties of ice crystals smaller than 50 ㎛ are calculated at a wavelength of 0.55 ㎛ using a numerically exact method (i.e., discrete dipole approximation). For these calculations, hexagonal ice crystals with varying aspect ratios are used to represent the shapes of natural small ice crystals to determine the errors caused by non-spherical ice crystals measured by forward scattering probes. It is shown that the calculated errors in sizing nonspherical ice crystals are at least 13% and 26% in forward (4~12°) and backward (168~176°) directions, respectively, and maximum errors are up to 120% and 132%.

MERRA-2 ozone and atmospheric data are utilized to test the usefulness of reanalysis-based tracer transport analysis for ozone in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). Transport and mixing processes related to the seasonal variation of TTL ozone are examined using the tracer transport equation based on the transformed Eulerian mean, and the results are compared to previously proposed values from model analyses. The analysis shows that the seasonal variability of TTL ozone is mainly determined by two processes: vertical mean transport and horizontal eddy mixing of ozone, with different contributions in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. The horizontal eddy mixing process explains the major portion of the seasonal cycle in the northern TTL, while the vertical mean transport dominates in the southern TTL. The Asian summer monsoon likely contributes to this observed difference. The ozone variability and related processes in MERRA-2 reanalysis show qualitatively similar features with satellite- and model-based analyses, and it provides advantages of fine-scale analyses. However, it still shows significant quantitative biases in ozone budget analysis.