• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.24 no.2
• /
• pp.318-331
• /
• 2019

In this study, comparative analysis is performed on the long-term persisted warm eddies that were generated in 2003 (WE03) and in 2014 (WE14) over the East Sea using the HYCOM reanalysis data. The overshooting of the East Korea Warm Current (EKWC) was appeared during the formation period of those warm eddies. The warm eddies were produced in the shallow Korea Plateau region through the interaction of the EKWC and the sub-polar front. In the interior of the both warm eddies, a homogeneous water mass of about $13^{\circ}C$ and 34.1 psu were generated over the upper 150 m depth by the winter mixing. In 2004, the next year of the generation of the WE03, the amount of the inflow through the western channel of the Korea Strait was larger, while the inflow was lesser than its climatology during 2015 corresponding to the development period of the WE14. The above results suggest that the heat and salt are supplied in the warm eddies through the Tsushima Warm Current (TWC), however the amount of the inflow through the Korea Strait has negligible impact on the long-term persistency of the warm eddies. Both of the warm eddies were maintained more than 18 months near Ulleung island, while they have no common feature on the pathways. In the vicinity of the Ulleung basin, large and small eddies are continuously created due to the meandering of the EKWC. The long-term persisted warm eddies in the Ulleung Island seem to be the results of the interaction between the pre-existed eddies located south of the sub-polar front and fresh eddies induced by the meanderings of the EKWC. The conclusion is also in line with the fact that the long-term persisted warm eddies were not always created when the overshooting of the EKWC was appeared.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.143-149
• /
• 2011

A new multi-timescale analysis method, Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD), is used to diagnose the variation of the MJO activity determined by 850hPa and 200hPa zonal winds from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) Reanalysis data for the 56-yr period from 1950 to 2005. The results show that MJO activity can be decomposed into 9 quasi-periodic oscillations and a trend. With each level of contribution of the quasi-periodic oscillation discussed, the bi-seasonal oscillation, the interannual oscillation and the trend of the MJO activity are the most prominent features. The trend increases almost linearly, so that prior to around 1978 the activity of the MJO is lower than that during the latter part. This may be related to the tropical sea surface temperature(SST). It is speculated that the interdecadal change in the MJO activity appeared in around 1978 is related to the warmer SST in the equatorial warm pool, especially over the Indian Ocean.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.21 no.5
• /
• pp.503-524
• /
• 2000

Intercomparisons between four kinds of data have been done to estimate the accuracy of satellite observations and model reanalysis for middle and lower tropospheric thermal state over regional oceans. The data include the Microwave Sounding Units (MSU) Channel 2 (Ch2) brightness temperatures of NOAA satellites and the vertically weighted corresponding temperature of ECMWF GCM (1980-93). The satellite data for midtropospheric temperatures are MSU2 (1980-98) in nadir direction and SC2 (1980-97) in multiple scans, and for lower tropospheric temperature SC2R (1980-97). MSU2 was derived in this study while SC2 and SC2R were described in Spencer and Christy (1992a, 1992b). Temporal correlations between the above data were high (r${\ge}$0.90) in the middle and high latitudes, but low(r${\sim}$0.65) over the low latitude and more convective regions. Their values with SC2R which included the noises due to hydrometeors and surface emission were conspicuously low. The reanalysis shows higher correlation with SC2 than with MSU2 partially because of the hydrometeors screening. SC2R in monthly climatological anomalies was more sensitive to surface thermal condition in northern hemisphere than MSU2 or SC2. The first EOF mode for the monthly mean data of MSU and ECMWF shows annual cycle over most regions except the tropics. The mode in MSU2 over the Pacific suggests the east-west dipole due to the Walker circulation, but this tendency is not clear in other data. In the first and second modes for the Ch2 anomalies over most regions, the MSU and ECMWF data commonly indicate interannual variability due to El Ni${\tilde{n}$o and La Ni${\tilde{n}$a. The substantial disagreement between observations and model reanalysis occurs over the equatorial upwelling region of the western Pacific, suggesting uncertainties in the model parameterization of atmosphere-ocean interaction.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.97-107
• /
• 2012

