• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.62 no.2
• /
• pp.39-52
• /
• 2020

A high quality, long-term, high-resolution precipitation dataset is an essential in climate analyses and global water cycles. Rainfall data from station observations are inadequate over many parts of the world, especially North Korea, due to non-existent observation networks, or limited reporting of gauge observations. As a result, satellite-based rainfall estimates have been used as an alternative as a supplement to station observations. The Climate Hazards Group Infrared Precipitation (CHIRP) and CHIRP combined with station observations (CHIRPS) are recently produced satellite-based rainfall products with relatively high spatial and temporal resolutions and global coverage. CHIRPS is a global precipitation product and is made available at daily to seasonal time scales with a spatial resolution of 0.05° and a 1981 to near real-time period of record. In this study, we analyze the applicability of CHIRPS data on the Korean Peninsula by supplementing the lack of precipitation data of North Korea. We compared the daily precipitation estimates from CHIRPS with 81 rain gauges across Korea using several statistical metrics in the long-term period of 1981-2017. To summarize the results, the CHIRPS product for the Korean Peninsula was shown an acceptable performance when it is used for hydrological applications based on monthly rainfall amounts. Overall, this study concludes that CHIRPS can be a valuable complement to gauge precipitation data for estimating precipitation and climate, hydrological application, for example, drought monitoring in this region.

• Journal of Environmental Impact Assessment
• /
• v.22 no.6
• /
• pp.677-693
• /
• 2013

IPCC showed that calculation of climate vulnerability index requires standardization process of various proxy variables for the estimation of climate exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. In this study, four different methodologies of standardization methods: Z-score, Rescaling, Ranking, and Distance to the reference country, are employed to evaluate climate vulnerability-VRI (Vulnerability-Resilience Indicator) over Korean peninsula, and the error ranges of VRI, arising from employing the different standardization are estimated. All of proxy variables are provided by CCGIS (Climate Change adaptation toolkit based on GIS) which hosts information on both past and current socio-economic data and climate and environmental IPCC SRES (A2, B1, A1B, A1T, A1FI, and A1 scenarios) climate data for the decades of 2000s, 2020s, 2050s, and 2100s. The results showed that Z-score and Rescaling methods showed statistically undistinguishable results with minor differences of spatial distribution, while Ranking and Distance to the reference country methods showed some possibility to lead the different ranking of VRI among South Korean provinces, depending on the local characteristics and reference province. The resultant VRIs calculated from different standardization methods showed Cronbach's alpha of more than 0.84, indicating that all of different methodologies were overall consistent. Similar horizontal distributions were shown with the same trends: VRI increases as province is close to the coastal region and/or it close toward lower latitude, and decreases as it is close to urbanization area. Other characteristics of the four different standardization are discussed in this study.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.49-57
• /
• 2016

Even if an external forcing that will drive a climate change is given uniformly over the globe, the corresponding climate change and the feedbacks by the climate system differ by region. Thus the detection of global warming signal has been made on a regional scale as well as on a global average against the internal variabilities and other noises involved in the climate change. The purpose of this study is to estimate a timing of unprecedented climate due to global warming and to analyze the regional differences in the estimated results. For this purpose, unlike previous studies that used climate simulation data, we used an observational dataset to estimate a magnitude of internal variability and a future temperature change. We calculated a linear trend in surface temperature using a historical temperature record from 1880 to 2014 and a magnitude of internal variability as the largest temperature displacement from the linear trend. A timing of unprecedented climate was defined as the first year when a predicted minimum temperature exceeds the maximum temperature record in a historical data and remains as such since then. Presumed that the linear trend and the maximum displacement will be maintained in the future, an unprecedented climate over the land would come within 200 years from now in the western area of Africa, the low latitudes including India and the southern part of Arabian Peninsula in Eurasia, the high latitudes including Greenland and the mid-western part of Canada in North America, the low latitudes including Amazon in South America, the areas surrounding the Ross Sea in Antarctica, and parts of East Asia including Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, an unprecedented climate would come later after 400 years in the high latitudes of Eurasia including the northern Europe, the middle and southern parts of North America including the U.S.A. and Mexico. For the ocean, an unprecedented climate would come within 200 years over the Indian Ocean, the middle latitudes of the North Atlantic and the South Atlantic, parts of the Southern Ocean, the Antarctic Ross Sea, and parts of the Arctic Sea. In the meantime, an unprecedented climate would come even after thousands of years over some other regions of ocean including the eastern tropical Pacific and the North Pacific middle latitudes where an internal variability is large. In summary, spatial pattern in timing of unprecedented climate are different for each continent. For the ocean, it is highly affected by large internal variability except for the high-latitude regions with a significant warming trend. As such, a timing of an unprecedented climate would not be uniform over the globe but considerably different by region. Our results suggest that it is necessary to consider an internal variability as well as a regional warming rate when planning a climate change mitigation and adaption policy.

