Spatiotemporal analysis of sea level pressure distribution and its relationship to sea fog occurrence

Abstract This study investigated the relationship between sea level pressure (SLP) distributions and sea fog occurrences near Baengnyeong Island (BYI) in the Yellow Sea. A spatiotemporal similarity measure was introduced to quantify the resemblance between current (2017–2019) and reference (2001–2015) SLP distributions, incorporating a 7‐h temporal variation and a spatially weighted correlation map. The analysis utilized SLP data from the European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis v5 for the period 2001–2019 and was validated against visibility observations from BYI. The results demonstrated a strong correlation between SLP distributions and sea fog occurrences. Greater similarity to reference SLP patterns corresponded to increased alignment with observed sea fog events during the current period. The probability of detection and false alarm ratio metrics confirmed the method's reliability. Compared to previous studies that focused on local meteorological factors, this study highlighted the significance of large‐scale pressure patterns in sea fog formation. These findings underscore the potential of SLP‐based approaches to improve sea fog forecasting and offer a novel framework for future research.