Abstract
Recent studies that characterize central tropical Pacific warming (often referred to as El Niño Modoki) and its teleconnections to East Asia show coherent teleconnection patterns during boreal summer. Observed increases in the frequency of El Niño Modoki and a lack of understanding regarding its impacts on precipitation over the Korean peninsula motivate our work. In this study, we investigate the regional precipitation patterns over South Korea associated with El Niño and El Niño Modoki events during the June-September season. The results show significant and consistent increases in the seasonal precipitation totals and maximum precipitation, as well as extreme rainy days during the decay of El Niño Modoki. In contrast, there is a reduction of moisture fluxes into South Korea in the case of the eastern Pacific El Niño. The analysis presented here provides an improved understanding of the potential impacts of the tropical Pacific sea surface temperature on warm-season (June-September) water availability and hydrometeorological extremes over the Korean peninsula.