• Journal of The Geomorphological Association of Korea
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.235-246
• /
• 2011

Sea level fluctuations during the Holocene reconstructed by the results of age dating, microfossils researches and sedimentary facies from coastal alluvial plains contain the valuable informations on climatic changes. The sea level during 'maximum phase of transgression' during 6,000~5,000 yr BP was slightly higher than the present by approximately 0.8~1.0 m and the summer temperature conditions seemed to be higher than those of the present by 2~3℃ in the Central Europe when the period of 'Climatic Optimum' might be dominant. The sea level in Korean Peninsula was assumed by 0.8~1.0 m higher at that time compared to the present and climate seemed to be warmer. At 2,000~1,800 yr BP in Korean Peninsula, the sea level reached the higher stand than the present by approximately 1.1~1.3 m and the climatic conditions might be warm similar to the period of 'Climatic Optimum'. Although the temperature in the Central Europe during the period of 'Subboreal' was about 2~3℃ cooler, it is supposed that the sea level in Korean Peninsula was relatively higher than the present. The sea level at 2,300 yr BP might be similar to that of the present, which was the lowest level since the mid-Holocene. From the fact, climatic environment during the cold period might not be reflected exactly in the sea level.

• Journal of Ecology and Environment
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.15-23
• /
• 2015

This study was conducted in an effort to provide important clues pertaining to the conservation and restoration of Aporia crataegi by identifying the spatial distribution characteristics of the current habitats, prospective habitats, and future habitats of A. crataegi in accordance with climate changes. To determine the distribution of A. crataegi, data from a total of 36 collecting points throughout South Korea, North Korea, China, Japan, Mongolia, and Russia are used. The spatial distributions of the data were examined through MaxEnt modeling. The distribution probability rates exceeded 75% at 18 locations among the 36 species occurrence locations, with Gangwon province showing the highest distribution probability in South Korea. The precision of the MaxEnt model was remarkably high, with an AUC value of 0.982. The variables that affect the potential distribution of A. crataegi by more than 10% are the degree of temperature seasonality, the amount of precipitation in the warmest quarter, the annual mean temperature, and the amount of precipitation in the driest month, in that order of importance. It was found that the future potential distribution area of A. crataegi continuously moves northward over time up to 2070s. In addition, the area of the potential distribution showing a habitable probability rate that exceeds 75% in northeast Asia was $28,492km^2$, where the area of potential distribution in the north part of Korean peninsula was $20.404km^2$ in size. Thus, it is anticipated that the most important future habitats of A. crataegi in the northeast Asia will be North and South Hamgyeong provinces and Ryanggang province near Mt. Baekdoosan in the northern area of the Korean peninsula.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.33 no.1
• /
• pp.97-109
• /
• 2017

Green tides that developed along the coast of China in 2015 were detected and tracked using vegetation indices from GOCI and Landsat images. Green tides first appeared near the Jiangsu Province on May 14 before increasing in size and number and moving northward to the Shandong Peninsula in mid-June. Typhoon Cham-hom passed through the Yellow Sea on July 12, significantly decreasing the algal population. An algae patch moved east toward Korea and on June 18 and July 4, several masses were found between the southwestern shores of Korea and Jeju Island. The floating masses found in Korean waters were concentrated at the boundary of the open sea and the Jindo cold pool, a phenomenon also observed at the boundary of coastal and offshore waters in China. Sea surface temperatures, derived from NOAA SST data, were found to play a role in generation of the green tides.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
• /
• v.60 no.2
• /
• pp.55-63
• /
• 2018

This study analyzed the applications of near real-time drought monitoring using satellite rainfall for the Korean Peninsula and un-gaged basins. We used AWS data of Yongdam-Dam, Hoengseong-Dam in Korea area, the meteorological station of Nakhon Rachasima, Pak chong for test-bed to evaluate the validation and the opportunity for un-gaged basins. In addition, we calculated EDI (Effective doought index) using the stations and co-located PERSIANN-CDR, TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission) TMPA (The TRMM Multisatellite Precipitation Analysis), GPM IMERG (the integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM) rainfall data and compared the EDI-based station data with satellite data for applications of drought monitoring. The results showed that the correlation coefficient and the determination coefficient were 0.830 and 0.914 in Yongdam-dam, and 0.689 and 0.835 in Hoengseng-Dam respectively. Also, the correlation coefficient were 0.830, 0.914 from TRMM TMPA datasets and compasion with 0.660, 0.660 based on PERSIANN-CDR and TRMM data in nakhon and pakchong station. Our results were confirmed possibility of near real-time drought monitoring using EDI with daily satellite rainfall for un-gaged basins.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.108-125
• /
• 2015

