• Ocean Science Journal
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• v.42 no.2
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• pp.89-102
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• 2007

The surface circulation of northern South China Sea (hereafter SCS) for the period 1987-2005 was studied using the data of more than 500 satellite-tracked drifters and wind data from QuikSCAT. The mean flow directions in the northern SCS except the Luzon Strait (here after LS) during the periods October_March was southwestward, and $April{\sim}September$ northeastward. A strong northwestward intrusion of the Kuroshio through the LS appears during the $October{\sim}March$ period of northeasterly wind, but the intrusion became weak between April and September. When the strong intrusion occurred, the eddy kinetic energy (EKE) in the LS was $388cm^2/s^2$ which was almost 2 times higher than that during the weak-intrusion season. The volume transport of the Kuroshio in the east of the Philippines shows an inverse relationship to that of the LS. There is a six-month phase shift between the two seasonal phenomena. The volume transport in the east of the Philippines shows its peak sis-month earlier faster than that of the LS. The strong Kuroshio intrusion is found to be also related to the seasonal variation of the wind stress curl generated by the north easterly wind. The negative wind stress curl in the northern part of LS induces an anticyclonic flow, while the positive wind stress curl in the southern part of LS induces a cyclonic flow. The northwestward Kuroshio intrusion in the northern part of LS happened with larger negative wind stress curl, while the westward intrusion along $20.5^{\circ}N$ in the center of the LS occurred with weaker negative wind stress curl.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.273-287
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• 2008

Characteristics of skin-bulk sea surface temperature (SST) differences in the Northeast Asia seas were analyzed by utilizing 845 collocated matchup data between NOAA/AVHRR data and oceanic in-situ temperature measurements for selected months from 1994 to 2003. In order to understand diurnal variation of SST within a few meters of the upper ocean, the matchup database were classified into four categories according to day-night and drifter-shipboard measurements. Temperature measurements from daytime drifters showed a good agreement with satellite MCSST (Multi-Channel Sea Surface Temperature) with an RMS error of about $0.56^{\circ}C$. Poor accuracy of SST with an rrns error of $1.12^{\circ}C$ was found in the case of daytime shipboard CTD (Conductivity, Temperature, Depth) measurements. SST differences between MCSST and in-situ measurements are caused by various errors coming from atmospheric moist effect, coastal effect, and others. Most of the remarkable errors were resulted from the diurnal variation of vertical temperature structure within a few meters as well as in-situ oceanic temperatures at different depth, about 20 cm for a satellite-tracked drifting buoy and a few meters for shipboard CTD or moored buoy. This study suggests that satellite-derived SST shows significant errors of about ${\pm}3^{\circ}C$ in some cases and therefore it should be carefully used for one's purpose on the base of in-depth understanding of skin-bulk SST difference and vertical temperature structure in regional sea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.71-84
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• 2022

This paper describes verification results for the ocean analysis field produced by the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO) of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) against observed Argo floats and drift buoys over the western Pacific Ocean and the equatorial Pacific during 2020~2021. This is confirmed by a comparison of the verification for the newly updated version of the HYbrid Coordinate Ocean Model/Navy Coupled Ocean Data Assimilation (HYCOM/NCODA) against same observations. NEMO shows that the vertical ocean temperature is much closer to the Argo floats than HYCOM for most seasons in terms of bias and root mean square error. On the other hand, there are overall considerable cold biases for HYCOM, which may be due to the more rapid decreasing temperature at the shallow thermocline in HYCOM. Conclusion demonstrated that the NEMO analysis for ocean temperature is more reliable than the analysis produced by the latest version of HYCOM as well as by the out-of-date HYCOM applied to the precedent study. The surface ocean current produced by NEMO also shows 14% closer to the AOML (Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory) in situ drift buoys observations than HYCOM over the western Pacific Ocean. Over the equatorial Pacific, however, HYCOM shows slightly closer to AOML observation than NEMO in some seasons. Overall, this study suggests that the resulting information may be used to promote more use of NEMO analysis.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.175-181
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• 1999

A recurring eddy which located at the terminal end of the Korean East Warm Current was captured on ocean color and sea surface temperature imagery from satellite in spring and autumn. During late April, 1997 thermal infrared imagery from the NOAA AVHRR sensor and ocean color data from the Japanese ADEOS-I OCTS sensor, revealed this feature. The cold core had elevated chlorophyll concentrations, based on OCTS estimates, of greater than 3 mg/m$^3$ while the warmer surrounding waters had chlorophyll concentrations of 1 mg/m$^3$ or less. The elevated cholophyll accociated with this eddy has not been previously described. The eddy is also evident in SST images from autumn, but the SST in the core is warmer than in spring, and the warm jet flowing to the west of the eddy is also warmer is autumn compared to spring. A reccurring eddy and the high chlorophyll_a concentration area which surround around the eddy show on NOAA and SeaWiFS images in March 2, 1998. The eddy forms at the northern extent of the Korean East Warm Current as those waters collide with the cold, south-flowing Liman Current over a topographic shelf about 1500 m deep. This region of the eddy formation appears to have a strong connection with the dynamics of the western part of the polar front eddy field that dominates surface mesoscale structure in the central East (Japan) Sea. Interaction of the eddy with ARGOW tracked drifters, and evidence for its persistence are discussed.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.202-214
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• 2014

