Song et al. (2025) Downstream Amplification of Rossby Waves in Summertime Heavy Precipitation Events Over the Korean Peninsula

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Geophysical Research Letters
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-27
• Authors: Byeong‐Gwon Song, In‐Sun Song, Hung‐I Lee
• DOI: 10.1029/2025gl117678

Research Groups

Not specified in abstract.

Short Summary

This study investigates long-lasting summertime heavy precipitation events (HPEs) over South Korea linked to quasi-stationary atmospheric rivers (QSARs), finding that westward-moving Pacific QSARs lead to HPEs preceded by downstream amplification of finite-amplitude local wave activity (LWA), suggesting LWA's utility for forecasting.

Objective

• To investigate the characteristics and dynamical mechanisms of long-lasting summertime heavy precipitation events (HPEs) over South Korea associated with quasi-stationary atmospheric rivers (QSARs).

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: South Korea and the Pacific region.
• Temporal Scale: 29 years (1996–2024) with daily resolution.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Finite-amplitude local wave activity (LWA) was calculated using ERA5 reanalysis data.
• Data sources: ERA5 reanalysis data (for daily column water vapor (CWV) and LWA), Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) precipitation data.

Main Results

• Quasi-stationary atmospheric rivers (QSARs) in the Pacific region gradually moved westward toward Korea, causing the stagnation of significant amounts of column water vapor (CWV) and precipitation near Korea.
• Downstream amplification of finite-amplitude local wave activity (LWA), linked to the westward movement of Pacific QSARs, occurred approximately 1 week before heavy precipitation events (HPEs) over South Korea.
• These findings suggest that LWA has the potential to be used in forecasting long-duration HPEs in South Korea during summer.

Contributions

• Identified the specific characteristics and dynamical mechanisms of long-lasting summertime heavy precipitation events (HPEs) over South Korea in relation to westward-moving quasi-stationary atmospheric rivers (QSARs) from the Pacific.
• Demonstrated that downstream amplification of finite-amplitude local wave activity (LWA) serves as a precursor, occurring approximately 1 week prior to these HPEs.
• Proposed LWA as a valuable diagnostic tool with potential for improving the forecasting of long-duration HPEs in South Korea.

Funding

Not specified in abstract.

Citation

@article{Song2025Downstream,
  author = {Song, Byeong‐Gwon and Song, In‐Sun and Lee, Hung‐I},
  title = {Downstream Amplification of Rossby Waves in Summertime Heavy Precipitation Events Over the Korean Peninsula},
  journal = {Geophysical Research Letters},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025gl117678},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl117678}
}