• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.428-436
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• 2008

This study observed the upper tropospheric ozone enhancement in the northern Atlantic for the Aerosols99 campaign in January-February 1999. To find the origin of this air, we have analyzed the horizontal and vertical fields of Isentropic Potential Vorticity (IPV) and Relative Humidity (RH). The arch-shaped IPV is greater than 1.5 pvus indicating stratospheric air stretches equatorward. These arch-shaped regions are connected with regions of RH less than 20%. The vertical fields of IPV and RH show the folding layer penetrating into the upper troposphere. These features support the idea that the upper tropospheric ozone enhancement originated from the stratosphere. Additionally, we have investigated the climatological frequency of stratospheric intrusion over the tropical north Atlantic using IPV and RH. The total frequency between the equator and $30^{\circ}N$ over the tropical north Atlantic exhibits a maximum in northern winter. It suggests that the stratospheric intrusion plays an important role in enhancing ozone in the upper troposphere over the tropical north Atlantic in winter and early spring. Although the tropospheric ozone residual method assumed zonally invariant stratospheric ozone, stratospheric zonal ozone variance could be caused by stratospheric intrusions. This implies that stratospheric intrusion influences ozone variance over the Atlantic in boreal winter and spring, and the intrusion is a possible source for the tropical north Atlantic paradox.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.111-120
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• 2002

Asian dust(or yellow sand) occurs mainly in spring and occasionally in winter in east Asia, when the weather conditions are under an upper trough/cut-off low and surface high/low pressure system during blocking episode days associated with the stationary patterns of the upper level jet stream. The transport mechanism for Asian dust during the blocking episode days in spring 2001 was analyzed using the TOMS aerosol index and meteorological mesoscale model 5(MM5). Based on the E vector, an extension of an Eliassen-Palm flux, the blocking episode days were found to be associated with the development of an upper cut-off low and surface cyclones. Concurrently, the occurrence of dust storms was also determined by strong cold advection at the rear of a jet streak, which exhibited a maximum wind speed within the upper jet stream. As such, the transport mechanism for Asian dust from China was due to advection of the isentropic potential vorticity(IPV) and isentropic surfaces associated with tropopause folding. The transport heights for Asian dust during the blocking episode days were found to be associated with the distribution of the isentropes below the IPV At the same time, lee waves propagated by topography affected the downward motion and blocking of Asian dust in China. The Asian dust transported from the dust source regions was deposited by fallout and rain-out with a reinforcing frontogenesis within a surface cyclone, as determined from satellite images using TOMS and GMS5. Accordingly, these results emphasize the importance of forecasting jet streaks, the IPV, and isentropes with geopotential heights in east Asia.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.630-645
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• 2009

The tropopause fold event that took place on January 1, 1997 over mid-region on the Korean Peninsula is examined by means of a numerical simulation based on a Mesoscale Model (MM5). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of moisture in reinforcing a tropopause fold linked to an explosive cyclone. Two types of simulations were carried out; 1) simulations for moist conditions in which full physical and dynamic processes are considered and 2) simulations for dry conditions in which cumulus parameterization and cloud microphysics process are excluded. The results of the moist condition simulations demonstrate that the intensity of the central pressure of the cyclone was overestimated compared with the observed values and that the location of the center and the pressure deepening rates (-17 hPa/12 hr) complied with the observed values. The potential vorticity (PV) anomaly on the isentropic surface at 305 K continued to move in a southeast direction on January 1, 1997 and thus created a single tube of tropopause fold covering the northern and the middle area of the Korean Peninsula and reaching the ground surface at 0300 UTC and 0600 UTC. The results of the dry condition simulations show that the tropopause descended to 500 and 670 hPa in 0300 and 0600 UTC, respectively at the same location for the moist condition simulation; however, there was no deep tropopause fold observed. A comparison of the simulated data between the moist and the dry conditions suggests that a deep tropopause fold should happen when there is sufficient moist in the atmosphere and significantly large PV in the lower atmosphere pulls down the upper atmosphere rather than when the tropopause descends itself due to dynamic causes. Thus, it is estimated that moisture in the atmosphere should have played a crucial role in a deep tropopause fold process.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.354-369
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• 2010

The synoptic and kinematic characteristics of a heavy rainfall that occurred in Gangneung region on 22 to 24 October 2006 were investigated using weather maps, infrared images, AWS observation data and NCEP global final analyses data. The total amount of rainfall observed in the region for the period was 316.5 mm, and the instanteneous maximum wind speed was $63.7m\;s^{-1}$. According to the analysis of weather maps, before the starting of the heavy rainfall, an extratropical low pressure system was developed in the middle region of the Korean Peninsula, and an inverted trough was formed in the northern region of the peninsula. In addition, a jet stream on the upper charts of 300 hPa was located over the Yellow Sea and the southern boundary of the peninsula. A cutoff low in the cyclonic shear side of the upper jet streak, which was linked to an anomaly of isentropic potential vorticity, was developed over the northwestern part of the peninsula. And there are analyzed potential vorticity and wind, time-height cross section of potential vorticity, vertical air motion, maximums of the divergence and convergence and vertical distribution of potential temperature in Gangneung region. The analyzed results of the synoptic conditions and kinematic processes strongly suggest that the tropopause folding made a significant role of initializing the heavy rainfall.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.465-481
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• 2004

We determined Asian dust days by constructing the standard of Asian dust using PM$_{10}$ concentrations ($\geq$150 $\mu\textrm{g}$m$^{-3}$ , 24-hr average) and TOMS aerosol index ($\geq$0.7) for 5 years (1998-2002), and grouped Into long-lasted cases (LLCs, $\geq$4 days) and short-lasted cases (SLCs, $\leq$2 days) concerning the mean lasting time (about 3 days) of Asian dust. Further we performed the specific analyses associated with concentration variations and synoptic conditions by using PM$_{10}$ and TOMS data, weather maps during the dusty cases (LLCs and SLCs). As a result, the LLCs (9 cates) had large variations of PM$_{10}$ concentration as the mean of 131.1$\mu\textrm{g}$m$^{-3}$ and the maximum mean of 379.8$\mu\textrm{g}$m$^{-3}$ , and showed dominant features the continuous passage of deep trough caused by blocking effect and weak trough (56%, 5 cases) over Korea. The SLCs (11 cases) had relatively small variations of PM$_{10}$ concentration as the mean of 133.3$\mu\textrm{g}$m$^{-3}$ and the maximum mean of 247.2$\mu\textrm{g}$m$^{-3}$ , and showed passage of one weak trough (64%, 7 cases) over Korea. Thereafter, the case studies (April 7-13, 2002 of LLC and March 23-24, 2000 of SLC) performed by the simulation of MM5 with meteorological variables of the horizontal wind, potential temperature, isentropic potential vorticity, and helped to better understand the features of synoptic conditions in connection with the concentration variations for each case.