We introduce status and prospect of increasingly utilizing, unmanned, global ocean observing systems, and the global network to integrate, coordinate, and manage the systems. Platforms of the ocean observing system are diversified in order to resolve/monitor the variability occurring at multiple scales in both three-dimensional space and time. Here purpose, development history, and current status of the systems in two kinds - mobile (surface drifter, subsurface float, underwater glider) and fixed platforms (surface and subsurface moorings, bottom mounts), are examined and the increased future uses to produce synergies are envisioned. Simultaneous use of various mobile and fixed platforms is suggested to more effectively design the observing system, with an example of the NSF-funded OOI (Ocean Observations Initiative) program. Efforts are suggested 1) to fill the data gap existing in the deep sea and the Southern Ocean, and toward 2) new global network for oceanic boundary currents, 3) new technologies for existing and new sensors including biogeochemical, acoustic, and optical sensors, 3) data standardization, and 4) sensor calibration and data quality control.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.119-130
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• 2015

Impacts of Argo temperature assimilation on the analysis fields in the East Sea is investigated by using DAESROM, the East Sea Regional Ocean Model with a 3-dimensional variational assimilation module (Kim et al., 2009). Namely, we produced analysis fields in 2009, in which temperature profiles, sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface height (SSH) anomaly were assimilated (Exp. AllDa) and carried out additional experiment by withdrawing Argo temperature data (Exp. NoArgo). When comparing both experimental results using assimilated temperature profiles, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the Exp. AllDa is generally lower than the Exp. NoArgo. In particular, the Argo impacts are large in the subsurface layer, showing the RMSE difference of about $0.5^{\circ}C$. Based on the observations of 14 surface drifters, Argo impacts on the current and temperature fields in the surface layer are investigated. In general, surface currents along the drifter positions are improved in the Exp. AllDa, and large RMSE differences (about 2.0~6.0 cm/s) between both experiments are found in drifters which observed longer period in the southern region where Argo density was high. On the other hand, Argo impacts on the SST fields are negligible, and it is considered that SST assimilation with 1-day interval has dominant effects. Similar to the difference of surface current fields between both experiments, SSH fields also reveal significant difference in the southern East Sea, for example the southwestern Yamato Basin where anticyclonic circulation develops. The comparison of SSH fields implies that SSH assimilation does not correct the SSH difference caused by withdrawing Argo data. Thus Argo assimilation has an important role to reproduce meso-scale circulation features in the East Sea.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.604-617
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• 2022

Sea surface temperature (SST) is a key variable that can be used to understand ocean-atmosphere phenomena and predict climate change. Satellite microwave remote sensing enables the measurement of SST despite the presence of clouds and precipitation in the sensor path. Therefore, considering the high utilization of microwave SST, it is necessary to continuously verify its accuracy and analyze its error characteristics. In this study, the validation of the microwave global precision measurement (GPM)/GPM microwave imager (GMI) SST around the Northwest Pacific and Korean Peninsula was conducted using surface drifter temperature data for approximately eight years from March 2014 to December 2021. The GMI SST showed a bias of 0.09K and an average root mean square error of 0.97K compared to the actual SST, which was slightly higher than that observed in previous studies. In addition, the error characteristics of the GMI SST were related to environmental factors, such as latitude, distance from the coast, sea wind, and water vapor volume. Errors tended to increase in areas close to coastal areas within 300 km of land and in high-latitude areas. In addition, relatively high errors were found in the range of weak wind speeds (<6 m s^-1) during the day and strong wind speeds (>10 m s^-1) at night. Atmospheric water vapor contributed to high SST differences in very low ranges of <30 mm and in very high ranges of >60 mm. These errors are consistent with those observed in previous studies, in which GMI data were less accurate at low SST and were estimated to be due to differences in land and ocean radiation, wind-induced changes in sea surface roughness, and absorption of water vapor into the microwave atmosphere. These results suggest that the characteristics of the GMI SST differences should be clarified for more extensive use of microwave satellite SST calculations in the seas around the Korean Peninsula, including a part of the Northwest Pacific.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.321-331
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• 2005

Recently. three-dimensional models have been used for aquatic dispersion of radioactive effluents in relation to nuclear power plant siting based on the Notice No. 2003-12 'Guideline for investigating and assessing hydrological and aquatic characteristics of nuclear facility site' of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) in Korea. Several nuclear power plants have been under construction or planed. which are Shin-Korl Unit 1 and 2, Shin-Wolsong Unit 1 and 2, and Shln-Ulchin Unit 1 and 2. For assessing the aquatic dispersion of radionuclides released from the above nuclear power plants, it is necessary to know the coastal currents around sites which are affected by circulation of East Sea. In this study, a three dimensional hydrodynamic model for the circulation of the East Sea of Korea has been developed as the first Phase, which Is based on the RIAMOM. The model uses the primitive equation with hydrostatic approximation, and uses Arakawa-B grid system horizontally and Z-coordinate vertically. Model domain is $126.5^{\circ}E\;to\;142.5^{\circ}E$ of east longitude and $33^{\circ}N\;and\;52^{\circ}N$ of the north latitude. The space of the horizontal grid was $1/12^{\circ}$ to longitude and latitude direction and vortical level was divided to 20. This model uses Generalized Arakawa Scheme. Slant Advection, and Mode-Splitting Method. The input data were from JODC, KNFRDI, and ECMWF. The model ing results are in fairly good agreement with schematic patterns of the surface circulation in the East Sea The local current model and aquatic dispersion model of the coastal region will be developed as the second phase. The oceanic dispersion experiments will be also tarried out by using ARGO Drifter around a nuclear pelter plant site.