• Atmosphere
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.463-480
• /
• 2019

This study classified heavy rain types from K-means clustering for the hourly relationship between rainfall intensity and cloud top height over the Korean peninsula, and then examined their statistical characteristics for the period of June~August 2013~2018. Total rainfall amount of warm-type events was 2.65 times larger than that of the cold-type, whereas the lightning frequency divided by total rainfall for the warm-type was only 46% of the cold-type. Typical cold-type cases exhibited high cloud top height around 16 km, large reflectivity in the upper layer, and frequent lightning flashes under convectively unstable condition. Phenomenally, the cold-type cases corresponded to cloud cluster or multi-cell thunderstorms. However, two warm-type cases related to Changma and typhoon were characterized by heavy rainfall due to long duration, relatively low cloud top height and upper-level reflectivity, and the absence of lightning under the convectively neutral and extremely humid conditions. This study further confirmed that the forecast skill of rainfall could be improved by applying correction factor with the overestimation for cold-type and underestimation for warm-type cases in the Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS) operational model (e.g., BIAS score was improved by 5%).

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
• /
• 2018.05a
• /
• pp.155-155
• /
• 2018

Uncertainty in flood forecasting using a coupled meteorological and hydrological model is arisen from various sources, especially the uncertainty comes from the inaccuracy of Quantitative Precipitation Forecasts (QPFs). In order to improve the capability of flood forecast, the uncertainty estimation and mitigation are required to perform. This study is conducted to investigate and reduce such uncertainty. First, ensemble QPFs are generated by using Monte - Carlo simulation, then each ensemble member is forced as input for a hydrological model to obtain ensemble streamflow prediction. Likelihood measures are evaluated to identify feasible member. These members are retained to define upper and lower limits of the uncertainty interval and assess the uncertainty. To mitigate the uncertainty for very short lead time, a blending method, which merges the ensemble QPFs with radar-based rainfall prediction considering both qualitative and quantitative skills, is proposed. Finally, blending bias ratios, which are estimated from previous time step, are used to update the members over total lead time. The proposed method is verified for the two flood events in 2013 and 2016 in the Yeonguol and Soyang watersheds that are located in the Han River basin, South Korea. The uncertainty in flood forecasting using a coupled Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS) and Sejong University Rainfall - Runoff (SURR) model is investigated and then mitigated by blending the generated ensemble LDAPS members with radar-based rainfall prediction that uses McGill algorithm for precipitation nowcasting by Lagrangian extrapolation (MAPLE). The results show that the uncertainty of flood forecasting using the coupled model increases when the lead time is longer. The mitigation method indicates its effectiveness for mitigating the uncertainty with the increases of the percentage of feasible member (POFM) and the ratio of the number of observations that fall into the uncertainty interval (p-factor).

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.17-28
• /
• 2021

We investigated the impact of domain size on the simulated summer precipitation over the Korean Peninsula using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Two different domains are integrated up to 72-hours from 29 June 2017 to 28 July 2017 when the Changma front is active. The domain sizes are adopted from previous RDAPS (Regional Data Assimilation and Prediction System) and current LDAPS (Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System) operated by the Korea Meteorological Administration, while other model configurations are fixed identically. We found that the larger domain size showed better prediction skills, especially in precipitation forecast performance. This performance improvement is particularly noticeable over the central region of the Korean Peninsula. Comparisons of physical aspects of each variable revealed that the inflow of moisture flux from the East China Sea was well reproduced in the experiment with a large model domain due to a more realistic North Pacific high compared to the small domain experiment. These results suggest that the North Pacific anticyclone could be an important factor for the precipitation forecast during the summer-time over the Korean Peninsula.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.31 no.1
• /
• pp.73-83
• /
• 2021

Numerical weather prediction (NWP) models play an essential role in predicting weather factors, but using them is challenging due to various factors. To overcome the difficulties of NWP models, deep learning models have been deployed in weather forecasting by several recent studies. This study adapts long short-term memory (LSTM), which demonstrates remarkable performance in time-series prediction. The combination of LSTM model input of meteorological features and activation functions have a significant impact on the performance therefore, the results from 5 combinations of input features and 4 activation functions are analyzed in 9 Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) stations corresponding to cities/islands/mountains. The optimized LSTM model produces better performance within eight forecast hours than Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS) operated by Korean meteorological administration. Therefore, this study illustrates that this LSTM model can be usefully applied to very short-term weather forecasting, and further studies about CNN-LSTM model with 2-D spatial convolution neural network (CNN) coupled in LSTM are required for improvement.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.38 no.6_1
• /
• pp.1395-1406
• /
• 2022

This study investigated the effects of the urban forest and street trees on flow and temperature distribution in the Daegu National Debt Redemption Movement Memorial Park. For this, we implemented tree-drag and tree-cooling parameterization schemes in a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and validated the simulated wind speeds, wind directions, and air temperatures against the measured ones. We used the wind speeds, wind directions, air temperatures predicted by the local data assimilation and prediction system (LDAPS) as the inflow boundary conditions. To investigate the flow and thermal characteristics in the presence of trees in the target area, we conducted numerical experiments in the absence and presence of trees. In the absence of trees, strong winds and monotonous flows were formed inside the park, because there were no obstacles inducing friction. The temperature was inversely proportional to the wind speed. In the presence of trees, the wind speeds(temperatures) were reduced by more than 40 (5)% inside the park with a high planting density due to the tree drag (cooling) effect, and those also affected the wind speeds and temperatures outside the park. Even near the roadside, the wind speeds and temperatures were generally reduced by the trees, but the wind speeds and air temperatures increased partly due to the change in the flow pattern caused by tree drag.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aviation and Aeronautics
• /
• v.31 no.3
• /
• pp.59-70
• /
• 2023

