Accounting for spatial patterns of multiple geological data sets in geological thematic mapping using GIS-based spatial analysis

This paper presents a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based spatial analysis scheme to account for spatial patterns and association in geological thematic mapping with multiple geological data sets. The multi-buffer zone analysis, the main part of the present study, was addressed to reveal the spatial pattern around geological source primitives and statistical analysis based on a contingency table was performed to extract information for the assessment of an integrated layer. Mineral potential mapping using multiple geological data sets from Ogdong in Korea was carried out to illustrate application of this methodology. The results obtained from the case study indicated that some geochemical elements and residual magnetic anomaly dominantly affected spatial patterns of the mineral potential map in the study area and the dominant classes of input data layers were also extracted. This information on spatial patterns of multiple geological data sets around mines could be used as effective evidences for the interpretation of the integrated layer within GIS.     

Kernel Eigenspace Separation Transform for Subspace Anomaly Detection in Hyperspectral Imagery

This letter proposes a nonlinear version of the eigenspace separation transform (EST) for subspace anomaly detection in hyperspectral imaging. The EST is defined in terms of the eigenvectors of the difference correlation matrix (DCOR) obtained using the data from the two classes. Using ideas found in the machine learning literature (i.e., the kernel trick), a nonlinear version-kernel EST (KEST)-is achieved by expressing the DCOR in terms of dot products in feature space and replacing all dot products with a Mercer kernel function that is defined in terms of input data space. Experimental results indicate that KEST outperforms many other commonly used subspace anomaly detection algorithms.     

Development of the Operational Oceanographic System of Korea

Ocean Science Journal - The Korea Operational Oceanographic System (KOOS) was developed at the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (KIOST) to produce real-time forecasting and...     

Improved Chlorophyll-a Algorithm for the Satellite Ocean Color Data in the Northern Bering Sea and Southern Chukchi Sea

The Bering and Chukchi seas are an important conduit to the Arctic Ocean and are reported to be one of the most productive regions in the world’s oceans in terms of high primary productivity that sustains large numbers of fishes, marine mammals, and sea birds as well as benthic animals. Climate-induced changes in primary production and production at higher trophic levels also have been observed in the northern Bering and Chukchi seas. Satellite ocean color observations could enable the monitoring of relatively long term patterns in chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentrations that would serve as an indicator of phytoplankton biomass. The performance of existing global and regional Chl-a algorithms for satellite ocean color data was investigated in the northeastern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea using in situ optical measurements from the Healy 2007 cruise. The model-derived Chl-a data using the previous Chl-a algorithms present striking uncertainties regarding Chl-a concentrations – for example, overestimation in lower Chl-a concentrations or systematic overestimation in the northeastern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea. Accordingly, a simple two band ratio (R_rs(443)/R_rs(555)) algorithm of Chl-a for the satellite ocean color data was devised for the northeastern Bering Sea and southern Chukchi Sea. The MODIS-derived Chl-a data from July 2002 to December 2014 were produced using the new Chl-a algorithm to investigate the seasonal and interannual variations of Chl-a in the northern Bering Sea and the southern Chukchi Sea. The seasonal distribution of Chl-a shows that the highest (spring bloom) Chl-a concentrations are in May and the lowest are in July in the overall area. Chl-a concentrations relatively decreased in June, particularly in the open ocean waters of the Bering Sea. The Chl-a concentrations start to increase again in August and become quite high in September. In October, Chl-a concentrations decreased in the western area of the Study area and the Alaskan coastal waters. Strong interannual variations are shown in Chl-a concentrations in all areas. There is a slightly increasing trend in Chl-a concentrations in the northern Bering Strait (SECS). This increasing trend may be related to recent increases in the extent and duration of open waters due to the early break up of sea ice and the late formation of sea ice in the Chukchi Sea.     

Present climate simulation over Korea with a regional climate model using a one-way double-nested system

Summary This study investigates the capability of the regional climate model RegCM3 to simulate surface air temperature and precipitation over the Korean Peninsula. The model is run in one-way double nested mode, with a 60 km grid point spacing “mother” domain encompassing the eastern regions of Asia and a 20 km grid point spacing nested domain covering the Korean Peninsula. The simulation spans the three-year period of 1 October 2000 through 30 September 2003 and the boundary conditions needed to run the mother domain experiment are provided from the NCEP reanalysis of observations. The model results are compared with a high density station observation dataset to examine the fine scale structure of the surface climate signal. The model shows a good performance in capturing both the sign and magnitude of the seasonal and inter-annual variations of the surface variables both over East Asia as a whole and over the Korean Peninsula in the nested system. Some persistent biases are however present. Surface temperature is systematically underestimated, especially over mountainous regions in the warm season. This feature may be due to the relatively coarse representation of the Korean topography. The simulated precipitation over the mother domain successfully reproduces the broad spatial pattern of observed precipitation over East Asia along with its seasonal evolution. On the other hand, fine scale details from the nested results show a varying level of quality for the different individual years. Because of the better resolved topographic forcing, the increased resolution of the nested model improves the spatial agreement with the fine scale observation fields for temperature and cold season precipitation. For summer monsoon precipitation the simulation of individual monsoon convective events and tropical storms is however more important than the topographic forcing, and therefore the performance of the nested system is more case-dependent.     

