• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.403-412
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• 2018

In this study, a three-dimensional variational(3DVAR) data assimilation system was developed for the operational numerical weather prediction(NWP) system at the Republic of Korea Air Force Weather Group. The Air Force NWP system utilizes the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF) meso-scale regional model to provide weather information for the military service. Thus, the data assimilation system was developed based on the WRF model. Experiments were conducted to identify the nested model domain to assimilate observations and the period appropriate in estimating the background error covariance(BEC) in 3DVAR. The assimilation of observations in domain 2 is beneficial to improve 24-h forecasts in domain 3. The 24-h forecast performance does not change much depending on the estimation period of the BEC in 3DVAR. The results of this study provide a basis to establish the operational data assimilation system for the Republic of Korea Air Force Weather Group.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.387-400
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• 2012

This study aims at examining the sensitivity of numerical simulations to the resolution of initial and boundary data, and to an application of WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) 3DVAR (Three Dimension Variational data Assimilation). To do this, we ran the WRF model by using GDAS (Global Data Assimilation System) FNL (Final analyses) and the KLAPS (Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System) analyses as the WRF's initial and boundary data, and by using an initial field made by assimilating the radar data to the KLAPS analyses. For the sensitivity experiment, we selected a heavy rainfall case of 21 September 2010, where there was localized torrential rain, which was recorded as 259.5 mm precipitation in a day at Seoul. The result of the simulation using the FNL as initial and boundary data (FNL exp) showed that the localized heavy rainfall area was not accurately simulated and that the simulated amount of precipitation was about 4% of the observed accumulated precipitation. That of the simulation using KLAPS analyses as initial and boundary data (KLAPC exp) showed that the localized heavy rainfall area was simulated on the northern area of Seoul-Gyeonggi area, which renders rather difference in location, and that the simulated amount was underestimated as about 6.4% of the precipitation. Finally, that of the simulation using an initial field made by assimilating the radar data to the KLAPS using 3DVAR system (KLAP3D exp) showed that the localized heavy rainfall area was located properly on Seoul-Gyeonggi area, but still the amount itself was underestimated as about 29% of the precipitation. Even though KLAP3D exp still showed an underestimation in the precipitation, it showed the best result among them. Even if it is difficult to generalize the effect of data assimilation by one case, this study showed that the radar data assimilation can somewhat improve the accuracy of the simulated precipitation.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-16
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• 2011

Numerical prediction capability has been improved over the decades, but progress of prediction for high-impact weather (HIW) was unsatisfactory. One reason of low predictability for HIW is lack of observation data. The National Institute of Meteorological Research (NIMR) has been performed observation program for improvement of predictability, and reduction in social and economical cost for HIW. As part of this observation program, summer intensive observation program (ProbeX-2009) was performed at the observation-gap areas from 25 August to 6 September 2009. Sounding observations using radiosonde were conducted in the Gisang2000 research vessel (R/V) from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) over the West Sea and the Eardo R/V from the Korea Ocean Research and Development Institute (KORDI) over the South Sea. Observation System Experiment (OSE) is carried out to examine the effect of ProbeX-2009 data. OSEs using Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS) and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model are conducted to investigate the predictability for a short time forecast. And, OSEs using WRF/3DVAR system and WRF forecast model are conducted to study the predictability for an extended time. Control experiment (K_CTL and CNTL) used only GTS observation and experiment (K_EXP and SWEXP) used ProbeX-2009 data from two system are performed. ETS for 3hr accumulated rainfall simulated by KLAPS-WRF shows that K_EXP is higher than K_CTL. Also, ETS for 12hr accumulated rainfall of SWEXP from 3DVAR-WRF is higher than CNTL. The results indicate that observation over the ocean has positive impact on HIW prediction.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.573-584
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• 2017

