• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.132-144
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• 2015

Yongneup wetland protected area, the only high moor in Korea, is a core area to conserve biodiversity. Even though the Yongneup wetland protected area is relatively small, various plant species are distributed in the Yongneup wetland protected area because it includes various habitats showing different environmental gradients. Vascular plants distributed in the Yongneup wetland protected area were identified as a total of 376 taxa that is composed of 73 families, 217 genera, 322 species, 3 subspecies, 44 varieties and 7 forms. For endangered plants designated by the Ministry of Environment, 5 species including Trientalis europaea var. arctica, Lilium dauricum, Halenia corniculata, Lychnis wilfordii and Menyanthes trifoliata were found and 34 taxa were confirmed to be distributed only in the mountainous wetland habitats. Regarding naturalized plants, a total of 11 taxa were distributed, but most of them were distributed in the areas where artificial interference has occurred. And in areas inside the wetlands that are relatively well preserved, 2 species of Bidens frondosa and Erigeron annuus were observed. In this study, the occurrence and distribution of Pseudostellaria baekdusanensis M. Kim, which was recently found in Mt. Baekdu and reported as a new species, were identified in the Yongneup wetland protected area. A wetland is a very vulnerable area to drastic environmental changes and damages to its ecosystem could cause the extinction of rare plant species which are distributed only in the wetlands. Therefore, it is mandatory that current status of the Yongneup wetland protected area is evaluated and actions to prevent rapid environmental changes are taken. Fourteen separate investigations were conducted in 2013 and another four in 2014, to evaluate current status of the Yongneup wetland protected area. These investigations have provided us the basic information for future actions of conservation and restoration.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.461-472
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• 2021

Yeongdong has frequently suffered from severe snowstorms, which generally give rise to societal and economic damages to the region in winter. In order to understand its mechanism, there has been a long-term measurement campaign, based on the rawinsonde measurements for every snowfall event at Gangneung since 2014. The previous observations showed that a typical heavy snowfall is generally accompanied with northerly or northeasterly flow below the snow clouds, generated by cold air outbreak over the relatively warmer East Sea. An intensive and multi-institutional measurement campaign has been launched in 2019 mainly in collaboration with Gangwon Regional Office of Meteorology and National Institute of Meteorological Studies of Korean Meteorological Administration, with a special emphasis on winter snowfall and spring windstorm altogether. The experiment spanned largely from February to April with comprehensive measurements of frequent rawinsonde measurements at a super site (Gangneung) with continuous remote sensings of wind profiler, microwave radiometers and weather radar etc. Additional measurements were added to the campaign, such as aircraft dropsonde measurements and shipboard rawinsonde soundings. One of the fruitful outcomes is, so far, to identify a couple of cold air damming occurrences, featuring lowest temperature below 1 km, which hamper the convergence zone and snow clouds from penetrating inland, and eventually make it harder to forecast snowfall in terms of its location and timing. This kind of comprehensive observation campaign with continuous remote sensings and intensive additional measurement platforms should be conducted to understand various orographic precipitation in the complex terrain like Yeongdong.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.291-307
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• 2016

Evaluation of the extinction risk of endangered plants at international, national as well as at regional levels is essential to the implementation of plans for direct conservation activities. Reports indicate that 34 endangered plants are distributed in the middle eastern area of Korea. For each endangered plant, we investigated the sites, area of extents, population size, and factors that affect population extinction. We assessed risk factors based on 10 evaluation criteria including the results from the investigation and the life traits each endangered plant has. As a result of evaluating the risk factors, these 34 endangered plants are classified into 3 groups: the first category comprises 12 endangered plants that require active and urgent conservation of habitats due to multiple risk factors; the second group has 16 endangered plants that should be able to persist with the removal of a few direct risk factors; the third category has 6 endangered plants that can persist with minimal management due to comparatively large distributed area and numerous individuals. It was found that most major risk factors in the population of endangered plants are caused by disruption of habitats and population extinction due to the increase of human habitation in the concerned areas, development and illegal harvesting. Futhermore, ecological collapse from decreasing habitats and malfunctioning mechanism of extinction and regeneration due to the changes of vegetational environment can be the other causes. From the area of the present investigations, we selected 5 regions according to the number of species and the frequency of appearance and importance of conservation measures. Also, we suggested a conservation strategy according to the regional characteristics. We suggest that the method for evaluating extinction risk of endangered plants includes distributional data and life traits of species. In addition, we underscore the necessity for understanding population dynamics and ecological niche of the each target species.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.190-199
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• 2011

