• Atmosphere
• /
• v.15 no.1
• /
• pp.69-74
• /
• 2005

In this short article, oceanic processes that could have strong effect on the climate have been explained while focusing on the oceanic thermohaline circulation (THC). First, the structure of THC is explained using a simple scaling law. Then, the thermohaline catastrophe, which is believed to be a cause of a rapid climate changes observed in paleoclimate records, and interdecadal variations in THC are explained. The interactions between the oceans and $CO_2$ are also mentioned briefly.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.449-454
• /
• 2012

This study presents the long-term variability of spring precipitation over the Korean peninsula. It is found that the significant interdecadal change in the spring precipitation has occurred around year 1991. Over the Korean peninsula the precipitation for the post-1991 period increased by about 30 mm per year in CMAP and station-measured data compared to the precipitation prior to year 1991. Due to an increased baroclinicity during the later period, the low-level negative pressure anomaly has developed with its center over northern Japan. Korea is situated at the western end of the negative pressure anomaly, receiving moisture from westerly winds and producing more precipitation. Also, we estimate the change in the near future (years 2020~2040) spring precipitation using six best performing Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 3 (CMIP3) models. These best model ensemble mean shows that spring precipitation is anticipated to increase by about 4% due to the strengthened westerlies accompanied by the northwestern enhancement of the North Pacific subtropical high.

• 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.30 no.5
• /
• pp.660-670
• /
• 2009

This study examines the changes of an interdecadal circulation over the Asian continent to find cause of the surface warming in Siberia from 1958 to 2004. According to our study, there is a coherency between a long-term change of sea surface temperature in the Indian Ocean and the rapid increase of air temperature in Siberia since 1976/1977. In this study, we suggest that mean wind field changes induced by the positive sea surface temperature anomalies of the Indian Ocean since 1976/1977 are caused of inter-decadal variations in a large-scale circulation over the Asian continent. It also indicates that the inter-decadal circulation over the Asian continent is accompanied with warm southerly winds near surface, which have significantly contributed to the increase of surface temperature in Siberia. These southerly winds have been one of the most dominant interdecadal variations over the Asian continent since 1976/1977. In addition, we investigated the long-term trend mode of 850 hPa geopotential height data over the Asian continent from the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis for 1958-2004. In result, we found that there was an anomalously high pressure pattern over the Asian continent, it is called 'the Asian High mode'. It is thus suggested that the Asian High mode is another response of interdecadal changes of large-scale circulations over the Asian continent.

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

• Ocean and Polar Research
• /
• v.34 no.2
• /
• pp.229-237
• /
• 2012

Using results from an Earth System model, we investigated change in primary production in the East China Sea, under a global warming scenario. As global warming progresses, the vertical stratification of water becomes stronger, and nutrient supply from the lower part to the upper part is reduced. Consequently, so is the primary production. In addition to the warming trend, there is strong decadal to interdecadal scale variability, and it takes a few decades before the warming trend surpasses natural variability. Thus, it would be very hard to investigate the global warming trend using data of several years' length.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
• /
• v.7 no.1
• /
• pp.49-57
• /
• 2016

In the present study, the time series of the number of days on which temperatures were not higher than $-5^{\circ}C$ in winter in Seoul was analyzed. The results showed a decreasing tendency until recently. Statistical change-point analysis was conducted to examine whether climate regime shifts existed in this time series. According to the results, the number of days on which temperatures were not higher than $-5^{\circ}C$ in winter in Seoul drastically decreased since 1988. Therefore, to find out the reason for the recent decrease in the number of days, differences between the means of large-scale environments in winder during 1988~2010 and those during 1974~1987 were analyzed. In all layers of the troposphere, anomalous anticyclones developed in regions around the Korean Peninsula and thus the Korean Peninsula was affected by westerlies or south-westerlies. This was associated with the recent a little further northward development of western North Pacific subtropical high. Therefore, environments good for warm and humid air to flow into the Korean Peninsula were formed. To examine whether relatively warm and humid air actually flowed into the Korean Peninsula recently, temperatures and specific humidity in all layers in the troposphere were analyzed and according to the results the Korean Peninsula showed warm and humid anomalies. In the analyses of sensible heat net flux and maximum temperatures at a height of 2 m that can be felt by humans, the East Asia Continent including the Korean Peninsula showed positive anomalies.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.35-48
• /
• 2017

This study analyzed the obvious increasing tendency of summer (June to August) rainfall in the region of Korea- and northern China ($35^{\circ}-40^{\circ}N$, $110^{\circ}-130^{\circ}E$) in the late 1990s. In order to investigate the causes of the increase in summer rainfall since 1998, we analyzed the difference of the rainfall average between 1998-2012 and 1981-1997. The analysis of the 850 hPa stream flows showed that the huge anomalous anticyclonic circulations were developed in North Pacific and eastern Australia. In both hemispheres, the anomalous easterlies (anomalous trade winds) were strengthened from the equatorial central Pacific to the tropical western Pacific by the anomalous circulations, which was an anomalous circulation pattern shown in La $Ni{\tilde{n}}a$ years. As for the 200 hPa stream flows, the huge anomalous cyclonic circulations were also developed in both South Pacific and North Pacific. These two anomalous circulations reinforced the anomalous westerlies in the equatorial central and western Pacific, leading to the increase in summer rainfall in the region of Korea- and northern China since the late 1990s in association with La $Ni{\tilde{n}}a$ pattern, which was resulted in strengthening the Walker circulation. Recently in East Asia, the local Hadley circulation has been strengthened in which upward flows in the equatorial western Pacific and mid-latitude region of East Asia have descended in the subtropical western Pacific.