• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.9
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• pp.865-880
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• 2002

As prevailing synoptic scale westerly wind blowing over high steep Mt. Taegulyang in the west of Kangnung coastal city toward the Sea of Japan became downslope wind and easterly upslope wind combined with both valley wind and sea breeze(valley-sea breeze) also blew from the sea toward the top of the mountain, two different kinds of wind regimes confronted each other in the mid of eastern slope of the mountain and further downward motion of downlsope wind along the eastern slope of the mountain should be prohibited by the upslope wind. Then, the upslope wind away from the eastern slope of the mountain went up to 1700m height over the ground, becoming an easterly return flow in the upper level of the sea. Two kinds of circulations were detected with a small one in the coastal sea and a large one from the coast toward the open sea. Convective boundary layer was developed with a thickness of about 1km over the ground in the upwind side of the mountain in the west, while a thickness of thermal internal boundary layer(TIBL) form the coast along the eastern slope of the mountain was only confined to less than 200m. After sunset, under no prohibition of upslope wind, westerly downslope wind blew from the top of the mountain toward the coastal basin and the downslope wind should be intensified by both mountain wind and land breeze(mountain-land breeze) induced by nighttime radiative cooling of the ground surfaces, resulting in the formation of downslope wind storm. The wind storm caused the development of internal gravity waves with hydraulic jump motion bounding up toward the upper level of the sea in the coastal plain and relatively moderate wind on the sea.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.41-51
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• 2005

Using three-dimensional non-hydrostatical numerical model with one way double nesting technique, atmo­spheric circulation in the mountainous coastal region in summer was investigated from August 13 through 15, 1995. During the day, synoptic westerly wind blows over Mt. Mishrung in the west of a coastal city, Sokcho toward the East Sea, while simultaneously, easterly upslope wind combined with both valley wind from plain (coast) toward mountain and sea-breeze from sea toward inland coast blows toward the top of the mountain. Two different directional wind systems confront each other in the mid of eastern slope of the mountain and the upslope wind goes up to the height over 2 km, becoming an easterly return flow in the upper level over the sea and making sea-breeze front with two kinds of sea-breeze circulations of a small one in the coast and a large one in the open sea. Convective boundary layer is developed with a thickness of about 1km over the ground in the upwind side of the mountain in the west and a thickness of thermal internal boundary layer from the coast along the eastern slope of the mountain is only confined to less than 200 m. On the other hand, after sunset, no prohibition of upslope wind generated during the day and downward wind combined with mountain wind from mountain towardplain and land-breeze from land toward under nocturnal radiative cooling of the ground surfaces should intensify westerly downslope wind, resulting in the formation of wind storm. As the wind storm moving down along the eastern slop causes the development of internal gravity waves with hydraulic jump motion in the coast, bounding up toward the upper level of the coastal sea, atmospheric circulation with both onshore and offshore winds like sea-breeze circulation forms in the coastal sea within 70 km until midnight and after that, westerly wind prevails in the coast and open seas.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.246-260
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• 2014

A 90-m horizontal-resolution numerical model was configured to study the micrometeorological features of local winds in the valley of Gwangneung KoFlux (Korea Flux network) Sites (GDK: Gwangneung Deciduous forest site in Korea, GCK: Gwangneung Coniferous forest site in Korea) during summer days. The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) data were employed for high-resolution model terrain height. Model performance was evaluated by comparing observed and simulated near-surface temperature and winds. Detailed qualitative analysis of the model-simulated wind field was carried out for two selected cases which are a clear day (Case I) and a cloudy day (Case II). Observed winds exhibited that GDK and GCK, as well as Case I and Case II, had differences in timing, duration and strength of daytime and nighttime wind direction and speeds. The model simulation results strongly supported the existence of the drainage flow in the valley of the KoFlux tower sites. Overall, the simulated model fields realistically presented the diurnal cycle of local winds in and around the valley, including the morning drainage-upslope transition and the evening reversal of upslope wind. Also, they indicated the complexity of local winds interactions by presenting that daytime westerly winds in the valley were not always pure mountain winds and were often coupled with larger-scale wind systems, such as synoptic-scale winds or mesoscale sea breezes blowing from the west coast of the peninsula.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.591-600
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• 2015