In order to simulate a typhoon precisely, the satellite observation data has been assimilated using WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting model) three-Dimensional Variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system. The observation data used in 3DVAR was GPS Radio Occultation (GPS-RO) data which is loaded on Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite. The refractivity of Earth is deduced by temperature, pressure, and water vapor. GPS-RO data can be obtained with this refractivity when the satellite passes the limb position with respect to its original orbit. In this paper, two typhoon cases were simulated to examine the characteristics of data assimilation. One had been occurred in the Western Pacific from 16 to 25 October, 2015, and the other had affected Korean Peninsula from 22 to 29 August, 2012. In the simulation results, the typhoon track between background (BGR) and assimilation (3DV) run were significantly different when the track appeared to be rapidly change. The surface wind speed showed large difference for the long forecasting time because the GPS-RO data contained much information in the upper level, and it took a time to impact on the surface wind. Along with the modified typhoon track, the differences in the horizontal distribution of accumulated rain rate was remarkable with the range of -600~500 mm. During 7 days, we estimated the characteristics between daily assimilated simulation (3DV) and initial time assimilation (3DV_7). Because 3DV_7 demonstrated the accurate track of typhoon and its meteorological variables, the differences in two experiments have found to be insignificant. Using observed rain rate data at 79 surface observatories, the statistical analysis has been carried on for the evaluation of quantitative improvement. Although all experiments showed underestimated rain amount because of low model resolution (27 km), the reduced Mean Bias and Root-Mean-Square Error were found to be 2.92 mm and 4.53 mm, respectively.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.179-194
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• 2020

The present study aims to evaluate the effects of satellite-based SST (OSTIA) assimilation on a regional ocean circulation model for the Yellow and East China Seas (YECS), using three different assimilation methods: the Ensemble Optimal Interpolation (EnOI), Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF), and 4-Dimensional Variational (4DVAR) techniques, which are widely used in the ocean modeling communities. The model experiments show that an improved initial condition by assimilating the SST affects the seasonal water temperature and water mass distributions of the YECS. In particular, the SST data assimilation influences the temperature structures horizontally and vertically in winter, thereby improving the behavior of the YS warm current water. This is due to the fact that during wintertime the water column is well mixed, which is directly updated by the SST assimilation. The model comparisons indicate that the SST assimilation can improve the model performance in resolving the subsurface structures in wintertime, but has a relatively small impact in summertime due to the strong stratification. The differences among the different assimilation experiments are obvious when the SST was sharply changed due to a typhoon passage. Overall, the EnKF and 4DVAR show better agreement with the observations than the EnOI. The relatively low performance of EnOI under storm conditions may be related with a limitation of EnOI method whereby an analysis is obtained from a number of climatological fields, and thus the typhoon-induced SST changes in short-time scales may not be adequately reflected in the data assimilation.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.285-296
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• 2007

The Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) from GPS with high resolution in terms of time and space might reduce the limitations of the numerical weather prediction (NWP) model for easily variable phenomena, such as precipitation and cloud. We have converted to PWV from Global Positioning System (GPS) data of Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) and Ministry of Maritime Affairs & Fisheries (MOMAF). First of all, we have selected the heavy rainfall case of having a predictability limitation in time and space due to small-scale motion. In order to evaluate the effect for GPS PWV, we have executed the sensitivity experiment with PWV from GPS data over Korean peninsula in the Weather Research & Forecasting 3-Dimensional Variational (WRF-3DVAR). We have also suggested the direction of further research for an improvement of the predictability of NWP model on the basis of this case.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.689-701
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• 2010

The effects of high-resolution wind profiler (HWP) data on the wind distributions were evaluated in two different coastal areas during the study period (23-26 August, 2007), indicating weak-gradient flows. The analysis was performed using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with a three-dimensional variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system. For the comparison purpose, two coastal regions were selected as: a southwestern coastal (SWC) region characterized by a complex shoreline and a eastern coastal (EC) region surrounding a simple coastline and high mountains. The influence of data assimilation using the HWP data on the wind distributions in the SWC region was moderately higher than that of the EC region. In comparison between the wind speed and direction in the two coastal areas, the application of the HWP data contributed to improvement of the wind direction distribution in the SWC region and the wind strength in the EC region, respectively. This study suggests that the application of the HWP data exerts a large impact on the change in wind distributions over the sea and thus can contribute to the solution to lack of satellite and buoy data with their observational uncertainty.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.215-224
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• 2014

