RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ENSO AND DROUGHTS IN KOREA AND THE CONTINENTAL U.S.

The teleconnections between El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and droughts in Korea and the continental United States(U.S.) are investigated using cross analysis. For this purpose, monthly ENSO data and Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) for Korea and for seven states in the U.S. are used. This study shows that there are significant statistical associations between ENSO indices and PDSI for Korea; however, the associations are very weak. It is found that dry conditions in Korea are positively correlated with El Nino, while wet conditions with La Nina. SOI, SSt in the Nino 4 and Ship track 6 regions among ENSO indices are more strongly correlated with PDSI than the other ENSO indices when using the original standardized data, but the SST Nino 3, SST Nino 4, and Darwin SSP exhibit abetter correlations with PDSI when using filtered data to be removed autocorrelation components of the original standardized data. The response time lag for maximum correlation between ENSO indices and PDSI appears to be affected by filtering the data. This is expecially true for Korea than for state analyzed in U.S. In addition, it is found that the PDSI in the continental U.S. is more strongly correlated wiht ENSO than in Korea. Furthermore, in analyzing the El Nino and La Nina aggregate composite data, it is found that the dry anomalies in Korea occur from the year following El Nino to about tow years after while the wet anomalies occur from La Nina year for a period of about two years.