• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2015

The present study aims to characterize the synoptic climatic patterns of winter extreme low temperature events occurred in different regions of Korea based on daily temperature data observed at 61 weather stations under the supervision of the Korea Meteorological Administation and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis I data for the recent 40 years (1973~2012) period. Analyses of daily maximum and minimum temperatures below 10th percentile thresholds show that high frequencies of winter extreme low temperature events appear across the entire regions of Korea or in either the western or eastern half region divided by major mountain ridges at the 2~7 dayintervals particularly in the first half of the winter period (before mid-January). Composite analyses of surface synoptic climatic data including sea level pressure and wind vector reveal that 13 regional types of winter extreme low temperature events in Korea are closely associated with the relative location and intensity of both the Siberian high pressure and the Aleutian low pressure systems as well as major mountain ridges. Investigations of mid-troposphere (500 hPa) synoptic climatic charts demonstrate that the blocking-like upper troposphere low pressure system advecting the cold air from the Arctic toward the Korean Peninsula may provide favorable synoptic conditions for the outbreaks of winter extreme low temperature events in Korea. These results indicate that the monitoring of synoptic scale climatic systems in East Asia including the Siberian high pressure system, the Aleutian low pressure system and upper level blocking system is critical to the improvement of the predictability of winter extreme low temperature events in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.152-167
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• 2011

This study aims to investigate the change of seasonal trend appeared in the daily normals of wintertime daily mean temperature of Seoul for 1941~1970 and 1971~2000 and the factors to affect it. The lowest temperature in wintertime is appeared in the period of the first and second ten-days of January in the daily normals for 1941~1970 and in the third ten-days of January and the first ten-days of February for 1971~2000. This means seasonal trend was changed. This change is due to the fact average temperature from 27 December to 20 January is rising much more than the wintertime mean temperature and average temperature from 21 January to 9 February less than that for two daily normals. This features are notable after 1971. The Siberian high and norther wind around the Korean Peninsula are weakened remarkably recently, so mean temperature of Seoul from 27 December to 20 January is warming much more. On the other hand, the Siberian high from 21 January to 9 February is weakened and the Aleutian low is strengthened recently and northerly is not change obviously, so temperature of Seoul is not warming so much.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.429-439
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• 2005

The propose of this study is to identify distributional characteristics of winter droughts through occurrence frequencies and to analyze synoptic characteristics on the sea level pressure fields and 500hPa levels in Korea. The regional distributions of winter droughts in occurrence frequency vary according to the monthly regional distributions of the variabilities of precipitation in Korea. In January and December, the eastern parts of Korea where the variabilities of precipitation show high, have high rate of drought frequencies, while the western parts have low rate of it. It means that the regional distribution of the drought frequencies in January and December shows the east-high and west-low pattern, In February the frequencies show the north-high and south-low pattern. In the distributions of the sea-level pressure and 500hPa level height anomalies, the positive anomalies appear around Korean Peninsula and Siberian high area, the negative anomalies on the Aleutian low area and the western parts of North Pacific Ocean during the drought period in January and February. The droughts appear when the inflow of warm and humid air from the south eastern parts blocked by the prevailing pressure patterns of the west-high and east-low. Therefore, the zonal wind of the Korean Peninsula is strong. The droughts of December reflect not only low frequencies of cyclone occurrence, also small inflow of warm and humid air from the southern parts stemming from positive anomalies over whole middle latitude of eastern parts of Asia including Korean Peninsula.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.675-689
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• 2014

This study applied Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition(EEMD), a new methodology to define the timing of spring onset over the Republic of Korea and to examine its spatio-temporal change. Also this study identified the relationship between spring onet timing and some atmospheric variations, and figured out synoptic factors which affect the timing of spring onset. The averaged spring onset timing for the period of 1974-2011 was 11th, March in Republic of Korea. In general, the spring onset timing was later with higher latitude and altitude regions, and it was later in inland regions than in costal ones. The correlation analysis has been carried out to find out the factors which affect spring onset timing, and global annual mean temperature, Arctic Oscillation(AO), Siberian High had a significant correlation with spring onset timing. The multiple regression analysis was conducted with three indices which were related to spring onset timing, and the model explained 64.7%. As a result of multiple regression analysis, the effect of annual mean temperature was the greatest and that of AO was the second. To find out synoptic factors affecting spring onset timing, the synoptic analysis has been carried out. As a result the intensity of meridional circulation represented as the major factor affect spring onset timing.