Climate change signal analysis for Northeast Asian surface temperature

Climate change detection, attribution, and prediction were studied for the surface temperature in the Northeast Asian region using NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data and three coupled-model simulations from ECHAM4/OPYC3, HadCM3, and CCCma GCMs (Canadian Centre for Climate Modeling and Analysis general circulation model). The Bayesian fingerprint approach was used to perform the detection and attribution test for the anthropogenic climate change signal associated with changes in anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) and sulfate aerosol (SO42-) concentrations for the Northeast Asian temperature. It was shown that there was a weak anthropogenic climate change signal in the Northeast Asian temperature change. The relative contribution of CO2 and SO42- effects to total temperature change in Northeast Asia was quantified from ECHAM4/OPYC3 and CCCma GCM simulations using analysis of variance. For the observed temperature change for the period of 1959-1998, the CO2 effect contributed 10%-21% of the total variance and the di     

What is responsible for increasing flood risks? The case of Gangwon Province,Korea

We examined the anthropogenic and natural causes of flood risks in six representative cities in the Gangwon Province of Korea. Flood damage per capita is mostly explained by cumulative upper 5% summer precipitation amount and the year. The increasing flood damage is also associated with deforestation in upstream areas and intensive land use in lowlands. Human encroachment on floodplains made these urban communities more vulnerable to floods. Without changes in the current flood management systems of these cities, their vulnerability to flood risks will remain and may even increase under changing climate conditions.     

Sensitivity of MM5 and WRF mesoscale model predictions of surface winds in a typhoon to planetary boundary layer parameterizations

Sea surface winds and coastal winds, which have a significant influence on the ocean environment, are very difficult to predict. Although most planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterizations have demonstrated the capability to represent many meteorological phenomena, little attention has been paid to the precise prediction of winds at the lowest PBL level. In this study, the ability to simulate sea winds of two widely used mesoscale models, fifth-generation mesoscale model (MM5) and weather research and forecasting model (WRF), were compared. In addition, PBL sensitivity experiments were performed using Medium-Range Forecasts (MRF), Eta, Blackadar, Yonsei University (YSU), and Mellor–Yamada–Janjic (MYJ) during Typhoon Ewiniar in 2006 to investigate the optimal PBL parameterizations for predicting sea winds accurately. The horizontal distributions of winds were analyzed to discover the spatial features. The time-series analysis of wind speed from five sensitivity experimental cases was compared by correlation analysis with surface observations. For the verification of sea surface winds, QuikSCAT satellite 10-m daily mean wind data were used in root-mean-square error (RMSE) and bias error (BE) analysis. The MRF PBL using MM5 produced relatively smaller wind speeds, whereas YSU and MYJ using WRF produced relatively greater wind speeds. The hourly surface observations revealed increasingly strong winds after 0300 UTC, July 10, with most of the experiments reproducing observations reliably. YSU and MYJ using WRF showed the best agreements with observations. However, MRF using MM5 demonstrated underestimated winds. The conclusions from the correlation analysis and the RMSE and BE analysis were compatible with the above-mentioned results. However, some shortcomings were identified in the improvements of wind prediction. The data assimilation of topographical data and asynoptic observations along coast lines and satellite data in sparsely observed ocean areas should make it possible to improve the accuracy of sea surface wind predictions.     

Analysis of resistivity data obtained from cone penetrometer in contaminated soil layers

In horizontally layered soils of different electrical properties, electrical potential distribution becomes complex and the obtained resistivity data may be limited in reflecting the actual soil profile. Thus the objective of this study was to identify the factors that affect resistivity measurement on the cone penetrometer and further investigate the sensitivity of measured resistivity to different types and concentrations of contaminants at the subsurface level. First, a theoretical resistivity equation was derived to provide a means of computing the geometric factor. The effective volume of measurement on the cone penetrometer was investigated and laboratory soil box tests verified the dominance of partially high resistivity regions within the effective volume of measurement over the apparent resistivity. Such effect was found to lead to possible discrepancies between the recorded resistivity data and the actual depth of measurement. Measurements on contaminated soil layers indicated that resistivity cones are efffective in delineating inorganic contaminants in soils of high water contents, and detecting NAPLs floating above the groundwater table provided that soils adjacent to the plume are not dry of water. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Effect of protection against wind according to the variation porosity of wind fence

This study examines shelter effect against the wind by using wind fence with various porosities and distance. The shelter effect of wind fence was investigated by a wind tunnel test. Flow characteristics of velocities and turbulences behind wind fence were measured using a hot-wire anemometer. This was done by varying the porosity by 0, 20, and 40% of the wind fence. The wind fence distance ranged from 1H to 9H. In addition, the overall characterization of the wind fence was investigated by measuring a total of 28 points on the wind fence, which forms a lattice structure on it with 7 points in the lateral direction and 4 points in the vertical direction. The results indicate that the degree of the turbulence is lowered and the velocity of the wind is decreased when porosity of 40% is used at a distance of 4H–7H. The effectiveness of the wind fence depends on the porosity and distance. Porosity of 20% proved to be effective for the protection area of 1H–3H, while that of 40% was effective for the protection area of 4H–6H.     