We have analyzed wind and eddy covariance data collected within roughness sublayer over sloping terrain. The study site is located on non-flat terrain with slopes in both south-north and east-west directions. The surface elevation change is smaller than the height of roughness element such as building and tree. This study examines the directional wind shear for data collected at three levels in the lowest 10 m in the roughness sublayer. The wind direction shear is caused by drag of roughness element and terrain-induced motions at this site. Small directional shear occurs when wind speed at 10 m is strong and wind direction at 10 m is southerly which is the same direction as upslope flow near surface at this site during daytime. Correlation between vertical shear of lateral momentum and lateral momentum flux is smaller over steeply sloped surface compared to mildly sloped surface and lateral momentum flux is not down-gradient over steeply sloped surface. Quadrant analysis shows that the relative contribution of four quadrants to momentum flux depends on both surface slope and wind direction shear.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.12 no.12
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• pp.1245-1254
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• 2003

A numerical simulation for 11 February 1996 has been done to grasp main mechanisms of the occurrence of strong downslope winds near Gangnung area. The simulation performed by using ARPS (Advanced Regional Prediction System) showed that enhanced surface winds were not related with a reflection of vertically propagating gravity waves. Froude numbers were about 1.0, 0.4 and 0.6 for the atmosphere above Daekwanryoung and above a place located 220km upstream, and above another place located 230km downstream from the Taebak mountains, respectively. This suggested that as a subcritical flow ascended the upslope side of the Taebak mountains, Froude numbers would tend to increase according to the increase in wind speed, and near the crest the flow would become supercritical and continue to accelerate as it went down the downslope side until it was adapted back to the ambient subcritical conditions in a turbulent hydraulic jump. Simulated Froude numbers corroborated the hydraulic jump nature of the strong downslope wind. In addition, the inversion was found near the mountain top height upstream of the mountains, and it was favorable for the occurrence of strong downslope winds.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.401-412
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• 2016

A 3D sonic anemometer has been installed at Yongpyong alpine slope since Oct. 23th 2014 to observe the slope winds and to analyze turbulent characteristics with the change in surface cover (grass and snow) and the synoptic wind strength. Eddy covariance method has been applied to calculate the turbulent quantity after coordinate transformation of a planar-fit rotation. We have carefully selected 3 good episodes in the winter season (23 October 2014 to 28 February 2015) for each category (9 days in total), such as grass and snow covers in case of weak synoptic wind condition, and grass cover of strong synoptic wind. The diurnal variations of the slope winds were well developed like the upslope wind in the daytime and downslope wind in the nighttime for both surface covers (grass and snow) in the weak synoptic forcing, when accordingly both heat and momentum fluxes significantly increased in the daytime and decreased in the nighttime. Meanwhile, diurnal variation of heat flux was not present on the snow cover probably in associated with significant fraction of sunlight reflection due to high albedo especially during the daytime in comparison to those on the grass cover. In the strong synoptic regime, the most dominant feature at Yongpyong, only the southeasterly downslope winds were steadily generated irrespective of day and night with significant increases in momentum flux and turbulent kinetic energy as well, which could suggest that local circulations are suppressed by the synoptic scale forcing. In spite of only one season analysis applied to the limited domain, this kind of an observation-based study will provide the basis for understanding of the local wind circulation in the complex mountain domain such as Gangwon in Korea.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.965-985
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• 2004

The investigation of driving mechanism for the formation of tropical night in the coastal region, defined as persistent high air temperature over than 25$^{\circ}C$ at night was carried out from August 14 through 15, 1995. Convective boundary layer (CBL) of a 1 km depth with big turbulent vertical diffusion coefficients is developed over the ground surface of the inland basin in the west of the mountain and near the top of the mountain, while a depth of thermal internal boundary layer (TIBL) like CBL shrunken by relatively cool sea breeze starting at 100 km off the eastern sea is less than 150 m from the coast along the eastern slope of the mountain. The TIBL extends up to the height of 1500 m parallel to upslope wind combined with valley wind and easterly sea breeze from the sea. As sensible heat flux convergences between the surface and lower atmosphere both at the top of mountain and the inland coast are much greater than on the coastal sea, sensible heat flux should be accumulated inside both the TIBL and the CBL near the mountain top and then, accumulated sensible heat flux under the influence of sea breeze circulation combined with easterly sea breeze from sea to inland and uplifted valley wind from inland to the mountain top returning down toward the eastern coastal sea surface should be transported into the coast, resulting in high air temperatures near the coastal inland. Under nighttime cooling of ground surface after sunset, mountain wind causes the daytime existed westerly wind to be an intensified westerly downslope wind and land breeze further induces it to be strong offshore wind. No sensible heat flux divergence or very small flux divergence occurs in the coast, but the flux divergences are much greater on the top of the mountain and along its eastern slope than on the coastal inland and sea surfaces. Thus, less cooling down of the coastal surface than the mountain surface and sensible heat transfer from warm pool over the coast into the coastal surface produce nocturnal high air temperature on the coastal inland surfaces, which is not much changed from daytime ones, resulting in the persistence of tropical night (nocturnal thermal high) until the early in the morning.

