Simulation of Advective Sea Fog Associated with Cold Water Upwelling Using High Resolution SST Data
Abstract
The present study aimed to analyze the differences in cold water mass formation over ocean according to sea surface temperature (SST) resolution and its effects on the occurrence and distribution of sea fog over the southeastern part of Korean Peninsula from June 23July 1, 2016. Data from the Final Operational Model Global Tropospheric Analyses (FNL) were provided at 1 and 0.25 resolutions and NOAA real-time global sea surface temperature (RTG-SST) at 0.083. While conventional atmospheric simulations have used initial SST distributions throughout the entire simulation period, small-scale and rapidly developing oceanic phenomena (e.g., cold water masses) lasting for several days act as an important mediating factor between the lower atmosphere and sea. The RTG-SST was successful at identifying fog presence and maintained the widest horizontal distribution extent of cold water masses. In addition, it was confirmed that the difference in SST resolution led to varying sizes and strengths of the warm pools that provided water vapor from the open sea area to the atmosphere. On examining the horizontal water vapor transport and the vertical structure of the generated sea fog using an RTG-SST, it was found that water vapors were continuously introduced by the southwesterly winds from June 29th to 30th, creating a fog event throughout the June 30th. Accordingly, high-resolution SST data must be input into numerical models whenever possible. It is expected that the findings of this study can contribute to the reduction of ship accidents via the accurate simulation of sea fog.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFM.A45K2004P