Supersonic jet formation and propagation in x-pinches

Observations of supersonic jet propagation in low-current x-pinches are reported. X-pinches comprising of four 7.5 ??m diameter tungsten wires were driven by an 80 kA, 50 ns current pulse from a compact pulser. Coronal plasma surrounding the wire cores was accelerated perpendicular to their surface due to the global J×B force, and traveled toward the axis of the x-pinch to form an axially propagating jet. These jets moved towards the electrodes and, late in time (??150 ns), were observed to propagate well above the anode with a velocity of 3.3±0.6×10⁴ m/s. Tungsten jets remained collimated at distances of up to 16 mm from the cross point, and an estimate of the local sound speed gives a Mach number of ??6. This is the first demonstration that supersonic plasma jets can be produced using x-pinches with such a small, low current pulser. Experimental data compares well to three-dimensional simulations using the GORGON resistive MHD code, and possible scaling to astrophysical jets is discussed.     

Role of piles in mitigating the movement of pipes in soft grounds during embankment loading

Abstract

Pipes buried in soft ground can be damaged due to the vertical and lateral movement of the ground during the construction of the embankment. To investigate such a movement of the soft ground, full-scale tests using embankment piles and stabilizing piles were conducted for 70?days. A pile-supported embankment has been used to reduce the deformation of soft ground by transferring the embankment load through piles to the firm layer below the soft ground, whereas stabilizing piles have been employed to resist the lateral earth pressure that is induced in soft ground by embankment loads. The Coupling Area (CA), which was defined as the quantitative index to determine the resistance effect of both settlement and lateral flow of the soft ground when the embankment was reinforced, is adapted. The analysis results of the CA indicate that the piled embankment was more effective for preventing the damage to buried pipe installed near the embankment, while the stabilizing piles had almost the same effect as the piled embankment when the pipe was buried far away from the embankment.     

Nitrogen budget of the eelgrass, Zostera marina in a bay system on the south coast of Korea

Above- and below-ground productivities and tissue N content were measured monthly to quantify N incorporation to sustain eelgrass growth in Koje Bay on the south coast of Korea from January to December 2002. N acquisition was also estimated through measurements of N uptake kinetics, tissue biomass, and in situ inorganic N concentrations in water column and sediments. Above- and below-ground productivities were highest in summer and lowest in late fall and winter. Leaf tissue N content was highest in December and lowest in July, while rhizome tissue N content was highest in October and lowest in April. Estimated monthly N incorporation by leaf tissues based on the leaf productivity and N content ranged from 0.4 g N m^?2 month^?1 in November to 2.0 g N m^?2 month^?1 in May. N incorporation by below-ground tissues ranged from 0.1 g N m^?2 month^?1 in February to 0.2 g N m^?2 month^?1 in October. Annual whole plant N incorporation was 14.5 g N m^?2 y^?1, and N incorporation by leaf tissues accounted for about 87 % of total N incorporation. Maximum uptake rate (V _max ) and half saturation constant (K _m ) of leaf NH₄ ⁺ uptake were significantly lower than those of root NH₄ ⁺ uptake. Above- and below-ground biomass ranged from 20.8 g DW m^?2 and 8.6 g DW m^?2 in winter to 350.0 g DW m^?2 and 81.3 g DW m^?2 in spring, respectively. NH₄ ⁺ concentrations varied from 0.2 to 4.3 mM in water column and from 93.0 to 551.7 mM in sediment pore water. Based on these measurements, annual N acquisition by root tissues contributed slightly higher than that by leaf tissues to total plant N acquisition. During winter, monthly leaf N acquisition was lower than monthly leaf N incorporation. This implies that Z. marina has internal nitrogen retention system to offset the shortage and excess of nitrogen.     

Description of a small goby, Trimma grammistes (Perciformes: Gobiidae), from Jeju Island, Korea

A small goby, Trimma grammistes, was described in detail as the first reliable record from Korea based on 10 specimens (27.8～34.0 mm SL) collected from the coastal waters of Jeju Island. The species is easily differentiated from congeners by having no scales on the predorsal region, VI-I, 10 dorsal fin rays modally, I, 10 anal fin rays, 18 pectoral fin rays, 27～30 longitudinal scales as well as two dark longitudinal bands on the body.     

Assessment of Dynamic Characteristics for Compaction Piles with Geophysical Logging in Soft Ground

In this paper, a case study was performed on a sand compaction pile (SCP) and a gravel compaction pile (GCP) to estimate the dynamic characteristics and the improvement effect of soft ground. The dynamic elastic modulus, shear modulus, bulk modulus, and Poisson's ratio were estimated and the dynamic characteristics were analyzed using the compression and shear wave velocity of the improved ground based on the results of suspension P- and S-wave (PS) logging. The results revealed that the dynamic properties were increased in the order of unimproved subsoil and improved subsoil using SCP and GCP. The increase in the effects of dynamic properties with each replacement ratio of SCP was not large, whereas a good increase in the effects was observed in the case of the improved subsoil with GCP. Consequently, it was presented that the resistance characteristics against the seismic loading of GCP are excellent. As a result of analyzing the density distribution of the improved subsoil through density field logging, the overall density distribution gradually exhibits increasing trends in the order of unimproved subsoil and improved subsoil with SCP and GCP. Thus, the improvement effect of GCP was relatively high in comparison with the same replacement ratio of SCP.