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| Titel |
Observed trend in Asian dust days in South Korea and its geo-physiographical implications |
| VerfasserIn |
Soohyun Yang, Kyungrock Paik |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2015
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 17 (2015) |
| Datensatznummer |
250107383
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2015-8577.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| South Korea has experienced significant socio-economic damages by Asian dust (also
called Yellow sand or Yellow dust). Asian dust is a wind-driven natural phenomenon
that carries fine sand particles along with surface pollutants from semi-arid areas
in northern China, Inner Mongolia, the Gobi Desert, and the Taklimakan Desert
to the East Asia. Its occurrence requires three necessary conditions: dry soil in
source areas, strong ascending air current to lift sand particles up, and intense wind
speed to transport the particles. Accordingly, the drier source areas are, the larger
amount of source materials for Asian dust becomes. Further, regional wind speed and
direction are key elements that determine the influencing boundary and level of
damage.
In this study, we investigate number of Asian dust days over South Korea. We
utilize monthly data over 50 years (from 1961 to 2013) recorded at 12 stations,
operated by the Korean Meteorological Administration, which are evenly distributed
over the country. We find that annual number of Asian dust days in South Korea
tends to increase until early 2000s and the increasing trend is ceased since then.
Interestingly, this transition time (early 2000s) matches the time when the surface
wind speed trend has reversed (Kim and Paik, 2015). Hence, we hypothesize that
occurrence of Asian dust in South Korea can be largely captured by surface wind,
instead of air circulation at high altitude. We also hypothesize that the transition
in the trend around early 2000s is associated with expansion of cold air system
during winter over the East Asia. Detailed analysis to support these findings will be
presented.
Reference
Kim, JC., & Paik, K. (2015). Recent recovery of surface wind speed after decadal
decrease: A focus on South Korea. Climate Dynamics, (Under review). |
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