Numerical and observational studies of fogs formed over the southern coastal region of the Korean Peninsula

Fog is a meteorological phenomenon that restricts visibility by suspending water droplets and/or ice crystals. Therefore more accurate fog forecasting is essential for the safety of highway traffics and aircraft operation at airports. However, studies of fog formation mechanisms are very difficult due to measurement limitations and coarse vertical resolution of numerical models. In this study, we use a coupled model system of a 3D mesoscale model (WRF) and a single column model with a fine vertical resolution (PAFOG, PArameterized FOG) to analyze the formation mechanisms of the fogs that forms over the southern coastal region of the Korean Peninsula, where National Center for Intensive Observation of Severe Weather (NCIO) is located. Established in 2013, NCIO is unique in that a 300 m meteorological tower is built at the location to measure basic meteorological variables (temperature, dew point temperature and winds) at eleven different altitudes, and comprehensive cloud physics measurements are made with the various remote sensing instruments such as cloud radar, wind profiler, microwave radiometer, micro rain radar. The comprehensive set of measurement data from NCIO will be analyzed for empirical understanding of fog formation mechanism in this region. In the meantime, the vertical meteorological profiles obtained from the tower will also be used as initial and boundary conditions to the coupled model system. Performance of the coupled model system is dependent highly on the provided initial and boundary conditions. With such high time and vertical resolution measurement dataset, we expect to see good performance of the coupled model system. Ultimately we expect that this study becomes a good opportunity to enhance our understanding of the fog formation mechanisms over the southern coastal region of the Korean Peninsula. Detailed results will be discussed at the conference.