Data assimilation effect of mobile rawinsonde observation was evaluated using Unified Model (UM) with a Three-Dimensional Variational (3DVAR) data assimilation system during the intensive observation program of 2013 summer season (rainy season: 20 June-7 July 2013, heavy rain period: 8 July-30 July 2013). The analysis was performed by two sets of simulation experiments: (1) ConTroL experiment (CTL) with observation data provided by Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and (2) Observing System Experiment (OSE) including both KMA and mobile rawinsonde observation data. In the model verification during the rainy season, there were no distinctive differences for 500 hPa geopotential height, 850 hPa air temperature, and 300 hPa wind speed between CTL and OSE simulation due to data limitation (0000 and 1200 UTC only) at stationary rawinsonde stations. In contrast, precipitation verification using the hourly accumulated precipitation data of Automatic Synoptic Observation System (ASOS) showed that Equivalent Threat Score (ETS) of the OSE was improved by about 2% compared with that of the CTL. For cases having a positive effect of the OSE simulation, ETS of the OSE showed a significantly higher improvement (up to 41%) than that of the CTL. This estimation thus suggests that the use of mobile rawinsonde observation data using UM 3DVAR could be reasonable enough to assess the improvement of prediction accuracy.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.241-255
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• 2019

Bias correction (BC) and quality control (QC) are essential steps for the proper use of satellite observations in data assimilation (DA) system. BC should be calculated over quality controlled observation. And also QC should be performed for bias corrected observation. In the Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems (KIAPS) Package for Observation Processing (KPOP), we adopted an adaptive BC method that calculates the BC coefficients with background at the analysis time rather than using static BC coefficients. In this study, we have developed an iterative QC-BC method for Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) to reduce the negative feedback from the interaction between BC and QC. The new iterative QC-BC is evaluated in the KIAPS 3-dimensional variational (3DVAR) DA cycle for January 2016. The iterative QC-BC method for AMSU-A shows globally significant benefits for error reduction of the temperature. The positive impacts for the temperature were predominant at latitudes of $30^{\circ}{\sim}90^{\circ}$ of both hemispheres. Moreover, the background warm bias across the troposphere is decreased. Even though AMSU-A is mainly designed for atmospheric temperature sounding, the improvement of AMSU-A pre-processing module has a positive impact on the wind component over latitudes of $30^{\circ}S$ near upper-troposphere, respectively. Consequently, the 3-day-forecast-accuracy is improved about 1% for temperature and zonal wind in the troposphere.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.4 no.3
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• pp.198-210
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• 2010

Precise analysis of local winds for the prediction of atmospheric phenomena in the planetary boundary layer is extremely important. In this study, wind profiler data with fine time resolution and density in the lower troposphere were used to improve the performance of a numerical atmospheric model of a complex coastal area. Three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVAR) was used to assimilate profiler data. Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of the profiler data on model results. First, we performed an observing system experiment. Second, we implemented a sensitivity test of data assimilation intervals to extend the advantages of the profiler to data assimilation. The lowest errors were observed when using both radio sonde and profiler data to interpret vertical and surface observation data. The sensitivity to the assimilation interval differed according to the synoptic conditions when the focus was on the surface results. The sensitivity to the weak synoptic effect was much larger than to the strong synoptic effect. The hourly-assimilated case showed the lowest root mean square error (RMSE, 1.62 m/s) and highest index of agreement (IOA, 0.82) under weak synoptic conditions, whereas the statistics in the 1, 3, and 6 hourly-assimilated cases were similar under strong synoptic conditions. This indicates that the profiler data better represent complex local circulation in the model with high time and vertical resolution, particularly when the synoptic effect is weak.