Possible Link Between Arctic Sea Ice and January PM10 Concentrations in South Korea

• Published in: Atmosphere
• Main Authors: Jeong-Hun Kim, Maeng-Ki Kim, Chang-Hoi Ho, Rokjin J. Park, Minjoong J. Kim, Jaehyun Lim, Seong-Joong Kim, Chang-Keun Song
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute 2019
• Subjects: PM 10; Artic sea ice; ventilation effect; pollution potential index; Barents Sea; Siberian high; Aleutian low; teleconnection; Korea; Arctic; aleutian low; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10100619

In this study, we investigated the possible teleconnection between PM10 concentrations in South Korea and Arctic Sea ice concentrations at inter-annual time scales using observed PM10 data from South Korea, NCEP R2 data, and NOAA Sea Ice Concentration (SIC) data from 2001 to 2018. From the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis, we found that the first mode (TC1) was a large-scale mode for PM10 in South Korea and explained about 27.4% of the total variability. Interestingly, the TC1 is more dominantly influenced by the horizontal ventilation effect than the vertical atmospheric stability effect. The pollution potential index (PPI), which is defined by the weighted average of the two ventilation effects, is highly correlated with the TC1 of PM10 at a correlation coefficient of 0.75, indicating that the PPI is a good measure for PM10 in South Korea at inter-annual time scales. Regression maps show that the decrease of SIC over the Barents Sea is significantly correlated with weakening of high pressure over the Ural mountain range region, the anomalous high pressure at 500 hPa over the Korean peninsula, and the weakening of the Siberian High and Aleutian low. Moreover, these patterns are similar to the correlation pattern with the PPI, suggesting that the variability of SIC over the Barents Sea may play an important role in modulating the variability of PM10 in South Korea through teleconnection from the Barents Sea to the Korean peninsula via Eurasia.