• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.300-303
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• 2001

The first 7 years of altimeter data from the TOPEX/POSEIDON (T/P) were analyzed to study the surface circulation and its variability in the East Asian Marginal Seas. Long term averaged T/P sea level time series data where compared with in situ sea level measurements from a float-operated type tide gauge around of south Korea and Japan. T/P data are a large contaminated by 60-day tidal aliasing effect, very near the alias periods of M2 and S2. When this 60-day effect is removed, the data agree well with the tide gauge data with 4.6 cm averaged RMS difference. The T/P derived sea level variability reveals clearly the well-known, strong current-topography such as Kuroshio. The T/P mean sea level of North Pacific (NP) was higher than Yellow Sea (YS) and East Sea (ES). The T/P sea level valibility, with strong eddy and meandaring, was the largest in eastern part of Japan and this variability was mainly due to the influence of bottom topography in Kuroshio Extention area.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.195-204
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• 2009

In order to estimate sea surface current fields in the East Sea, we examined characteristics of mean dynamic topography (MDT) fields (or mean surface current field, MSC) generated from three different methods. This preliminary investigation evaluates the accuracy of surface currents estimated from satellite-derived sea level anomaly (SLA) data and three MDT fields in the East Sea. AVISO (Archiving, Validation and Interpretation of Satellite Oceanographic data) provides a MDT field derived from satellite observation and numerical models with $0.25^{\circ}$ horizontal resolution. Steric height field relative to 500 dbar from temperature and salinity profiles in the East Sea supplies another MDT field. Trajectory data of surface drifters (ARGOS) in the East Sea for 14 years provide another MSC field. Absolute dynamic topography (ADT) field is calculated by adding SLA to each MDT. Application of geostrophic equation to three different ADT fields yields three surface geostrophic current fields. Comparisons were made between the estimated surface currents from the three different methods and in-situ current measurements from a ship-mounted ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) in the southwestern East Sea in 2005. For offshore areas more than 50 km away from the land, the correlation coefficients (R) between the estimated versus the measured currents range from 0.58 to 0.73, with 17.1 to $21.7\;cm\;s^{-1}$ root mean square deviation (RMSD). For coastal ocean within 50 km from the land, however, R ranges from 0.06 to 0.46 and RMSD ranges from 15.5 to $28.0\;cm\;s^{-1}$. Results from this study reveal that a new approach in producing MDT and SLA is required to improve the accuracy of surface current estimations for the shallow costal zones of the East Sea.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.767-777
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• 1999

In the coastal region air flow changes due to the abrupt change of surface temperature between land and sea. So a numerical simulation for atmospheric flow fields must be considered the correct fields of sea surface temperature(SST). In this study, we used variables such as latent heat flux, sensible heat flux, short and long wave radiation of ocean and atmosphere which exchanged across the sea surface between atmosphere and ocean model. We found that this consideration simulated the more precise SST fields by comparing with those of the observated results. Simulated horizontal SST differences in season were 2.5~4$^{\circ}C$. Therefore we simulated the more precise atmospheric flow fields and the movement and dispersion of the pollutants with the Lagrangian particle dispersion model. In the daytime dispersion pattern of the pollutants emitted from ship sources moved toward inland, in the night time moved toward sea by land/sea breeze criculation. But air pollutants dispersion can be affected by inland topography, especially Yangsan and coastal area because of nocturnal wind speed decrease.

• Proceedings of the Korean Association of Geographic Inforamtion Studies Conference
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• 2003.04a
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• pp.297-299
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• 2003

Altimeter(Topex/Poseidon) and AVHRR(NOAA) data were used to study the variations and correlations of Sea Level(SL) and Sea Surface Temperature (SST) in the North East Asian Seas from November 1993 to May 1998. This region is influenced simultaneously to continental and oceanic climate as the border of the East Sea(Japan Sea). SL and SST have increased gradually every year because the global warming, and presented usually a strong annual variations in Kuroshio extension region with the influence of bottom topography.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.70-82
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• 1995

A multi-layer simulation program is developed to estimate the ocean current considering sea bottom geometry. The so-called $\sigma$ coordinate system is introduced in vertical direction to describe sea bottom topography more accurately and effectively. Leapfrog scheme combined with Euler backward scheme is used to reduce computation error which may be possibly accumulated in time evolution by Leapfrog scheme alone. In this paper, very simple examples of rectangular basins with various bottom geometries were taken and the effect of sea bottom geometry on vertical structure of the ocean tidal current and its direction were investigated. Through comparisons between the present three dimensional calculation in which bottom topography is directly taken into consideration and the two dimensional calculation in which depth average concept is employed, it was found that magnitude of surface current and its direction could be largely affected by the sea bottom topography, particularly in shallow region with complex bottom shape.

