• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.121-133
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• 2019

Natural variability associated with a variety of large-scale climate modes causes regional differences in sea level rise (SLR), which is particularly remarkable in the Pacific Ocean. Because the superposition of the natural variability and the background anthropogenic trend in sea level can potentially threaten to inundate low-lying and heavily populated coastal regions, it is important to quantify sea level variability associated with internal climate variability and understand their interaction when projecting future SLR impacts. This study seeks to identify the dominant modes of sea level variability in the tropical Pacific and quantify how these modes contribute to regional sea level changes, particularly on the two strong El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ events that occurred in the winter of 1997/1998 and 2015/2016. To do so, an adaptive data analysis approach, Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD), was undertaken with regard to two datasets of altimetry-based and in situ-based steric sea levels. Using this EEMD analysis, we identified distinct internal modes associated with El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) varying from 1.5 to 7 years and low-frequency variability with a period of ~12 years that were clearly distinct from the secular trend. The ENSO-scale frequencies strongly impact on an east-west dipole of sea levels across the tropical Pacific, while the low-frequency (i.e., decadal) mode is predominant in the North Pacific with a horseshoe shape connecting tropical and extratropical sea levels. Of particular interest is that the low-frequency mode resulted in different responses in regional SLR to ENSO events. The low-frequency mode contributed to a sharp increase (decrease) of sea level in the eastern (western) tropical Pacific in the 2015/2016 El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$ but made a negative contribution to the sea level signals in the 1997/1998 El $Ni{\tilde{n}}o$. This indicates that the SLR signals of the ENSO can be amplified or depressed at times of transition in the low-frequency mode in the tropical Pacific.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.575-585
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• 2018

In the case study of this paper, sensitivity experiments are carried out using the mesoscale non-hydrostatic Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to investigate the impact of tropical cyclone (TC) Soudelor (2003) on the East Asian subtropical upper-level jet (EASJ) before TC Soudelor transformed into an extratropical cyclone. The physical mechanism for changes in the EASJ intensity and position caused by TC Soudelor is explored. Results indicate that TC Soudelor would warm the air in the middle and upper troposphere over the Japan Sea and the adjacent areas through stimulating northward propagating teleconnection pattern as well as releasing large amounts of latent heat, which led to increase (decrease) the meridional air temperature gradient to the south (north) below the EASJ axis. As a result, the geopotential height abnormally increased in the upper troposphere, resulting in an anomalous anticyclonic circulation belt along the EASJ axis. Correspondingly, the westerly winds to the north (south) of the EASJ axis intensified (weakened) and the EASJ axis shifted northward by one degree. The case study also suggests that before the extratropical cyclone transition of TC Soudelor, the TC activities had exerted significant impacts on the EASJ through thermodynamic processes.

• Journal of Environmental Policy
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.1-24
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• 2002

Due to the recent increase in greenhouse gases in atmosphere, world climate is rapidly changing and in turn, the earth ecosystem responds upon the climate changes. Comparing the ecosystem in the past, the present shapes of ecosystem is the result of the serious modification. Fishery resources in marine ecosystem, which usually occupy the upper trophic level, are also inevitable from such changes, because they always react to the natural environmental conditions. The northwestern Pacific is the most productive ocean in the world producing about 30% of world catch. From time to time, however, it has been notified that abundance, distribution and species composition of major fish species were altered by climate events. Furthermore, primary productivity of the ocean is not stable under the changing environments, so that carrying capacity of the ocean varies from one climate regime to another. Major climate events such as global warming, atmospheric circulation pattern, climate regime shift in the North Pacific, and El Nino event in the Pacific tropical waters were introduced in relation to fisheries aspects. The current status and future projection of fishery production was investigated, especially in the North Pacific including Korean waters. This new paradigm, ecosystem response to environmental variability, has become the main theme in marine ecology and fishery science, and the GLOBEC-type researches might provide a solution far cause-effect mechanism as well as prediction capability. Ecosystem management principles for multi-species should be adopted for better understanding and management of ecosystem.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Navigation
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.19-30
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• 1994

By use of the recent tropical cyclones' data in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, the occurrence frequency and region of typhoon as well as the features of the monthly mean track were analyzed. As the result of this study, (1) mean occurrence frequency of typhoon per year is 27.5, and 68% of total typhoons were formed in July to October and shown the highest frequency in August. (2) The ave-rage duration of typhoons is 8.5 days, and super typhoon which maximum sustained surface wind speeds is more than 130 knots occurs most frequently in October and November. (3) The highest frequency ap-pears around the Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands, and in wintertime, typhoon occurs in lower lati-tude comparing with those in summertime. (4) The typhoon track depends upon the distribution of pres-sure system and steering current in neighbouring areas. The mean track of typhoon can be classified into three types such as westward-moving type, northward-moving type and abnormally moving type. The west-ward-moving typhoons make landfall on the southern China by way of the South China Sea in June and July, on mid-part of China in August and September, and on Indo-china Peninsula in October and Novem-ber. The northward-moving typhoons approximately move on north~northwestward track to $20~30^{\circ}N$ from the occurrence region, then recurve to the East Sea through Korean Peninsula and Kyushu Island in June and July, to the Noth Pacific Ocean along the Japanese Islands in August and September and to the North Pacific Ocean through the seas far south off the Japan in October and November.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.34 no.13
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• pp.5243-5256
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• 2021

