A Yellow Sea Fog Observations and Modeling using the Korea Ocean Research Stations: FATIMA-YS Case

The objective of this work is to analyze fog variability using data from the Korea Ocean Research Stations (K-ORSs), including the Socheongcho (S-ORS), Gageocho (G-ORS) and Ieodo (I-ORS) Ocean Research Station, as well as data from R/V Onnuri during FATIMA-YS (From the 20 June, 2023 to 09 July 2023, over the Yellow Sea). Sea fog by reducing visibilities (Vis) can impact coastal regions by increasing the risk of maritime and aviation accidents. It can also affect the local weather and climate by reducing incoming solar radiation that affects atmospheric temperature and moisture profiles. The Yellow Sea is the influenced frequently by the fog along the Korean coastlines. In the Yellow sea, sea fog often contributes to serious transport accidents in the open sea and coastal regions. Therefore, accurately monitoring and predicting sea fog in the Yellow Sea is imperative. The K-ORSs are a steel-framed tower-type platform located along the Yellow Sea (S-ORS, G-ORS) and South China Sea (I-ORS) and designed to monitor long-term oceanic variance, enabling interdisciplinary scientific investigation.

In this presentation, we summarized IOPs from the FATIMA-YS campaign and these IOPs observations are used to verify NWP model simulations. Accurate sea fog simulation remains challenging for NWP models. In the simulations, the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) and Parameterized Fog model (PAFOG) were used simultaneously for IOP analysis. The fog Vis was collected with a present weather detector (PWD). Turbulent fluxes have been observed by an open-path eddy covariance system composed of a sonic anemometer and an open-path infrared gas analyzer. The sonic anemometer is installed on the S-ORS intermediate deck at the height of 7m and 10m from the mean sea level to obtain a direct air-sea interaction process. All data were subject to quality control to detect any unrealistic value checks before analysis using EasyFlux. The ceilometer (CL31) measured the backscatter profiles of the range corrected signals. Based on CL31 observations, the heights of cloud bases, inversion bases, and PBL heights can be determined over time. Radiosonde observation was also used for verification purposes. In the presentation, the results from the analysis of WRF-PAFOG simulations along with field observations, such as SORS data, will be summarized and comparisons will be performed.