• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.315-324
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• 1998

The total precipitable water fields derived from HIRS(High Resolution Infrared Radiometer Sounder)and MSU(Microwave Sounding Unit) measurements of TOVS and brightness temperature of SSM/I were used to investigate the evolution of moisture fields for the Typhoon WALT(9407) which after landing in Japan it became tropical depression in Korea-Japan Strait, and FAYE(9503) which was the first tropical storm of 1995 to became a typhoon, respectively. The total precipitable water derived from TOVS observations is delineated according to the evolutions of WALT and FAYE movements because total precipitable water fields of TY WALT(9407) and FAYE9\(9503) were largely controlled by horizontal transport of water vapor over the Northwest Pacific Ocean which dominantly plays an important role in maintaining and accelerating their intensities toward Korea and Japan . These fields demonstrated that two major bands, which imply the rain bands, were locally well-organized and similar to the thick convective cloud features over Japan and the Korean peninsula while WALT and FAYE were approaching away and to. But the values of derived TOVS total precipitable water have shown the underestimate of those of SSM/I total comparatively for two typhoons.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.165-181
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• 2019

In this study, the regional climate model, RegCM4.0 (25 km), with the HadGEM2-AO data as boundary conditions, was used to simulate the mean climate changes in the mid and late 21st century for CORDEX Phase 2 East Asian region. 122 years (1979~2100) of simulation were performed, and RCP 4.5 and RCP 8.5 were used for the simulation of future climate. In the mid-21st century, the temperature is expected to increase by about 0.5 to $3.0^{\circ}C$ in all regions of East Asia, regardless of season and scenario. The increase in temperature is greater in summer and winter, especially in the northern part of simulation domain. Interannual variability (IAV) is expected to decrease by 25% in summer for RCP 8.5, while it is expected to increase by more than 30% in autumn for both scenarios. Regardless of the scenario, the precipitation in South Korea is expected to increase in late June but decrease in mid-July, with an increase in precipitation greater than $100mm\;day^{-1}$. In RCP 4.5 of the late 21st century, relatively uniform temperature increase ($1.0{\sim}2.5^{\circ}C$) is expected throughout the continent, while RCP 8.5 shows a very diverse increase ($3.0{\sim}6.0^{\circ}C$) depending on season and geographical location. In addition, the IAV of temperature is expected to decrease by more than 35% in both scenarios in the summer. In most of the Northwest Pacific region, precipitation is expected to decrease in all seasons except for the summer, but in South Korea, it is projected to increase by about 10% in all seasons except autumn.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.180-187
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• 2021

This study was conducted to investigate the reproductive characteristics of the Neon damselfish Pomacentrus coelestis in Chuuk lagoon (7°27' N, 151°53' E), Micronesia, Equatorial Pacific Ocean. The specimens used in this study were collected from August 2009 to September 2010 from around the coral reef area at a depth of 3-10 m in the northwest coast of Weno Island. Overall, 228 individuals were collected over 14 months from this area, of which 115 were females and 108 were males. Among 108 males, 30 were found to be hermaphrodites and the sex of 5 individuals could not be determined. The overall sex ratio was approximately 1.06:1 (female:male), and the ratio of sexually active individuals was 0.79:1. The gonadosomatic index (GSI) fluctuated and showed the highest value of 8.43±1.21 in December 2009 and the lowest value of 3.36±0.71 in September 2009 in sexually active females. Males showed the highest GSI value of 2.64±0.93 in June 2010 and the lowest value of 0.35±0.06 in July 2010. Based on the fluctuation of GSI, the trends in the appearance of monthly sexually active individuals, and biopsy of the gonads, P. coelestis was found to be a hermaphrodite species of protogynous type and is considered to be reproductively active throughout the year.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.57 no.2
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• pp.177-185
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• 2024