The agro-climatic index is one of the ways to assess the climate resources of particular agricultural areas on the prospect of agricultural production; it can be a key indicator of agricultural productivity by providing the basic information required for the implementation of different and various farming techniques and practicalities to estimate the growth and yield of crops from the climate resources such as air temperature, solar radiation, and precipitation. However, the agro-climate index can always be changed since the index is not the absolute. Recently, many studies which consider uncertainty of future climate change have been actively conducted using multi-model ensemble (MME) approach by developing and improving dynamic and statistical downscaling of Global Climate Model (GCM) output. In this study, the agro-climatic index of Korean Peninsula, such as growing degree day based on $5^{\circ}C$, plant period based on $5^{\circ}C$, crop period based on $10^{\circ}C$, and frost free day were calculated for assessment of the spatio-temporal variations and uncertainties of the indices according to climate change; the downscaled historical (1976-2005) and near future (2011-2040) RCP climate sceneries of AR5 were applied to the calculation of the index. The result showed four agro-climatic indices calculated by nine individual GCMs as well as MME agreed with agro-climatic indices which were calculated by the observed data. It was confirmed that MME, as well as each individual GCM emulated well on past climate in the four major Rivers of South Korea (Han, Nakdong, Geum, and Seumjin and Yeoungsan). However, spatial downscaling still needs further improvement since the agro-climatic indices of some individual GCMs showed different variations with the observed indices at the change of spatial distribution of the four Rivers. The four agro-climatic indices of the Korean Peninsula were expected to increase in nine individual GCMs and MME in future climate scenarios. The differences and uncertainties of the agro-climatic indices have not been reduced on the unlimited coupling of multi-model ensembles. Further research is still required although the differences started to improve when combining of three or four individual GCMs in the study. The agro-climatic indices which were derived and evaluated in the study will be the baseline for the assessment of agro-climatic abnormal indices and agro-productivity indices of the next research work.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
• /
• v.21 no.spc
• /
• pp.28-38
• /
• 2019

Climate change on the Korean peninsula is progressing faster than the global average. For example, typhoons, extreme rainfall, heavy snow, cold, and heatwave that are occurring frequently. North Korea is particularly vulnerable to climate change-related natural disasters such as flooding and flooding due to long-term food shortages, energy shortages, and reckless deforestation and development. In addition, North Korea is classified as an unmeasured area due to political and social influences, making it difficult to obtain sufficient hydrologic data for hydrological analysis. Also, as interest in climate change has increased, studies on climate change have been actively conducted on the Korean Peninsula in various repair facilities and disaster countermeasures, but there are no cases of research on North Korea. Therefore, this study selects watershed characteristic variables that are easy to acquire in order to apply localization model to North Korea where it is difficult to obtain observed hydrologic data and estimates parameters based on meteorological and topographical characteristics of 16 dam basins in South Korea. Was calculated. In addition, as a result of reviewing the applicability of the parameter estimation equations calculated for the fifty thousand, Gangneungnamdaecheon, Namgang dam, and Yeonggang basins, the applicability of the parameter estimation equations to North Korea was very high.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural Science
• /
• v.40 no.4
• /
• pp.425-434
• /
• 2013

Nowadays, the korean peninsula has endured weather changes toward to the subtropical climate. Also demographical structure has changed into multi-cultural society in which many people from subtropical areas have immigrated into Korea. Therefore, consumption and production of subtropical vegetables become important. For the analysis, we choose eight important subtropical crops. EDM (Equilibrium Displacement Model) with many parameters and elasticities is used for the forecast of consumption and required cultivation area. The simulation focuses on the changes of the number of foreign workers and immigrated women in Korea to predict the quantity of consumption and required area in Korea. The results show that we need additional land area about 581~1,065 ha for the cropping subtropical vegetables in Korea. Finally, these required area can be provided by the cities and counties in coast area in Gyeongsangnam-Do, Jeonranam-Do and Jeju-Do. Climate change will be continued in the future. Together with climate change, the change of demographical structure into multi-culture may increase consumption and production of subtropical vegetables. Forecasting of increased consumption and required cultivation area for subtropical vegetables is significant.