• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2018

Providing high-quality meteorological observation data at sites that represent actual farming environments is essential for useful agrometeorological services. The Automated Agricultural Observing System (AAOS) of the Korean Meteorological Administration, however, has been deployed on lawns rather than actual farm land. In this study, we show the inaccuracies that arise in AAOS data by analyzing temporal and vertical variation and by comparing them with data recorded by the National Center for AgroMeteorology (NCAM) tower that is located at an actual farming site near the AAOS tower. The analyzed data were gathered in August and October (before and after harvest time, respectively). Observed air temperature and water vapor pressure were lower at AAOS than at NCAM tower before and after harvest time. Observed reflected shortwave radiation tended to be higher at AAOS than at NCAM tower. Soil variables showed bigger differences than meteorological observation variables. In August, observed soil temperature was lower at NCAM tower than at AAOS with smaller diurnal changes due to irrigation. The soil moisture observed at NCAM tower continuously maintained its saturation state, while the one at AAOS showed a decreasing trend, following an increase after rainfall. The trend changed in October. Observed soil temperature at NCAM showed similar daily means with higher diurnal changes than at AAOS. The soil moisture observed at NCAM was continuously higher, but both AAOS and NCAM showed similar trends. The above results indicate that the data gathered at the AAOS are inaccurate, and that ground surface cover and farming activities evoke considerable differences within the respective meteorological and soil environments. We propose to shift the equipment from lawn areas to actual farming sites such as rice paddies, farms and orchards, so that the gathered data are representative of the actual agrometeorological observations.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.238-249
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• 2019

The evapotranspiration is estimated based on weather factors such as temperature, wind speed and humidity, and the Hargreaves equation is a simple equation for calculating evapotranspiration using temperature data. However, the Hargreaves equation tends to be underestimated in areas with wind speeds above 3 m s^-1 and overestimated in areas with high relative humidity. The study was conducted to determine Hargreaves equation coefficient in 82 regions in Korea by comparing evapotranspiration determined by modified Hargreaves equation and the Penman-Monteith equation for the time period of 2008~2018. The modified Hargreaves coefficients for 50 inland areas were estimated to be 0.00173~0.00232(average 0.00196), which is similar to or lower than the default value 0.0023. On the other hand, there are 32 coastal areas, and the modified coefficients ranged from 0.00185 to 0.00303(average 0.00234). The east coastal area was estimated to be similar to or higher than the default value, while the west and south coastal areas showed large deviations by area. As results of estimating the evapotranspiration by the modified Hargreaves coefficient, root mean square error(RMSE) is reduced from 0.634~1.394(average 0.857) to 0.466~1.328(average 0.701), and Nash-Sutcliffe Coefficient(NSC) increased from -0.159~0.837(average 0.647) to -0.053~0.910(average 0.755) compared with original Hargreaves equation. Therefore, we confirmed that the Hargreaves equation can be overestimated or underestimated compared to the Penman-Monteith equation, and expected that it will be able to calculate the high accuracy evapotranspiration using the modified Hargreaves equation. This study will contribute to water resources planning, irrigation schedule, and environmental management.