• Proceedings of the Korea Committee for Ocean Resources and Engineering Conference
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• 2001.10a
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• pp.103-107
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• 2001

The major studies of an ocean circulation of the East/Japan Sea related to evaluate the feasibility and utilization of deep ocean water are reviewed. The major feature of surface current system of the East/Japan Sea is an inflow of the Tsushima Warm Current through the Korea/Tsushima Strait and the outflow through the Tsugaru and Soya Straits. The Tsushima Warm Current has been known to split into two or three branches in the southern region of the East/Japan Sea. In the cold water region of the East/Japan Sea, the North Korean Cold Current turns to the east near 39$^{\circ}$N after meeting the East Korean Warm Current, then flows eastward. The degree of penetration depends on the strength of the positive wind stress curl, according to the ventilation theory. Various current meter moorings indicate strong and oscillatory deep currents in various parts of the basin. According to some numerical experiments, these currents may be induced by pressure-topography or eddy-topography interaction. However, more investigations are needed to explain clearly the presence of these strong bottom currents. This study concludes the importance of topographical coupling, isopycnal outcropping, different wind forcing and the branching of the Tsushima Warm Current on the circulation of the East/Japan Sea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.207-217
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• 2008

The SSTop (Sea Surface Topography) provides an estimate of the large scale structure of the deviations between the geoid height and the mean sea surface in terms of a normalized surface spherical harmonic series. The SSTop is the key information which has been used to determine the shape of earth, geoid, current and tide etc. Also, the SSTop is a basic source for the unification of vertical datums at the different height systems which were established according to the their respective purposes. In order to unify the vertical datum around the East-Asian (E-A) region (covers the area: $20^{\circ}-45^{\circ}N$ and $110^{\circ}-140^{\circ}E$), we estimated the value of SSTop in the E-A region using the predicted values of mean sea surface (from KMSS04) and geoid height (from EGM96 and EIGEN-GL04C) and analyzed to aspect of SSTop at 5 tidal stations (InCheon, JeJu, QingDao, Aburatsubo, KeeLung) with the estimated values of each station previously. The result from this study indicates that the SSTop in the E-A region is relatively stable except for the area around the Japanese and Ryukyu deep, and also shows that the distribution of values of SSTop is ranged from 40 to 60 cm at tidal stations except InCheon station.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.613-619
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• 2007

Mesoscale low is often observed over the downstream region of the East Sea (or, northwest coast off the Japan Islands) during East-Asia winter monsoon. The low system causes a heavy snowfall at the region. A series of numerical experiments were conducted with the aid of a regional model (MM5 ver. 3.5) to examine the formation mechanism of the mesoscale low. The following results were obtained: 1) A well-developed mesoscale low was simulated by the regional model under real topography, NCEP reanalysis, and OISST; 2) The mesoscale low was simulated under a zonally averaged SST without topography. This implies that the meridional gradient of SST is the main factor in the formation of a mesoscale low; 3) A thermal contrast ($>10^{\circ}C$) of land-sea and topography-induced disturbance served as the second important factor for the formation; 4) Paektu Mountain caused the surface wind to decelerate downstream, which created a more favorable environment for thermodynamic modification than that was found in a flat topography; and 5) The types of cumulus parameterizations did not affect the development of the mesoscale low.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.107-118
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• 1994

As satellite altimetry is being progressed to apply with heigher precision to maginal seas, it was necessary to improve correction procedures for tidal signals in altimetry with more accurate tidal model than well-known model of Schwiderski for studying marginal sea dynamics. As a first step, tidal regime of semidiurnal tides$(M_2,\;S_2,\;N_2,\;K_2)$ and diurnal tides$(K_1,\;O_1,\;P_1,\;Q_1)$ were computed with a finer details of formulation of tidal model over the East Asian Marginal Seas covering the Okhotsk Sea and South China Sea and part of Northwest Pacific Ocean with mesh resolutions of 1/6$^{\circ}$. Subsequently the computed sets of harmonic constants from the model were used to remove the tide in selected Sea Surface Heights from Geosat in the modelled region. Preliminary correction procedure suggested in the present study may be extensively used for obtaining Sea Surface Topography over the East Asian Marginal Seas, especially for the region where Schwiderski's harmonic constants are not available.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.293-303
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• 2006

The topography of the sea floor and textural characteristics of surface sediments are documented in areas off sectors 1,2, and 4 of the Saemangeum dyke and inside the dyke. These were investigated during the years 2002 to 2005, when the dyke construction almost came to an end, and were compared with natural topographic analogs before the dyke construction from the maritime maps of 1982 and 1994. Along and across the dyke are a number of erosional troughs formed by intensified currents during the dyke construction. The sea floor off sector 4 has undergone gradual accumulation of sands moving from the north by currents varying in direction from normal to parallel to the dyke. This is in a strong contrast with a slight erosional environment prevailing over the sea floor before dyke construction. off sectors 1 and 2, a topography with an alterative pattern of erosional troughs and sand shoals develops normal to the dyke. Eroded materials from the troughs seem to have added to the sand shoals. As a result, the troughs, former natural tidal channels, have become increasingly deeper, whereas the sand shoals have become somewhat shallower. The sea floor inside the dyke has also been remarkably shallower with expanding tidal flats due to trapping by the dyke of continuous sediment input from the Dongjin and Mangyeong rivers. Sands, all of which are considered to have originated originally from the two rivers, dominate the entire Saemangeum area.