To investigate variation of aerosol number concentration at each different size with three-dimensional (3D) wind components in ocean area, aerosol particles and 3D wind components were measured in the Ieodo Ocean Research Station, which is located to 419 km southwest from Marado, the southernmost island of Korea, from 25 June to 8 July 2010. The Laser Particle Counter (LPC) and ultrasonic anemometer were used to measure the size of aerosol particles and 3D wind components (zonal (u), meridional (v), and vertical (w) wind) respectively. Surface weather chart, NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and sounding data were used to analyze the synoptic condition. The distribution of aerosol number concentration had a large variation from bigger particles more than 1.0 ${\mu}m$ in diameter by wind direction during precipitation. In the number concentration of aerosol particles with respect to the weather conditions, particles larger than 1.0 ${\mu}m$ in size were decreased and sustained to the similar concentration at smaller particles during precipitation. The increase in aerosol number concentration was due to the sea-salt particles which was suspended by southwesterly and upward winds. In addition, the aerosol number concentration with vertical wind flow could be related with the occurrence and increasing mechanism of aerosol in marine boundary layer.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.25 no.3
• /
• pp.435-447
• /
• 2015

This study explores the synoptic characteristics of cold days over South Korea and their relationship with large-scale climate variability. The cold day, which is different from cold surge, is defined when daily-mean surface air temperature, averaged over 11 KMA stations, is colder than 1-percentile temperature in each year by considering its long-term trend over 1960~2012. Such event is detected by quantile regression and the related synoptic patterns are identified in reanalysis data. Composite geopotential height anomalies at 500 hPa show that cold days are often preceded by positive anomalies in high latitudes and negative anomalies in midlatitudes on the west of Korea. While the formers are quasi-stationary and quasi-barotropic, and often qualified as blocking highs, the latters are associated with transient cyclones. At cold days, the north-south dipole in geopotential height anomalies becomes west-east dipole in the lower troposphere as high-latitude anticyclone expands equatorward to the Northern China and mid-latitude cyclone moves eastward and rapidly develops over the East Sea. The resulting northerlies cause cold days in Korea. By performing composite analyses of large-scale climate indices, it is further found that the occurrence of these cold days are preferable when the Arctic Oscillation is in its negative phase and/or East Asian monsoon circulation and Siberian high are anomalously strong.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.35 no.1
• /
• pp.57-81
• /
• 2019

Satellite images can be integrated into a crop model to strengthen the advantages of each technique for crop monitoring and to compensate for weaknesses of each other, which can be systematically applied for monitoring inaccessible croplands. The objective of this study was to outline the productivity of paddy rice based on simulation of the yield of all paddy fields in North Korea, using a grid crop model combined with optical satellite imagery. The grid GRAMI-rice model was used to simulate paddy rice yields for inaccessible North Korea based on the bidirectional reflectance distribution function-adjusted vegetation indices (VIs) and the solar insolation. VIs and solar insolation for the model simulation were obtained from the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) and the Meteorological Imager (MI) sensors of the Communication Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS). Reanalysis data of air temperature were achieved from the Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS). Study results showed that the yields of paddy rice were reproduced with a statistically significant range of accuracy. The regional characteristics of crops for all of the sites in North Korea were successfully defined into four clusters through a spatial analysis using the K-means clustering approach. The current study has demonstrated the potential effectiveness of characterization of crop productivity based on incorporation of a crop model with satellite images, which is a proven consistent technique for monitoring of crop productivity in inaccessible regions.

• Journal of Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers
• /
• v.30 no.5
• /
• pp.223-233
• /
• 2018

The predictability of winter storm waves using KMA's operational wind forecasts has been studied to predict wind waves and swells in the East coast of Korea using SWAN. The nested model were employed along the East coast of Korea to simulate the wave transformation in the coastal area and wave dissipation term of whitecapping is optimized to improve swell prediction accuracy. In this study, KMA's operational meteorological models (RDAPS and LDAPS) are used as input wind fields. In order to evaluate model accuracy, we also simulate wind waves and swells using ECMWF reanalysis and KIOST WRF wind and they are compared with the KMA's operational wave model and the wave measurement data on the offshore and onshore stations. As a result, it has the lowest RMSE and the highest correlation coefficient in the onshore when the input wind fields are KMA's operational meteorological forecasts. In the offshore, all of the simulate results shows good agreements with similar error statistics. It means that it is very feasible to use SWAN model with the modified whitecapping factor and KMA's operational meteorological forecasts for predicting the wind waves and swells in the East coast of Korea.