In order to predict low-level wind shear at Incheon International Airport (RKSI), a Low-Level Wind Shear prediction system (KMAP-LLWS) along the runway take-off and landing route at RKSI was established using Korea Meteorological Administration Post-Processing (KMAP). For the performance evaluation, the case of low-level wind shear cases calculated from Aircraft Meteorological Data Relay (AMDAR) from July 2021 to June 2022 was used. As a result of verification using the performance evaluation index, POD, FAR, CSI, and TSS were 0.5, 0.85, 0.13, and 0.34, respectively, and the prediction performance was improved by POD, CSI, and TSS compared to the Low-Level Wind Shear prediction system (LDPS-LLWS) calculated using the Korea Meteorological Administration's Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS). This means that the use of high-resolution numerical models improves the predictability of wind changes. In addition, to improve the high FAR of KMAP-LLWS, the threshold for low-level wind shear strength was adjusted. As a result, the most effective low-level wind shear threshold at 8.5 knot/100 ft was derived. This study suggests that it is possible to predict and respond to low-level wind shear at RKSI. In addition, it will be possible to predict low-level wind shear at other airports without wind shear observation equipment by applying the KMAP-LLWS.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.38 no.6_3
• /
• pp.1847-1859
• /
• 2022

Wildfires in North Korea can have a directly or indirectly affect South Korea if they go south to the Demilitarized Zone. Therefore, this study calculates the regional optimized Forest Fire Danger Index (FFDI) based on Local Data Assessment and Prediction System (LDAPS) weather data to obtain forest fire risk in North Korea, and applied it to the cases in Goseong-gun and Cheorwon-gun, North Korea in April 2022. As a result, the suitability was confirmed as the FFDI at the time of ignition corresponded to the risk class Extreme and Severe sections, respectively. In addition, a qualitative comparison of the risk map and the soil moisture map before and after the wildfire, the correlation was grasped. A new forest fire risk index that combines drought factors such as soil moisture, Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) will be needed in the future.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.31 no.4
• /
• pp.433-443
• /
• 2021

The wind speed and wind direction in Yeongdong are one of the crucial meteorological factors for forecasting snowfall in this area. To improve the snowfall forecast in Yeongdong region, Yeongdong Extreme Snowfall-Windstorm Experiment, YES-WEX was designed. We examined the wind field variation simulated with Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS) using observed wind field during YES-WEX period. The simulated wind speed was overestimated over the East Sea and especially 2 to 4 times in the coastal line. The vertical wind in Yeongdong region, which is a crucial factor in the snowfall forecast, was not well simulated at the low level (850 hPa~1000 hPa) until 12 hours before the forecast. The snowfall distribution was also not accurately simulated. Three hours after the snowfall on the East Sea coast was observed, the snowfall was simulated. To improve the forecast accuracy of snowfall in Yeongdong region, it is important to understand the weather conditions using the observed and simulated data. In the future, data in the northern part of the East Sea and the mountain slope of Taebaek observed from the meteorological aircraft, ship, and drone would help in understanding the snowfall phenomenon and improving forecasts.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
• /
• v.38 no.7
• /
• pp.522-534
• /
• 2017

The purpose of this study is to verify urban flow and thermal environment by using the simulated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model in the area of Gangnam Seonjeongneung, and then to compare the CFD model simulation results with that of Seonjeongneung-monitoring networks observation data. The CFD model is developed through the collaborative research project between National Institute of Meteorological Sciences and Seoul National University (CFD_NIMR_SNU). The CFD_NIMR_SNU model is simulated using Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) Local Data Assimilation Prediction System (LDAPS) wind and potential temperature as initial and boundary conditions from August 4-6, 2015, and that is improved to consider vegetation effect and surface temperature. It is noticed that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of wind speed decreases from 1.06 to $0.62m\;s^{-1}$ by vegetation effect over the Seonjeongneung area. Although the wind speed is overestimated, RMSE of wind speed decreased in the CFD_NIMR_SNU than LDAPS. The temperature forecast tends to underestimate in the LDAPS, while it is improved by CFD_NIMR_SNU. This study shows that the CFD model can provide detailed and accurate thermal and urban area flow information over the complex urban region. It will contribute to analyze urban environment and planning.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.473-488
• /
• 2021

A new physical/statistical diagnostic downscale model has been developed for use to improve near-surface air temperature forecasts. The model includes a series of physical and statistical correction methods that account for un-resolved topographic and land-use effects as well as statistical bias errors in a low-resolution atmospheric model. Operational temperature forecasts of the Local Data Assimilation and Prediction System (LDAPS) were downscaled at 100 m resolution for three months, which were used to validate the model's physical and statistical correction methods and to compare its performance with the forecasts of the Korea Meteorological Administration Post-processing (KMAP) system. The validation results showed positive impacts of the un-resolved topographic and urban effects (topographic height correction, valley cold air pool effect, mountain internal boundary layer formation effect, urban land-use effect) in complex terrain areas. In addition, the statistical bias correction of the LDAPS model were efficient in reducing forecast errors of the near-surface temperatures. The new high-resolution downscale model showed better agreement against Korean 584 meteorological monitoring stations than the KMAP, supporting the importance of the new physical and statistical correction methods. The new physical/statistical diagnostic downscale model can be a useful tool in improving near-surface temperature forecasts and diagnostics over complex terrain areas.