The North Pacific Oscillation (NPO), a primary atmospheric mode over the North Pacific Ocean in boreal winter, is known to trigger El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the following winter, the process of which is recognized as the seasonal footprinting mechanism (SFM). On the basis of the analysis of model simulations from phase 5 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP5), we found that the SFM acts differently among models, and the correlation between the NPO and subsequent ENSO events, called the SFM efficiency, depends on the background mean state of the model. That is, SFM efficiency becomes stronger as the climatological position of the Pacific intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) moves poleward, representing an intensification of the northern branch of the ITCZ. When the Pacific ITCZ is located poleward, the wind-evaporation-sea surface temperature (SST) feedback becomes stronger as the precipitation response to the SST anomaly is stronger in higher latitudes than that in lower latitudes. In addition, such active ocean-atmosphere interactions enhance NPO variability, favoring the SFM to operate efficiently and trigger an ENSO event. Consistent with the model results, the observed SFM efficiency increased during the decades in which the northern branch of the climatological ITCZ was intensified, supporting the importance of the tropical mean state of precipitation around the Pacific ITCZ.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.38-38
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• 2012

The East Asia (EA) region including China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea are especially vulnerable to hydrometerological extremes during the boreal summer (June-September). This study, therefore, pursued an exploratory analysis to improve better understanding of the potential impacts of the two types of PJ patterns on WNP Tropical cyclone (TC) activities and TC-induced extreme moisture fluxes over Korea's five major river basins. This study shows that during positive PJ years, the large-scale atmospheric environments are more favorable for the TC activities than those in negative PJ years. During positive PJ year, it is found that there are weaker wind shear, stronger rising motion, as well as large relative humidity over the Korean peninsula (KP) compared to negative PJ years. As a result, TCs making landfall are more exhibited over the southeastern portions of South Korea. Despite the relatively modest sample size, we expect that insights and results presented here will be useful for developing a critical support system for the effective reduction and mitigation of TC-caused disasters, as well as for water supply management in coupled human and natural systems.

• Atmosphere
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.291-303
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• 2018

In this study, a new consensus technique for predicting tropical cyclone (TC) intensity in the western North Pacific was developed. The most important feature of the present consensus model is to select and combine the guidance numerical models with the best performance in the previous years based on various evaluation criteria and averaging methods. Specifically, the performance of the guidance models was evaluated using both the mean absolute error and the correlation coefficient for each forecast lead time, and the number of the numerical models used for the consensus model was not fixed. In averaging multiple models, both simple and weighted methods are used. These approaches are important because that the performance of the available guidance models differs according to forecast lead time and is changing every year. In particular, this study develops both a multi-consensus model (M-CON), which constructs the best consensus models with the lowest error for each forecast lead time, and a single best consensus model (S-CON) having the lowest 72-hour cumulative mean error, through on training process. The evaluation results of the selected consensus models for the training and forecast periods reveal that the M-CON and S-CON outperform the individual best-performance guidance models. In particular, the M-CON showed the best overall performance, having advantages in the early stages of prediction. This study finally suggests that forecaster needs to use the latest evaluation results of the guidance models every year rather than rely on the well-known accuracy of models for a long time to reduce prediction error.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.109-121
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• 2011

This study revisits the definition of Changma, which is the major rainy season in Korea and corresponds to a regional component of the East Asian summer monsoon system. In spite of several decades of researches on Changma, questions still remain on many aspects of Changma that include its proper definition, determination of its onset and retreat, and relevant large-scale dynamical and thermodynamical features. Therefore, this study clarifies the definition of Changma (which is a starting point for the study of interannual and interdecadal variability) using a basic concept of air mass and front by calculating equivalent potential temperature (${\theta}_e$) that considers air temperature and humidity simultaneously. A negative peak in the meridional gradient of this quantity signifies the approximate location of Changma front. This front has previously been recognized as the boundary between the tropical North Pacific air mass and cold Okhotsk sea air mass. However, this study identifies three more important air masses affecting Changma: the tropical monsoon air mass related to the intertropical convergence zone over Southeast Asia and South China Sea, the tropical continental air mass over North China, and intermittently polar continental air mass. The variations of these five air masses lead to complicated evolution of Changma and modulate intensity, onset and withdrawal dates, and duration of Changma on the interannual time scale. Importantly, use of ${\theta}_e$, 500-hPa geopotential height and 200 hPa zonal wind fields for determining Changma onset and withdrawal dates results in a significant increase (up to~57%) in the hindcast skill compared to a previous study.

• 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.