Dolomitization of Carbonate Periplatform Deposit,Machari Formation (Middle to Late Cambrian),Korea

The petrography, the geochemistry and the burial history all constrain the origin and modification history of dolomites in an ancient periplatform carbonate slope deposit,the Machari Formation (late Miclclle to early Late Cambrian),Korea. The formation is mainly composed of rhythmic bedding. laminated to bedded lime mudstone alternating with argillaceous lime mudstone. The rhythmic bedding is a product of the deposition of offshore periplatform ooze and hemipelagic clay on a periplatform slope. This formation also shows minor and intermittent influx of other lithofacies including the bioclastic-peloidal packstone, peloidal wackestone, and intraclasts deposited as turbidites. Five types of dolomite occur in the Machari Formation, whose occurrence.texture and geochemistry provide an insight into origin and modification history.     

Fatigue strength assessment of MARK-III type LNG cargo containment system

The aim of this paper is to investigate the fatigue strength of the GTT Mark-III type LNG insulation system. The LNG insulation system consists of several composite layers with various connections; plywood, triplex, reinforced polyurethane foam and mastic. Consequently, the LNG insulation system may include mechanical failures such as cracks as well as delaminations within the layers due to sloshing impact loads and fatigue loadings. In addition, these failures may cause a significant decrease of structural integrity. In this study, a series of fatigue tests have been carried out for Mark-III type LNGC insulation systems at room temperature considering the effect of sloshing impact. The load levels have been determined based on the ultimate strength of reinforced polyurethane foam. The aim of the study is to investigate the typical failure characteristics of the MARK-III LNG insulation system and to obtain the S–N data under fatigue loading. A consolidated single S–N curve is obtained based on a systematic finite element procedure. Future use of the S–N data in fatigue analysis requires that the response analysis is carried out using a finite element model with the same mesh density and material properties. This study can be used as a fundamental study for the fatigue assessment of the LNGC insulation system as well as a design guideline.     

Numerical analysis of effects of tidal variations on storm surges and waves

This study examines the effects of tides on surges, wave setups and waves, in terms of tidal amplitudes and phases, by using a coupled numerical model of Surge, WAve and Tide (called as SuWAT). The SuWAT model, composed of depth integrated nonlinear shallow water equations and Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) model, is able to simultaneously run with an arbitrary number of nested domains by using the Message Passing Interface. The results for an idealized case indicate that surge and wave setup are increased in the phase of low water and decreased in the high water phase; on the other hand, waves change in a reverse manner. Such changes are enhanced by large tidal variations. The conventional method (e.g., surge plus tide independently) has the possibility of overestimation for the total water level. The hindcast results for Typhoon Ewiniar in 2006 show that the run with tides is more accurate 10% than that without tides in coastal areas of Korea. The nested scheme improves the accuracy up to 40% for the prediction of water levels in the simulations. It is shown that the present coupled model, SuWAT, is capable of predicting both water levels and waves under storm events with reasonable accuracy against the observations.     

A study on the transition mechanism of a stratus cloud into a warm sea fog using a single column model PAFOG coupled with WRF

The transition mechanism of stratus cloud into warm sea fog over the Yellow Sea near the western coastal area of the Korean Peninsula is investigated using numerical simulation with a 1D turbulence model, PAFOG, coupled with a 3D regional model, WRF. The coupled model system was run in the two approaches, Eulerian and Lagrangian. For the selected warm sea fog case, the model results in the Eulerian approach showed that the bottom of the stratus cloud was lowered by cooling of the air just below the cloud base by turbulent heat loss. The Lagrangian approach showed the lowering of the stratus cloud top, owing to the evaporation of cloud droplets in this region by the entrainment of warm and dry air above the cloud top. The sensitivity test to SST indicated that the timing of water vapor saturation just below the cloud base depended on the magnitude of the turbulent heat flux from the sea surface. The subsidence rate was found to be important: when the subsidence rate was set to be half of the prescribed value, neither the lowering of the stratus cloud top nor the bottom occurred and the model could not produce a fog.     

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.     

