• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.4
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• pp.257-270
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• 2017

Solar activity is known to be linked to changes in the Earth's weather and climate. Nonetheless, for other types of extreme weather, such as tropical cyclones (TCs), the available evidence is less conclusive. In this study the modulation of TC genesis over the western North Pacific by the solar activity is investigated, in comparison with a large-scale environmental parameter, i.e., El-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$-Southern Oscillation (ENSO). For this purpose, we have obtained the best track data for TCs in the western North Pacific from 1977 to 2016, spanning from the solar cycle 21 to the solar cycle 24. We have confirmed that in the El-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods TCs tend to form in the southeast, reach its maximum strength in the southeast, and end its life as TSs in the northeast, compared with the La-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods. TCs occurring in the El-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods are found to last longer compared with the La-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods. Furthermore, TCs occurring in the El-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods have a lower central pressure at their maximum strength than those occurring in the La-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods. We have found that TCs occurring in the solar maximum periods resemble those in the El-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods in their properties. We have also found that TCs occurring in the solar descending periods somehow resemble those in the El-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods in their properties. To make sure that it is not due to the ENSO effect, we have excluded TCs both in the El-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods and in the La-$Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ periods from the data set and repeated the analysis. In addition to this test, we have also reiterated our analysis twice with TCs whose maximum sustained winds speed exceeds 17 m/s, instead of 33 m/s, as well as TCs designated as a typhoon, which ends up with the same conclusions.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.453-460
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• 2011

By performing a statistical change-point analysis of activities of the tropical cyclones (TCs) that have affected Korea (K-TCs), it was found that there was a significant change between 1983 and 1984. During the period of 1984-2004 (P2), more TCs migrated toward the west, recurved in the southwest, and affected Korea, compared to the period of 1965-1983 (P1). These changes for P2 were related to the southwestward expansion of the subtropical western North Pacific high (SWNPH) and simultaneously elongation of its elliptical shape toward Korea. Because of these changes, the central pressure and lifetime of K-TC during P2 were deeper and longer, respectively, than figures for P1. This stronger K-TC intensity for P2 was related to the more southwestward genesis due to the southwestward expansion of the SWNPH. The weaker vertical wind shear environment during P2 was more favorable for K-TC to maintain a strong intensity in the mid-latitudes of East Asia.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.325-336
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• 2018

This study investigates robust features of interdecadal changes in the Northern hemisphere summer tropical-extratropical teleconnection occurred around the mid-to-late 1990s by analyzing four different reanalysis data for atmospheric circulation and temperature, two precipitation reconstructions, and two sea surface temperature (SST) data during the satellite observation era of 1980~2017. For the last 38 years, there has been a significant increasing trend in anticyclonic circulation at lower and upper troposphere and 2 m air temperature with wavenumber-5 Rossby wave structure in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) extratropics. The increase has been accompanied with the significant weakening and northward shift of jet stream over Eurasia and the North Pacific. It is further found that there has been a significant interdecadal shift occurred around the mid-to-late 1990s in the two distinct modes of tropical-extratropical teleconnection: Western Pacific-North America (WPNA) and circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) pattern. After mid-to-late 1990s, the WPNA has played more important role in modulating the extratropical atmospheric circulation and surface climate, which has been preferentially occurred during the El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) decaying or transition summer such as 1998, 2010 and 2016. During these summers, severe heat waves were occurred over many parts of the NH extratropics due to the combined effect of the increasing trend in the barotropic anticyclonic circulation and the significant WPNA across the NH. Although weakened, the CGT also contributed to some of hot summers over many parts of the NH extratropics such as 1999, 2000, 2008, 2011, and 2012 when weak to moderate La $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ was persisted.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.184-203
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• 2013