• Atmosphere
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.67-83
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• 2006

The statistical analysis for the springtime windstorm in Korea shows that Yeongdong region has the highest occurrence frequency during recent 10 years. The objective of this study is to find possible mechanisms for the downslope windstorm formation in the Yeongdong region by using a mesoscale numerical model, WRF. Dynamical process, wave breaking (hereafter WB), is qualitatively investigated as the candidate mechanism for a windstorm event occurred in 5 April, 2005. WB is developed in upper troposphere downstream, since stable air is lifted by the Taebaek mountain. This process can cause and maintain the severe downslope windstorm by drawing the upper flow down to the surface. And the intensified downslope wind leads the hydraulic jump (hereafter HJ) in downstream region. Froude numbers at Chuncheon (upslope side), Seorak Mountain (crest), Yangyang (lee side), and the East Sea (distant downstream position) are estimated by about 0.4, 1.0, 1.6, and 0.6, respectively. This result implies that the accelerated and supercritical (Fr>1) flow adjusts to the ambient subcritical (Fr<1) conditions in the turbulent HJ. In addition, we find the formation of upstream inversion near top level of the mountain cause the intensification of HJ. Experiments to examine the orographic effect on the mechanisms suggest that the magnitudes of WB and HJ are larger in the experiment of higher topography, but there is no significant difference of windstorm magnitude among the experiments. Another important result from these sensitivity experiments is that the intensity of downslope windstorm strongly depends on the magnitude of upper (2~4 km) wind in upstream side.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.209-219
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• 2012

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.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.227-241
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• 2016

This study investigated the cause of the heavy snowfall that occurred in the East Coast of Korea from 6 February to 14 February 2014. The synoptic conditions were analyzed using blocking index, equivalent potential temperature, potential vorticity, maritime temperature difference, temperature advection, and ground convergence. During the case period, a large blocking pattern developed over the Western Pacific causing the flow to be stagnant, and there was a North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system over the Korean Peninsula because of this arrangement. The case period was divided into three parts based on the synoptic forcing that was responsible for the heavy snowfall; detailed analyses were conducted for the first and last period. In the first period, a heavy snowfall occurred over the entire Korean Peninsula due to strong updrafts from baroclinic instability and a low pressure caused by potential vorticity located at the mid-troposphere. In the lower atmosphere, a North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system over the Eastern Korea intensified the easterly airflow and created a convergence zone near the ground which strengthened the upslope effect of the Taebaek Mountain range with a cumulative fresh snowfall amount of 41 cm in the East Coast region. In the last period, the cold air nestled in the Maritime Province of Siberia and Manchuria strengthened much more than that in the first half and extended to the East Sea. The temperature difference between the 850 hPa air and the SST was large and convective clouds developed over the sea. The highest cumulative fresh snow amount of 39.7 cm was recorded in the coastal area during this period. During the entire period, vertically oriented equivalent potential temperature showed neutral stability layer that helped the cloud formation and development in the East Coast. The 2014 heavy snowfall case over the East Coast provinces of Korea were due to: 1) stagnation of the system by blocking pattern, 2) the dynamic effect of mid-level potential vorticity of 1.6 PVU, 3) the easterly air flow from North-South oriented High-to-Low pressure system, 4) the existence of vertically oriented neutral stable layer, and 5) the expansion of strong cold air into the East Sea which created a large temperature difference between the air and the ocean.