Estimation and Projection of Non-Linear Relative Sea-Level Rise in the Seto Inland Sea,Japan

Future sea-level rise (SLR) in and around the Seto Inland Sea (SIS), Japan, is estimated in 2050 and 2100 using ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and long-term sea-level records. Ensemble empirical mode decomposition, an adaptive data analysis method, can separate sea-level records into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) from high to low frequencies and a residual. The residual is considered a non-linear trend in the sea-level records. The mean SLR trend at Tokuyama in the SIS from EEMD is 3.00?mm?y^?1 from 1993 to 2010, which is slightly lower than the recent altimetry-based global rate of 3.3?±?0.4?mm?y^?1 during the same period. Uncertainty in SLR is estimated by considering interdecadal variations in the sea levels. The resulting SLR in 2050 and 2100 for Tokuyama is 0.19?±?0.06?m and 0.56?±?0.18?m, respectively. The stations along the coast of the Pacific Ocean display a greater and more rapid SLR in 2100 compared with other stations in the SIS. The SLR is caused not only by mass and volume changes in the sea water but also by other factors, such as local subsidence, tectonic motion, and river discharge. The non-linear trend of SLR, which is the residual from EEMD, is interpreted as the sum of the local factors that contribute to the sea-level budget.     

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.     

Ship measurements of submicron aerosol size distributions over the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea

During the spring of 2005, the total particle concentrations and the submicron aerosol size distributions were measured on board the research vessel over the south sea of Korea and the Korean sector of the Yellow Sea. Similar measurements were made over the East China Sea in autumn 2005. The aerosol properties varied dynamically according to the meteorological conditions, the proximity to the land masses and the air mass back trajectories. The average total particle concentration was the lowest over the East China Sea, 4335 ± 2736 cm^− 3, but the instantaneous minimum, 837 cm^− 3, for the entire ship measurement was recorded during the Yellow Sea cruise. There was also a long (more than 6 h) stretch of low total particle concentrations that fell as low as 1025 cm^− 3 during the East China Sea cruise when the ship was the farthest from the shores and the air mass back trajectories resided long hours over the sea. These observations lead to the suggestion of ~ 1000 cm^− 3 as the background total particle concentration over the marine boundary layer in the studied region of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea, implying significant anthropogenic influence even for the background value. In the mean time, average aerosol size distributions were unimodal and the mode diameter ranged between 52 and 86 nm, excluding the fog periods, which suggests that the aerosols measured in this study experienced relatively less aging processes within the marine boundary layer.     

Geochemistry of Quaternary sediments of the Jeongokri archaeological site,Korea: implications for provenance and palaeoenvironments during the Late Pleistocene

The geochemical characteristics of an approximately 6‐m‐long sediment core collected from the Jeongokri archaeological site (Hantan River, Korea) were examined to determine the provenance of the sediments and to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment of the study area during the Late Pleistocene (200–127 ka). The core sediments were subdivided into two parts based on grain size: an upper (0–380 cm depth) and lower part (>380 cm depth). The lower part was deposited primarily by fluvial processes during an interglacial period [marine isotope stage (MIS) 7] with warm and humid conditions. Conversely, the upper part was mainly deposited by aeolian processes during a cold and dry glacial period (MIS 6). Geochemical characteristics, represented by major, trace and rare earth element (REE) compositions, and textures of the Jeongokri core sediments show distinct differences between the upper and lower parts. The mineralogy and major, trace and REE compositions indicate that the influence of felsic source rocks (e.g. granite) was dominant in the lower sediments, which were derived from the Hantan River. In contrast, increased quartz content and the very fine and homogeneous grain size in the upper sediments indicate an aeolian origin. REE ratios and distribution patterns, and geochemical signatures indicate that these sediments were derived predominantly from Chinese loess deposits and partially from local sediments from the Korean Peninsula; the possible source area of the upper sediments is the northern part of the Yellow Sea basin. The Yellow Sea basin, having mixed geochemical signatures between Chinese loess and Korean‐derived sediments, was exposed because of low sea levels during MIS 6. The exposed Yellow Sea basin was located in the path of winter‐monsoon winds, which may have carried a great deal of airborne sediments from the basin to the Jeongokri area. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.