This study analyzes the variability of Korean summer rainfall associated with the tropical low-frequency oscillation using long-term observation data. From the EOF analysis, the first mode showed opposite phase between the South and the North Korea with the regime shift in rainfall variability since the mid-1990s. The summer precipitation over South Korea tends to increase in southern part during strong El Ni$\tilde{n}$o where the warm sea surface temperature extends to far eastern tropical Pacific. In weak La Ni$\tilde{n}$a, the increased precipitation directly influences from the western tropical Pacific to the mid-latitude. In June, the rainfall over South Korea is positively correlated with the Indian Summer Monsoon while in July, it is negatively correlated with the Western North Pacific Summer Monsoon. In August, highly negative correlation between the rainfall over South Korea and the Indian Summer Monsoon is found.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.599-615
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• 2016

This study investigates the accuracy of short-term ocean predictions during the development of ocean stratification for the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) Global Seasonal Forecast System version 5 (GloSea5) as well as the effect of atmosphere-ocean coupling on the predictions through a series of sensitive numerical experiments. Model performance is evaluated using the marine meteorological buoys at seas around the Korean peninsular (KP), Tropical Atmosphere Ocean project (TAO) buoys over the tropical Pacific ocean, and ARGO floats data over the western North Pacific for boreal winter (February) and spring (May). Sensitive experiments are conducted using an ocean-atmosphere coupled model (i.e., GloSea5) and an uncoupled ocean model (Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean, NEMO) and their results are compared. The verification results revealed an overall good performance for the SST predictions over the tropical Pacific ocean and near the Korean marginal seas, in which the Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) were $0.31{\sim}0.45^{\circ}C$ and $0.74{\sim}1.11^{\circ}C$ respectively, except oceanic front regions with large spatial and temporal SST variations (the maximum error reached up to $3^{\circ}C$). The sensitive numerical experiments showed that GloSea5 outperformed NEMO over the tropical Pacific in terms of bias and RMSE analysis, while NEMO outperformed GloSea5 near the KP regions. These results suggest that the atmosphere-ocean coupling substantially influences the short-term ocean forecast over the tropical Pacific, while other factors such as atmospheric forcing and the accuracy of simulated local current are more important than the coupling effect for the KP regions being far from tropics during the development of ocean stratification.

• Atmosphere
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.299-314
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• 2007

The purpose of this study is to summarize tropical cyclone activity in 2006. Twenty three tropical cyclones of tropical storm (TS) intensity or higher formed in the western North Pacific and the South China Sea in 2006. The total number is less than the thirty-year (1971~2000) average frequency of 26.7. Out of twenty three tropical cyclones, fifteen cyclones reached typhoon (TY) intensity, while the rest eight cyclones only reached severe tropical storm (STS) and tropical storm (TS) intensity - three STS and five TS storms. The tropical cyclone season in 2006 began in May with the formation of CHANCHU (0601). The convective activity was slightly inactive around the Philippines from late June to early August. In addition, subtropical high was more enhanced than normal over the south of Japan from May to early August. Consequently, most tropical cyclones formed over the sea east of the Philippines after late June, and many of them moved westwards to China. CHANCHU (0601), BILIS (0604), KAEMI (0605), PRAPIROON (0606) and SAOMI (0608) brought damage to China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. On the other hand, EWINIAR (0603) moved northwards and hit the Republic of Korea, causing damage to the country. From late August to early September, convective activity was temporarily inactive over the sea east of the Philippines. However, it turned active again after late September. Subtropical high was weak over the south of Japan after late August. Therefore, most tropical cyclones formed over the sea east of the Philippines and moved northwards. WUKONG (0610) and SHANSHAN (0613) hit Japan to bring damage to the country. On the other hand, XANGSANE (0615) and CIMARON (0619) moved westwards in the South China Sea, causing damage to the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Another special feature in 2006 tropical cyclone activity is that IOKE (0612) formed in the central North Pacific crossed 180 degree longitude and moved into the western North Pacific. It has been four years since HUKO (0224) in 2002.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.375-387
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• 2015