Impact of Turbulent Mixing in the Stratocumulus-Topped Boundary Layer on Numerical Weather Prediction

The impact of enhanced turbulent mixing induced by radiative cooling at the top of the stratocumulus-topped boundary layer (STBL) on numerical weather prediction is examined. An additional term involving top-down turbulent mixing via in-cloud radiative cooling is applied to the Yonsei University (YSU) planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterization scheme using a top-down diffusivity profile and cloud-top entrainment. The modified scheme is evaluated in an advection fog case over the Yellow Sea of Korea using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and in global medium-range forecasts using the Global/Regional Integrated Model system (GRIMs). In the fog case simulation, consideration of the additional top-down mixing parameterization in the YSU PBL simulates less formation and more rapid dispersion of the fog. As a result, the modified scheme simulates a drier and warmer boundary layer and a moister and cooler layer above the PBL. The modified algorithm also improves surface temperature prediction over the Yellow Sea accompanying early dissipation of the fog. In the global medium-range forecast experiment, the modified scheme simulates overall enhanced PBL mixing over the STBL in the tropics and subtropical ocean, showing drier and warmer regions near the surface and moister and cooler regions above the PBL, resulting in prediction of reduced low level cloud amount and increased downward shortwave radiation at the surface. The modified scheme appears to improve systematic bias in temperature and humidity in the lower troposphere compared to the control simulation.     

Development of an Observation Processing Package for Data Assimilation in KIAPS

A new observation processing system, the Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems (KIAPS) Package for Observation Processing (KPOP), has been developed to provide optimal observation datasets to the data assimilation (DA) system for the Korean Integrated Model, KIM. This paper presents the KPOP’s conceptual design, how the principal modules have been developed, and some of their preliminary results. Currently, the KPOP is capable of processing almost all observation types used by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and some new observation types that have a positive impact in other operational centers. We have developed an adaptive bias correction (BC) method that only uses the background of the analysis time and selects the best observations through the consecutive iteration of BC and quality control (QC); it has been verified that this method will be the best suited for the KIAPS DA system until the development of variational BC (VarBC) has been completed. The requirement of considering the radiosonde balloon drift in the DA according to the increase of spatial resolution of the NWP model was accounted for using a balloon drift estimation method that considers the pressure difference and wind speed; thus the distance error was less than 1% in the sample test. Some kind of widely used methods were tested for height adjustment of the SURFACE observation, and a new method for temperature adjustment was outlined that used the correlation between temperature and relative humidity. In addition, three types of map projection were compared: the cubed-sphere (CS), equidistance (ED), and equirectangular (ER) projection for thinning. Data denial experiments were conducted to investigate how the KPOP affected the quality of the analysis fields in the three-dimensional variational data assimilation system (3D-Var). Qualified observations produced by the KPOP had a positive impact by reducing the analysis error.     

Impact of Change in Monsoonal Circulation Due to SST Warming on the North East Asian Monsoon: A Model Analysis Using Satellite Based Sub-Grid Hydrometeors

Over the North East Asia, extreme anomalous precipitation were observed in 2013 and 2014. During 2013 summer the precipitation was found to be higher (two standard deviation) than the climatological mean of the region; whereas during 2014, which was a borderline El Niño year, precipitation was found to be lower (one standard deviation). To understand the differences of these two anomalous years the Global/Regional Integrated Model system (GRIMs) has been used. The study found that low land-surface temperature and high sea-surface temperature over ocean caused a smaller land-sea contrast of surface temperature between East Asia and North West Pacific Ocean in 2014, which could have caused an eastward shift of mean monsoon circulation in that year compared to the circulation in 2013. Due to a change in the lower level circulation and wind field over East Asia the evaporation and moisture transport patterns became very different in those two years. In 2013, this study found high latent heat flux over Eastern China, which implies an increased surface evaporation over that region, and the moisture transported to the north by the mean monsoon circulation; whereas, there was no correlated transport of moisture to the North East Asia during 2014. The precipitable water over North East Asia has a stronger correlation with the latent heat flux over southern land region than that from Ocean region in the eastern side in both the years. A new approach is proposed to estimate the sub-grid scale hydrometeors from GRIMs, overestimated in the existing model.     

Sensitivity analysis of influencing parameters on slit-type barrier performance against debris flow using 3D-based numerical approach

Extreme rainfall-induced debris flow can be catastrophic to an urban area,and installation of slit-type barriers can prevent such damage while minimizing negative impact on environments.However,the performance of slit-type barriers against debris flows remains poorly identified partly due to the innate complexity in interactions between debris flow and solid structure.This paper investigated the flow behaviors of debris affected by slit-type barriers using the computational fluid dynamics(CFD)method,in which the numerical model based on the volume of fluid method was verified using the physical modeling results.The sensitivity analysis was performed by building metamodels to determine the primary parameters influencing the barrier performance against debris flows among various variables,in which the effect of input properties and design parameters,particularly the soil concentration in fluidized debris,initial velocity and volume of debris,the barrier height,and the opening ratio,was evaluated from the perspectives of the flow energy reduction and debris trapping.The initial velocity and volume of debris were found to play a significant role in determining the debris flow characteristics.A decrease in the opening ratio in the channel primarily facilitated the energy reduction and trapping due to the reduced opening size.However,the barrier height exhibited a limited effect when the height was sufficiently high to block the debris flow volume.In addition,it was observed that the double barrier system effectively increased the energy reduction while keeping the benefit of open-type barrier.The developed simulation method and obtained results provide an effective tool and an insight that can contribute to an optimum design of the debris-flow barrier.     

Comparison of Intestine Microbiota Between Wild and Farmed Korean Rockfish,Sebastes schlegelii

Ocean Science Journal - The Korean rockfish, Sebastes schlegeli, is most commonly farmed in sea cages along the coast of Korea; however, detailed information on intestinal microbiota regarding this...