Factors controlling typhoons and storm rain on the Korean Peninsula during the Little Ice Age

Abstract

Documenting multi-decadal typhoon and storm-rain variability is useful to prevent future typhoon and flood disasters. We present the history of typhoon and storm-rain activity in East Asia inferred from multi-proxy analyses of Lagoon Hwajin-po sediments along the eastern coast of Korea. Anthropogenic effects were enhanced in Lagoon Hwajin-po since ca. AD 1900, by increasing farming in the catchment. To avoid these human-induced effects, we reconstructed the history of typhoon and storm-rain activity only for the interval AD 1400–1900. The record indicates that typhoon frequency throughout the Korean Peninsula varied in response to the state of the El Nino/Southern Oscillation. Typhoon variability was likely modulated further by the state of the East Asia summer monsoon (EASM) pattern, associated with variation in the magnitude of solar irradiance. During periods of minimum solar activity, such as the early Maunder Minimum (AD 1650–1675), typhoons struck the east China coast and Korean Peninsula more frequently because of a strengthened EASM.