• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.281-289
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• 2015

Information on sunshine duration and solar radiation are indispensable to the understanding of crop growth and development. Yet, relevant variables are not available in the Korea Meteorological Administration's (KMA) digital forecast. We proposed the methods of estimating sunshine duration and solar radiation based on the 'sky condition' of digital forecast products and validated using the observed data. The sky condition values (1 for clear, 2 for partly cloudy, 3 for cloudy, and 4 for overcast) were collected from 22 weather stations at 3-hourly intervals from August 2013 to July 2015. According to the observed relationship, these data were converted to the corresponding amount of clouds on the 0 to 10 scale (0 for clear, 4 for partly cloudy, 7 for cloudy, and 10 for overcast). An equation for the cloud amount-sunshine duration conversion was derived from the 3-year observation data at three weather stations with the highest clear day sunshine ratio (i.e., Daegwallyeong, Bukgangneung, and Busan). Then, the estimated sunshine hour data were used to run the Angstrom-Prescott model which was parameterized with the long-term KMA observations, resulting in daily solar radiation for the three weather stations. Comparison of the estimated sunshine duration and solar radiation with the observed at those three stations showed that the root mean square error ranged from 1.5 to 1.7 hours for sunshine duration and from 2.5 to $3.0MJ\;m^{-2}\;day^{-1}$ for solar radiation, respectively.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.19-33
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• 2016

Water vapor in the atmosphere is an important element that generates various meteorological phenomena and modifies a hydrological cycle. In general, the Yeongdong region has a lot of snow compared to the other regions in winter due to the complex topography and an adjacent East Sea. However, the phase change from water vapor to ice cloud and further snowfall has little been examined in detail. Therefore, in this study, we investigated phase change of liquid water in terms of a quantitative budget as well as time lag of water vapor conversion to snowfall in the ESSAY (Experiment on Snow Storms At Yeongdong) campaign that had been carried out from 2012 to 2015. First, we classified 3 distinctive synoptic patterns such as Low Crossing, Low Passing, and Stagnation. In general, the amount of water vapor of Low Crossing is highest, and Low Passing, Stagnation in order. The snowfall intensity of Stagnation is highest, whereas that of Low Crossing is the lowest, when a sharp increase in water vapor and accordingly a following increase in precipitation are shown with the remarkable time lag. Interestingly, the conversion rate of water vapor to snowfall seems to be higher (about 10%) in case of the Stagnation type in comparison with the other types at Bukgangneung, which appears to be attributable to significant cooling caused by cold surge in the lower atmosphere. Although the snowfall is generally preceded by an increase in water vapor, its amount converted into the snowfall is also controlled by the atmosphere condition such as temperature, super-saturation, etc. These results would be a fundamental resource for an improvement of snowfall forecast in the Yeongdong region and the successful experiment of weather modification in the near future.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.32 no.12
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• pp.899-914
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• 2023

Various seeding materials for cloud seeding are being used, and sodium chloride powder is one of them, which is commonly used. This study analyzed the experimental results of multi-aircraft cloud seeding in connection with Republic of Korea Air Force (CN235) and KMA/NIMS(Korea Meteorological Administration/National Institute of Meteorological Sciences) Atmospheric Research Aircraft. Powdered sodium chloride was used in CN235 for the first time in South Korea. The analysis of the cloud particle size distributions and radar reflectivity before and after cloud seeding showed that the growth efficiency of powdery seeding material in the cloud is slightly higher than that of hygroscopic flare composition in the distribution of number concentrations by cloud aerosol particle diameter (10 ~ 1000 ㎛). Considering the radar reflectivity, precipitation, and numerical model simulation, the enhanced precipitation due to cloud seeding was calculated to be a maximum of 3.7 mm for 6 hours. The simulated seeding effect area was about 3,695 km², which corresponds to 13,634,550 tons of water. In the precipitation component analysis, as a direct verification method, the ion equivalent concentrations (Na⁺, Cl^-, Ca²⁺) of the seeding material at the Bukgangneung site were found to be about 1000 times higher than those of other non-affected areas between about 1 and 2 hours after seeding. This study suggests the possibility of continuous multi-aircraft cloud seeding experiments to accumulate and increase the amount of precipitation enhancement.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.479-495
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• 2021

This study investigates the synoptic (patterns of southern highs, northern lows, and lows rapidly developed by tropopause folding), thermodynamic, and kinematic characteristics of a strong wind that occurred in the Yeongdong region of South Korea on March 18-20, 2020. To do so, we analyzed data from an automatic weather station (AWS), weather charts, the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis, rawinsonde, and windprofiler radars. The daily maximum instantaneous wind speed, exceeding 20 m s^-1, was observed at five weather stations during the analysis period. The strongest instantaneous wind speed (27.7 m s^-1) appeared in the Daegwallyeong area. According to the analysis of weather charts, along with the arrangement of the north-south low-pressure line, the isobars were moved to the Yeongdong area. It showed a sine wave shape, and a strong wind developed owing to the strong pressure gradient. On March 19, in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula, with a drop in atmospheric pressure of 19 hPa or more within one day, a continuous strong wind was developed by the synoptic structure of the developing polar low. In the adiabatic chart observed in Bukgangneung, the altitude of the inversion layer was located at an altitude of approximately 1-3 km above the mountaintop, along with the maximum wind speed. We confirmed that this is consistent with the results of the vertical wind field analysis of the rawinsonde and windprofiler data. In particular, based on the thermodynamic and kinematic vertical analyses, we suggest that strong winds due to the vertical gradient of potential temperature in the lower layer and the development of potential vorticity due to tropopause folding play a significant role in the occurrence of strong winds in the Yeongdong region.