A Selected Multi-model CONsensus (SMCON) technique was developed and verified for the tropical cyclone track forecast in the western North Pacific. The SMCON forecasts were produced by averaging numerical model forecasts showing low 70% latest 6 h prediction errors among 21 models. In the homogeneous comparison for 54 tropical cyclones in 2013 and 2014, the SMCON improvement rate was higher than the other forecasts such as the Non-Selected Multi-model CONsensus (NSMCON) and other numerical models (i.e., GDAPS, GEPS, GFS, HWRF, ECMWF, ECMWF_H, ECMWF_EPS, JGSM, TEPS). However, the SMCON showed lower or similar improvement rate than a few forecasts including ECMWF_EPS forecasts at 96 h in 2013 and at 72 h in 2014 and the TEPS forecast at 120 h in 2013. Mean track errors of the SMCON for two year were smaller than the NSMCON and these differences were 0.4, 1.2, 5.9, 12.9, 8.2 km at 24-, 48-, 72-, 96-, 120-h respectively. The SMCON error distributions showed smaller central tendency than the NSMCON's except 72-, 96-h forecasts in 2013. Similarly, the density for smaller track errors of the SMCON was higher than the NSMCON's except at 72-, 96-h forecast in 2013 in the kernel density estimation analysis. In addition, the NSMCON has lager range of errors above the third quantile and larger standard deviation than the SMCON's at 72-, 96-h forecasts in 2013. Also, the SMCON showed smaller bias than ECMWF_H for the cross track bias. Thus, we concluded that the SMCON could provide more reliable information on the tropical cyclone track forecast by reflecting the real-time performance of the numerical models.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.105-109
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• 2018

El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ is the largest fluctuation in the climate system, and it can lead to effects influencing humans all over the world. An El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ occurs when sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become substantially higher than average. We investigated the change in sea surface temperature in the Pacific Ocean during the El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ period of 2015 and 2016 using the advanced very-high-resolution radiometer (AVHRR) of NOAA Satellites. We calculated anomalies of the Pacific equatorial sea surface temperature for the normal period of 1981-2010 to identify the variation of the 2015 El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ and warm water area. Generally, the warm water in the western tropical Pacific Ocean shifts eastward along the equator toward the coast of South America during an El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ period. However, we identified an additional warm water region in the $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ 1+2 and Peru coastal area. This indicates that there are other factors that increase the sea surface temperature. In the future, we will study the heat coming from the bottom of the sea to understand the origin of the heat transport of the Pacific Ocean.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.49-58
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• 2012

Through a statistical change-point analysis, this study found that Korea landfalling tropical cyclone (TC) frequency has increased rapidly since 1981. This increase is due to the following phenomenon. When anomalous cyclone is developed in the East Asian continent, anomalous anticyclone is reinforced in the western Pacific, which is related to the eastward shift of western North Pacific high, and thus anomalous southerly is formed to Korea from low-latitudes. This anomalous southerly plays an important role as steering flow in moving TCs toward Korea. To examine the cause of the development of anomalous cyclone in the East Asian continent, this study analyzed the water equivalent of accumulated snow depth during the preceding spring (March to May). As a result, less snow depth is observed in most regions of the East Asian continent than before 1981. Therefore, anomalous cyclone in the East Asian continent in summer can be reinforced by the land heating from the preceding spring and then the steering flow of anomalous southerly that moves TCs toward Korea can be also developed to Korea from low-latitudes in summer.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.23-29
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• 2022

Although tropical cyclones with wind speeds weaker than 17 ms^-1 (weak tropical cyclones: WTCs) can cause significant damage, particularly over the Seoul metropolitan area, only a few studies have focused on WTC activity over South Korea. In this study, we found that WTC activity is likely associated with the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). During the negative phases of the PDO, landfall frequency of WTCs increased significantly compared to the positive phases at 95% confidence level. When related to the negative phases of the PDO, a positive relative vorticity anomaly is found in the northern sector of the western North Pacific while a negative relative vorticity anomaly and enhanced vertical wind shear prevail in the southern sector of the WNP. These factors are favorable for the northward shift of the genesis location of tropical cyclones on average, thereby reducing the total lifetime of WTCs. Moreover, a high-pressure anomaly over the Japanese islands would shift a tropical cyclone track westward in addition to the landfall location. Consequently, the effects of the topographical friction and the Yellow Sea Bottom Cold Water on a tropical cyclone may increase. These conditions could result in a weaker lifetime maximum intensity and landfall intensity, ultimately resulting in WTCs becoming more frequent over South Korea during the negative phases of the PDO.