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.38 no.2
• /
• pp.89-102
• /
• 2016

In this study, we evaluated the model performance with respect to Sea Surface Temperature (SST) and Net Heat Flux (NHF) by considering the characteristics of seasonal temperature variation and contributing factors and by analyzing heat budget terms in the Northwestern Pacific and East Asian Marginal Seas ($110^{\circ}E-160^{\circ}E$, $15^{\circ}N-60^{\circ}N$) using the HadGEM2-AO historical run. Annual mean SST of the HadGEM2-AO is about $0.065^{\circ}C$ higher than observations (EN3_v2a) from 1950 to 2000. Since 1960, the model has simulated well the long-term variation of SST and the increasing rate of SST in the model ($0.014^{\circ}C/year$) is comparable with observations ($0.013^{\circ}C/year$). Heat loss from the ocean to the atmosphere was simulated slightly higher in the HadGEM2-AO than that in the reanalysis data on the East Asian Marginal Seas and the Kuroshio region. We investigated the causes of temperature variation by calculating the heat budget equation in the two representative regions. In the central part of the Kuroshio axis ($125^{\circ}E-130^{\circ}E$, $25^{\circ}N-30^{\circ}N$: Region A), both heat loss in the upper mixed layer by surface heat flux and vertical heat advection mainly cause the decrease of heat storage in autumn and winter. Release of latent heat flux through the heat convergence brought about by the Kuroshio contributes to the large surface net heat flux. Positive heat storage rate is mainly determined by horizontal heat advection from March to April and surface net heat flux from May to July. In the central part of the subtropical gyre ($155^{\circ}E-160^{\circ}E$, $22^{\circ}N-27^{\circ}N$: Region B), unlike Region A, vertical heat advection predominantly causes the decrease of heat storage in autumn and winter. In spring and summer, surface heat flux contributes to the increase of heat storage in Region B and the period is two times longer than the period for Region A. In this season, shoaling of the mixed layer depth plays an important role in the increase of SST.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.381-394
• /
• 2022

The Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) National Typhoon Center has been officially releasing reanalyzed best tracks for the previous year's northwest Pacific typhoons since 2015. However, while most typhoon researchers are aware of the data released by other institutions, such as the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) and the Regional Specialized Meteorological Center (RSMC) Tokyo, they are often unfamiliar with the KMA products. In this technical note, we describe the best track data released by KMA, and the algorithms that are used to generate it. We hope that this will increase the usefulness of the data to typhoon researchers, and help raise awareness of the product. The best track reanalysis process is initiated when the necessary database of observations-which includes satellite, synoptic, ocean, and radar observations-has become complete for the required year. Three categories of best track information-position (track), intensity (maximum sustained winds and central pressure), and size (radii of high-wind areas)-are estimated based on scientific processes. These estimates are then examined by typhoon forecasters and other internal and external experts, and issued as an official product when final approval has been given.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.18 no.7
• /
• pp.721-733
• /
• 2009

To examine the fluctuations of aerosol number concentration with different size in the boundary layer of marine area during summer season, aerosol particles were assayed in the Ieodo Ocean Research Station, which is located 419 km southwest of Marado, the southernmost island of Korea, from 24 June to 4 July, 2008. The Laser Particle Counter (LPC) was used to measure the size of aerosol particles and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and sounding data were used to analyze the synoptic condition. The distribution of aerosol number concentration had a large variation from bigger particles more than 3 ${\mu}m$ in diameter to smaller particles more than 1 ${\mu}m$ in diameter with wind direction during precipitation. The aerosol number concentration decreased with increasing temperature. An increase (decrease) of small size of aerosol (0.3${\sim}$0.5 ${\mu}m$ in diameter) number concentration was induced by convergence (divergence) of the wind fields. The aerosol number concentration of bigger size more than 3 ${\mu}m$ in diameter after precipitation was removed as much as 89${\sim}$94% compared with aerosol number concentration before precipitation. It is considered that the larger aerosol particles would be more efficient for scavenging at marine boundary layer. In addition, the aerosol number concentration with divergence and convergence could be related with the occurrence and mechanism of aerosol in marine boundary layer.