We developed a regional ocean climate model using dynamic downscaling in the Northwest Pacific Ocean to build a climate model for the Korean Peninsula. The past marine environment was reproduced through historical simulations, and the future marine environment in 2100 was predicted according to the shared socioeconomic pathways (SSP) climate change scenario. The future sea surface temperature of the Korean seas is predicted to rise about 1-4℃, and the increase in water temperature in the East Sea is expected to be the largest. The National Institute of Fisheries Science has monitored abnormal seawater temperatures such as high and low seawater temperatures in coastal and inland waters, and predicted that the number of high seawater temperature days in the East, West, South Sea, and the coast of Jeju Island will increase in the future. In addition, the occurrence of Ciguatera fish poison plankton around Jeju Island was projected to increase. This study is expected to provide accurate forecasting information for fishery issues. The aim of this study was to analyze future ocean environment changes around the Korean Peninsula using climate change SSP scenarios and predict fisheries issues through future projections of the regional ocean climate model.

• Atmosphere
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.217-231
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• 2024

The Korea Integrated Model (KIM)-based real-time volcanic ash dispersion prediction system, which employs the Hybrid Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model, has been developed to quantitatively predict volcanic ash dispersion in East Asia and the Northwest Pacific airspace. This system, known as KIM-HYSPLIT, automatically generates forecasts for the vertical and horizontal spread of volcanic ash up to 72 hours. These forecasts are initiated upon the receipt of a Volcanic Ash Advisory (VAA) from the Tokyo Volcanic Ash Advisory Center by the server at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). This system equips KMA forecasters with diverse volcanic ash prediction information, complemented by the Unified Model (UM)-based HYSPLIT (UM-HYSPLIT) system. Extensive experiments have been conducted using KIM-HYSPLIT across 128 different volcanic scenarios, along with qualitative comparisons with UM-HYSPLIT. The results indicate that the ash direction predictions from KIM-HYSPLIT are consistent with those from UM-HYSPLIT. However, there are slight differences in the horizontal extent and movement speed of the volcanic ash. Additionally, quantitative verifications of the KIM-HYSPLIT forecasts have been performed, including threat score evaluations, based on recent eruption cases. On average, the KIMHYSPLIT forecasts for 6 and 12 hours show better quantitative alignment with the VAA forecasts compared to UM-HYSPLIT. Nevertheless, both models tend to predict a broader horizontal spread of the ash cloud than indicated in the VAA forecasts, particularly noticeable in the 6-hour forecast period.

• 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.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.11
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• pp.4513-4518
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• 2014

The prevalence of BRCA1 gene mutations in breast cancer differs between diverse ethnic groups. Relatively little information is known about patterns of BRCA1 mutations in early-onset breast cancer in women of Uighur or Han descent, the major ethnic populations of the Xinjiang region in China. The aim of this study was to identify BRCA1 mutations in Uighur and Han patients with early-onset (age <35 years), and sporadic breast cancer for genetic predisposition to breast cancer. For detection of BRCA1 mutations, we used a polymerase chain reaction single-stranded conformation polymorphism approach, followed by direct DNA sequencing in 22 Uighur and 13 Han women with early-onset sporadic breast cancer, and 32 women with benign breast diseases. The prevalence of BRCA1 mutations in this population was 22.9% (8/35) among early-onset sporadic breast cancer cases. Of these, 31.8% (7/22) of Uighur patients and 7.69% (1/13) of Han patients were found to have BRCA1 mutations. In 7 Uighur patients with BRCA1 mutations, there were 11 unique sequence alterations in the BRCA1 gene, including 4 clearly disease-associated mutations on exon 11 and 3 variants of uncertain clinical significance on exon 11, meanwhile 4 neutral variants on intron 20 or 2. None of the 11 BRCA1 mutations identified have been previously reported in the Breast Cancer Information Core database. These findings reflect the prevalence of BRCA1 mutations in Uighur women with early-onset and sporadic breast cancer, which will allow for provision of appropriate genetic counseling and treatment for Uighur patients in the Xinjiang region.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.24 no.7
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• pp.851-864
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• 2015

