Winter precipitation variability over Korean Peninsula associated with ENSO

In this study, winter precipitation variability associated with the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) over the Korean Peninsula was investigated using a 5-pentad running mean data because significant correlation pattern cannot be revealed using seasonal-mean data. It was found a considerably significant positive correlation between Niño3 sea-surface temperature and precipitation during early winter (from Mid-November to early-December), when the correlation coefficient is close to 0.8 in early-December; the correlation is distinctively weakened during late winter. It is demonstrated that such sudden intraseasonal change in relation to ENSO is associated with the presence of anticyclonic flow over the Kuroshio extension region (Kuroshio anticyclone). In early winter, there is strong southerly wind over the Korean Peninsula, which is induced by the Philippine Sea anticyclone and Kuroshio anticyclone. However, in January, although the Philippine Sea anticyclone develops further, the Kuroshio anticyclone suddenly disappears; as a result, the impact of ENSO is considerably weakened over the Korean Peninsula. These results indicate that the Kuroshio anticyclone during El Niño peak phase plays a critical role by strongly affecting Northeast Asia climate, including the Korean Peninsula. In addition, it is also found that there are distinctive interdecadal changes of the relationship between ENSO and precipitation over the Korean Peninsula. In particular, the strong correlation in early winter is clearer in the recent 30 years than that in the previous period of 1950–1979.     

Statistical Characteristics of CMEs and Flares Associated with Solar Type II Radio Bursts

We present results from a study of sunspots and faculae on continuum and Caii K images taken at the San Fernando Observatory (SFO) during 1989–1992; a total of approximately 800 images in each bandpass were used. About 18000 red sunspots, 147000 red faculae, and 800000 Caii K faculae were identified based on their contrasts. In addition, we computed the contrasts of pixels on the red images cospatial with Caii K faculae. Sunspot contrasts show a strong dependence on size but no dependence on heliocentric angle. There are continuous but systematic differences among facular regions. We find that the contrast of Caii K faculae is relatively insensitive to heliocentric angle, but is a strong function of facular size, in the sense that larger Caii K faculae are always brighter. The contrast of red faculae is a function of both heliocentric angle and size: the contrast functions show that larger regions contain larger flux tubes, contain deeper flux tubes, and have larger filling factors than small facular regions. Comparisons of cospatial pixels on red and Caii K images show a tight correlation between the average contrast of a region in the continuum and its size and heliocentric angle in the Caii K images. The average contrast of all facular regions is positive everywhere on the disk, even though the largest regions contain flux tubes which appear dark at disk center.     

Impacts of land use change and groundwater management on long-term nitrate-nitrogen and chloride trends in groundwater of Jeju Island,Korea

Impacts of land use changes and groundwater management actions on groundwater quality were evaluated at the island scale with spatiotemporal trends of NO₃-N and Cl concentrations in groundwater of Jeju Island, Korea. The temporal trends from 1993 to 2012 in the concentrations of NO₃-N and Cl from more than 3900 wells were estimated using the Mann–Kendall trend test and Sen’s slope analysis and compared with the land use change trend for the period 1995–2009. The results indicate that the upward trends in NO₃-N were associated with the expansion of agricultural lands, whereas Cl trends were considered to be affected by other factors in addition to the land use changes. In the mid-mountainous region, the deterioration in the groundwater quality by the both NO₃-N and Cl was expected due to the continuous expansion of agricultural lands. In the lowland area, the NO₃-N and Cl components showed different trends depending on the regions. In the eastern area, increasing trends in NO₃-N were observed due to the development of new agricultural areas, while the Cl concentration was observed to decrease as a result of the regulation on groundwater extraction to reduce seawater intrusion. Our study highlights that a comprehensive interpretation of trends in NO₃-N and Cl and land use changes for long-term periods can provide useful insights to prepare for suitable groundwater management plans in the whole island perspective.     

Responses of chemically active and naturally fractured shale under time‐dependent mechanical loading and ionic solution exposure

In this paper, the analytical dual‐porosity dual‐permeability poromechanics solution for saturated cylinders is extended to account for electrokinetic effects and material transverse isotropy, which simulate the responses of chemically active naturally fractured shale under time‐dependent mechanical loading and ionic solution exposure. The solution addresses the stresses, fracture pore pressure, matrix pore pressure, fluid fluxes, ion concentration evolution, and displacements due to the applied stress, pore pressure, and solute concentration difference between the sample and the circulation fluid. The presented solution will not only help validate numerical simulations but also assist in calibrating and interpreting laboratory results on dual‐porosity dual‐permeability shale. It is recommended that the analytical solutions of radial and axial displacements be used to match the corresponding laboratory‐recorded data to determine shale dual permeability and chemo‐electrical parameters including membrane coefficient, ions diffusion coefficients, and electro‐osmotic permeability.     

