A Note on Korean Monsoon Energetics

Dong-Wook Shin and James J. O'Brien

Korean Journal of Amospheric Sciences, 6, 55-61, 2003.

Abstract

The purpose of this note is to demonstrate the role of convective systems in the synoptic-scale circulation as a driving energy source. Energy conversion can be efficiently visualized by the rotational and divergent flow interaction approach. This is also called as the psi-chi interaction. In this note the authors present the results of two case studies. Results show that convective heating dominantly leads to the generation of available potential energy, which is next converted into the divergent kinetic energy through the covariance of vertical wind and temperature. The psi-chi interaction plays a final role in the transfer of the divergent to the rotational components of kinetic energy that maintain synoptic-scale circulations, such as the Korean monsoon.