Abstract
It is well known that when the Siberian High expands to the western part of the East Sea (Japan Sea), the distribution of snowfall amount is mainly controlled by the topography. Therefore, the maximum area of the precipitation is typically located over the slopes and near the summit of the Taebaek Mountains (called Type A). However, sometimes there were snowfall maxima near the Yeongdong coastal area of Korea rather than the neighboring mountains (called Type B) for some events. Two heavy snowfall events of 20–21 January 2008 of Type A (named by Event A) and of 13 January 2008 of Type B (named by Event B) were selected to understand the differences in the locations of snowfall maxima in the Yeongdong region of Korea. To do so, we investigated the differences between the two events in the movement of the air parcels leading to the understanding of the heavy snowfall mechanism using 3-dimensional trajectory analyses which applied the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) high resolution output as 3-dimensional meteorological fields. In this study, an upward motion under the influence of the northeasterly wind was observed along the slope of the mountains during Event A. In contrast, there was a strong downward motion along the slope of the mountains under the influence of the northwesterly wind while the parcels were reaching Gangneung (GN, hereafter) during the snowfall period of Event B. Furthermore, during Event B, the convergence of the parcels different in potential temperature and mixing ratio, yielded a favorable condition for forming a coastal front (discontinuity zone) around the Yeongdong coastal area. This lead to heavy snowfall over GN in the coastal plain region rather than in Daegwallyeong (DG, hereafter) near the summit of the Taebaek Mountains, which differs from the snowfall distribution of Event A.
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Lee, J.G., Kim, SD. & Kim, YJ. A trajectory study on the heavy snowfall phenomenon in Yeongdong Region of Korea. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 47, 45–62 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-011-1004-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-011-1004-9