• Title/Summary/Keyword: potential vorticity conservation

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Numerical Experiment on the Sogcho Eddy due to the strong offshore winds in the East Sea

  • Kim Soon Young;Lee Hyong Sun;Lee Jae Chul
    • Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.1 no.1
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    • pp.7-18
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    • 1998
  • In order to understand the generation of the Sogcho Eddy due to the strong offshore winds, we first investigated the characteristics of winds at Sogcho, Kangnung and Samchuk, and then carried out a series of numerical experiments using the nonlinear 1 1/2-layer model. The models were forced by wind stress fields, similar in structure to the prevailing winds that a field in the east coast of Korea during the winter season. The winds were composed of the background winds $(-1\;dyne/cm^2)$ for 90 days and the local winds $(-4\;dyne/cm^2)$ for 30 days. The analysis of wind data at three stations (Sogcho, Kangnung, and Samchuk) showed that the wind was stronger in winter than in other seasons and the offshore component was much dominant. According to our numerical solutions, the Sogcho Eddy of about 200 km in diameter was generated due to the strong offshore winds prevailing in the Kangnung - Sogcho regions. The eastward propagation of the Rossby waves reflected at the western boundary resulted in the eastward meandering motion from the eastern side of the eddy.

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The Generation of Westerly Waves by Sobaek Mountains (소백산맥에 의한 서풍 파동 발생)

  • Kim, Jin wook;Youn, Daeok
    • Journal of the Korean earth science society
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    • v.38 no.1
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    • pp.24-34
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    • 2017
  • The westerly waves generation is described in the advanced earth science textbook used at high school as follows: as westerly wind approaches and blows over large mountains, the air flow shows wave motions in downwind side, which can be explained by the conservation of potential vorticity. However, there has been no case study showing the phenomena of the mesoscale westerly waves with observational data in the area of small mountains in Korea. And thus the wind speed and time persistency of westerly winds along with the width and length of mountains have never been studied to explain the generation of the westerly waves. As a first step, we assured the westerly waves generated in the downwind side of Sobaek mountains based on surface station wind data nearby. Furthermore, the critical or minimum wind velocity of the westerly wind over Sobaek mountains to generate the downwind wave were derived and calcuated tobe about $0.6m\;s^{-1}$ for Sobaek mountains, which means that the westerly waves could be generated in most cases of westerly blowing over the mountains. Using surface station data and 4-dimensional assimilation data of RDAPS (Regional Data Assimilation and Prediction System) provided by Korea Meteorological Agency, we also analyzed cases of westerly waves occurrence and life cycle in the downwind side of Sobaek mountains for a year of 2014. The westerly waves occurred in meso-${\beta}$ or -${\gamma}$ scales. The westerly waves generated by the mountains disappeared gradually with wind speed decreasing. The occurrence frequency of the vorticity with meso-${\beta}$ scale got to be higher when the stronger westerly wind blew. When we extended the spatial range of the analysis, phenomena of westerly waves were also observed in the downwind side of Yensan mountains in Northeastern China. Our current work will be a study material to help students understand the atmospheric phenomena perturbed by mountains.

The Wind Effect on the Cold Water Formation Near Gampo-Ulgi Coast (감포-울기 연안해역에서 발생하는 냉수대 현상과 해상풍과의 관계)

  • LEE Dong-Kyu;KWON Jae-Il;HAHN Sang-Bok
    • Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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    • v.31 no.3
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    • pp.359-371
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    • 1998
  • The cold water event near Gampo-Ulgi coast in summers between 1987 and 1994 are studied using sea surface temperature records at the coastal stations, ocean winds measured by SSM/I and AVHRR SST images. The response time of the cold water events by upwelling is less than two days and surface cold water expands up to the Ulleung Island. An analysis of 61 upwelling favorable winds indicates that the surface water temperature drops more than $1^{\circ}C\;in\;80\%$ of the south-westerly wind events. The linear correlation coefficient between wind impulses and the maximum temperature drops is good (0.6). It is found that the major cause of the cold water events is the along-shore wind in summer. The bottom topography and off-shore direction of the East Korean Warm Current by the potential vorticity conservation near Gampo coast also contribute the formation of the cold water along the southeast coast of Korea.

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