This study analyzed the climate regime shift using statistical change-point analysis on the time-series tropical cyclone (TC) frequency that affected Japan in July to September. The result showed that there was a significant change in 1995 and since then, it showed a trend of rapidly decreasing frequency. To determine the reason for this, differences between 1995 to 2012 (9512) period and 1978 to 1994 (7894) period were analayzed. First, regarding TC genesis, TCs during the 9512 period showed a characteristic of genesis from the southeast quadrant of the tropical and subtropical western North Pacific and TCs during the 7894 period showed their genesis from the northwest quadrant. Regarding a TC track, TCs in the 7894 period had a strong trend of moving from the far east sea of the Philippines via the East China Sea to the mid-latitude region in East Asia while TCs in the 9512 period showed a trend of moving from the Philippines toward the southern part of China westward. Thus, TC intensity in the 7894 period, which can absorb sufficient energy from the sea as they moved a long distance over the sea, was stronger than that of 9512. Large-scale environments were analyzed to determine the cause of such difference in TC activity occurred between two periods. During the 9512 period, anomalous cold and dry anticyclones were developed strongly in the East Asia continent. As a result, Korea and Japan were affected by the anomalous northerlies thereby preventing TCs in this period from moving toward the mid-latitude region in East Asia. Instead, anomalous easterlies (anomalous trade wind) were developed in the tropical western Pacific so that a high passage frequency from the Philippine to the south China region along the anomalous steering flows was revealed. The characteristics of the anomalous cold and dry anticyclone developed in the East Asia continent were also confirmed by the analysis of air temperature, relative humidity and sensible heat net flux showing that most regions in East Asia had negative values.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.347-359
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• 2011

This study has developed the index for diagnosis on possibility that typhoons (TYs) affect Korea. This index is closely related to the strength of the western North Pacific high (WNPH), which is calculated as a difference in meridional wind between at the highest correlation area (around Korea) and at the lowest correlation area (sea southeast of Japan) through a correlation analysis between TC frequency that affects Korea and 500 hPa meridional wind. In low frequency years that selected from Korea affecting TC index, anomalous northeasterly is strengthened from Korea to the South China Sea because the center of anomalous anticyclonic circulation is located to northwest of Korea. Thus, TCs tend to move westward from the sea east of the Philippines to the mainland China. On the other hand, in high frequency years, anomalous southwesterly serves as steering flow that more TCs move toward Korea because the center of anomalous anticyclonic circulation is located to sea east of Japan. Consequently, this study suggests that if this index is calculated using real time 500 hPa meridional winds that forecasted by dynamic models during the movement of TCs, the possibility that TCs approach Korea can be diagnosed in real time.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.12
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• pp.6277-6283
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• 2012

Background: Northern Iran counts as one of the highest prevalence regions for esophageal cancer (EC) worldwide. This study was designed to assess the epidemiologic aspects of EC in north central and northwest Iran over a 10 year period. Materials and Methods: The Guilan cancer registry study (GCRS) is a population-based cancer registry study featuring retrospective (1996-2003) and prospective (2004-2005) phases. A detailed questionnaire based on WHO standards for cancer registratration was applied to gather the required information. Two trained physicians coded information using ICD-O-3 in close coordination with an expert pathologist. Results: A total of 19,936 cases of malignancy (mean age $55.4{\pm}18.0$ years, range: 1-98 years) were registered, including 1,147 cases (670 males, 447 female; mean age: $64.0{\pm}11.5$ years) of EC. In 1996 the male/female ratio among patients with EC was 1.25 which increased to 1.53 in 2005. The lower third of the esophagus still remained the most common site of tumors. The average age-standardized rate (ASR) was 6.9 and 4.1 per $10^5$ men and women, respectively. In 1996, the ASRs were 7.2 and 5.2 per $10^5$ men and women which decreased to 6.9 and 4.1 per $10^5$ in 2004-2005. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) was the most prevalent histological subtype of EC accounting over 80% of cases. Conclusions: However the prevalence of adenocarcinoma (ADC) showed an increase to 18.4%. Guilan province may be considered a relatively low incidence region for EC.