A new method of computing geopotential fields

Summary. A new method is proposed for the geopotential field computation and gravitational attraction modelling. The usual method is to use a uniform density discrete numerical integration to represent either the gravitational potential or the gravitational attraction from a given density configuration. In this paper, an interpolation scheme is explained, using a piecewise continuous basis function to represent the arbitrarily varying density configuration in one, two and three dimensions. This new approach greatly simplifies the potential integrations and, in certain cases where symmetry exists, analytical evaluation of the integrals is also possible. Numerical tests and examples are given for a hypothetical salt dome, a vertical dyke with varying density structure and the hydrostatic ellipticity of earth model 1066B. The numerical error in this method is limited to the analytical approximation and interpolation errors in each case. This new approach can also be used as efficiently for other potential field studies.     

Adsorption of Cu(II) to Bacillus subtilis: A pH-dependent EXAFS and thermodynamic modelling study

Bacteria are very efficient sorbents of trace metals, and their abundance in a wide variety of natural aqueous systems means biosorption plays an important role in the biogeochemical cycling of many elements. We measured the adsorption of Cu(II) to Bacillus subtilis as a function of pH and surface loading. Adsorption edge and XAS experiments were performed at high bacteria-to-metal ratio, analogous to Cu uptake in natural geologic and aqueous environments. We report significant Cu adsorption to B. subtilis across the entire pH range studied (pH ∼2-7), with adsorption increasing with pH to a maximum at pH ∼6. We determine directly for the first time that Cu adsorbs to B. subtilis as a (CuO₅H_n)ⁿ⁻⁸ monodentate, inner-sphere surface complex involving carboxyl surface functional groups. This Cu-carboxyl complex is able to account for the observed Cu adsorption across the entire pH range studied. Having determined the molecular adsorption mechanism of Cu to B. subtilis, we have developed a new thermodynamic surface complexation model for Cu adsorption that is informed by and consistent with EXAFS results. We model the surface electrostatics using the 1pK basic Stern approximation. We fit our adsorption data to the formation of a monodentate, inner-sphere RCOOCu⁺ surface complex. In agreement with previous studies, this work indicates that in order to accurately predict the fate and mobility of Cu in complex biogeochemical systems, we must incorporate the formation of Cu-bacteria surface complexes in reactive transport models. To this end, this work recommends log K RCOOCu⁺ = 7.13 for geologic and aqueous systems with generally high B. subtilis-to-metal ratio.     

The influences of interannual stratification variability and wind stress forcing on ENSO before and after the 1976 climate shift

In order to understand the change in oceanic variability associated with the climate shift of the mid-1970s, we analyze the contribution of momentum forcing to the leading baroclinic modes over the tropical Pacific using Simple Ocean Data Assimilation (SODA, version 2.0.2) for the period of 1958–1997. Specifically, we look at the statistical relationship between the wind projection coefficients and climate indices and attempt to provide a physical explanation for the observed changes. It is found that the wind stress projection coefficients according to the oceanic baroclinic modes are different in terms of their magnitude and phase in the tropical Pacific, reflecting a specific forcing associated with each mode before and after the 1976 climate shift. Compared to that before the 1970s, the first baroclinic mode is had a greater effect on the interannual sea surface temperature due to equatorial wave dynamics, and there was an increased delayed response of the second baroclinic mode variability to the interannual atmospheric forcing after the late 1970s. This reflects changes in ENSO feedback processes associated with the climate shift. Our analysis further indicates that, after the late 1970s, there was a decrease in the wind stress forcing projecting onto the Ekman layer, which is associated with increased mixed-layer depth. This result suggests that the changes in the ENSO properties before and after the late 1970s are largely associated with the changes in the way in which the wind stress forcing is dynamically projected onto the surface layer of the tropical Pacific Ocean over interannual timescales.     

Future climate change scenarios over Korea using a multi-nested downscaling system: A pilot study

This study examines a scenario of future summer climate change for the Korean peninsula using a multi-nested regional climate system. The global-scale scenario from the ECHAM5, which has a 200 km grid, was downscaled to a 50 km grid over Asia using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Regional Spectral Model (RSM). This allowed us to obtain large-scale forcing information for a one-way, double-nested Weather and Research Forecasting (WRF) model that consists of a 12 km grid over Korea and a 3 km grid near Seoul. As a pilot study prior to the multi-year simulation work the years 1995 and 2055 were selected for the present and future summers. This RSM-WRF multi-nested downscaling system was evaluated by examining a downscaled climatology in 1995 with the largescale forcing from the NCEP/Department of Energy (DOE) reanalysis. The changes in monsoonal flows over East Asia and the associated precipitation change scenario over Korea are highlighted. It is found that the RSM-WRF system is capable of reproducing large-scale features associated with the East-Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and its associated hydro-climate when it is nested by the NCEP/DOE reanalysis. The ECHAM5-based downscaled climate for the present (1995) summer is found to suffer from a weakening of the low-level jet and sub-tropical high when compared the reanalysis-based climate. Predicted changes in summer monsoon circulations between 1995 and 2055 include a strengthened subtropical high and an intensified mid-level trough. The resulting projected summer precipitation is doubled over much of South Korea, accompanied by a pronounced surface warming with a maximum of about 2 K. It is suggested that downscaling strategy of this study, with its cloud-resolving scale, makes it suitable for providing high-resolution meteorological data with which to derive hydrology or air pollution models.