A photovoltaic energy map that included a topography effect on the Korean peninsula was developed using the Gangneung-Wonju National University (GWNU) solar radiation model. The satellites data (MODIS, OMI and MTSAT-1R) and output data from the Regional Data Assimilation Prediction System (RDAPS) model by the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) were used as input data for the GWNU model. Photovoltaic energy distributions were calculated by applying high resolution Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to the topography effect. The distributions of monthly accumulated solar energy indicated that differences caused by the topography effect are more important in winter than in summer because of the dependency on the solar altitude angle. The topography effect on photovoltaic energy is two times larger with 1 km resolution than with 4 km resolution. Therefore, an accurate calculation of the solar energy on the surface requires high-resolution topological data as well as high quality input data.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.361-376
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• 2021

"Gangwon Yeongdong Wind Experiments (G-WEX) Pilot Study: Downslope windstorms in the Taebaek Mountains, South Korea" is promoted based on joint organization by Gangwon Regional Office of Meteorology and National Institute of Meteorological Research and participation by 12 institutions to understand the mechanism in development of Yeongdong wind phenomena. The special observation (G-WEX) involved total of 5 intensive observations in March 2020 and April 2020. To collect the data necessary for the research on Yeongdong wind phenomena, (1) high-resolution surface observation network was used to examine surface wind and (2) atmospheric soundings were observed by using Rawinsonde, Wind profiler, Wind Lidar, and Drone. This study covers the detailed information on the special observational experiments for downslope windstorms in the leeward of the Taebaek Mountains, named as the Yeongdong wind, including the observational strategies, experimental designs, and pilot studies during the Intensified Observing Period (IOPs). According to 2020 G-WEX observation results, downslope windstorms were observed in 2~3 km of upper atmosphere when the strong winds happened around the top of the mountain near Daegwallyeong. Also, dry adiabatic expansion related to downslope windstorms caused temperature rise and led to formation of an inversion layer in altitude below 2.5 km. Bands of strong wind were located right under the altitude where downslope windstorms are observed with temporal rise of the temperature. As these are preliminary observation results, there needs to be continuous related researches and high-resolution weather observation.

• Korean Journal of Environment and Ecology
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.131-167
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• 2019

Securing reference information (inventory) is essential for proper conservation and management of protected areas. Moreover, the investigation results should be available for comparison and evaluation. For this study, we established seven investigational lattices and carried out the field examinations to obtain comparable data in the Donggang river basin ecological and scenery conservation area, We conducted a total of 16 field surveys and identified a total of 830 taxa that is composed of 127 families, 408 genera, 716 species, 10 subspecies, 88 varieties, and 16 forms. We identified a total of 487 taxa in the 6th investigational lattice and 457 taxa in the 4th. We observed 6 species (grade II) designated by the Ministry of Environment as the endangered plants, one "species to monitor" designated by the Ministry of Environment, and 23 taxa designated as endemic species. Regarding the floristic characteristics plants, 15 taxa of grade V, 27 taxa of grade IV, 38 taxa of grade III, 31 taxa of grade II, and 19 taxa of grade I were identified. The 6th investigational lattice showed the largest number of taxa at 70. A total of 58 taxa were identified as the naturalized plant, and the 6th investigational lattice showed the most at 35 taxa. The Donggang river basin ecological and scenery conservation area was assessed to be an extremely important area to conserve and maintain plants species diversity not only in the regional scale but also national scale.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.330-340
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• 2015

For this study, we developed an algorithm to estimate the total amount of clouds using sky image data from the Skyviewer equipped with CCD camera. Total cloud amount is estimated by removing mask areas of RGB (Red Green Blue) images, classifying images according to frequency distribution of GBR (Green Blue Ratio), and extracting cloud pixels from them by deciding RBR (Red Blue Ratio) threshold. Total cloud amount is also estimated by validity checks after removing sunlight area from those classified cloud pixels. In order to verify the accuracy of the algorithm that estimates total cloud amount, the research analyzed Bias, RMSE, and correlation coefficient compared to records of total cloud amount earned by human observation from the Gangwon Regional Meteorological Administration, which is in the closest vicinity of the observation site. The cases are selected four daily data from 0800 LST to 1700 LST for each season. The results of analysis showed that the Bias in total cloud amount estimated by the Skyviewer was an average of -0.8 tenth, and the RMSE was 1.6 tenths, indicating the difference in total cloud amount within 2 tenths. Also, correlation coefficient was very high, marking an average of over 0.91 in all cases, despite the distance between the two observation sites (about 4 km).

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.373-389
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• 2011

This research focuses on the sensitivity of the WRF(Weather Research and Forecasting) Model according to three different land cover data(USGS(United States Geological Survey), MODIS(Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer)30s+USGS, and KLC (Korea Land Cover)) for an event of sea breeze, occurred over the Gangwon Yeongdong region on 13 May 2009. Based on the observation, the easterly into Gangneung, due to the sea-breeze circulation, was identified between 1000 LST and 1640 LST. It did not reach beyond the Taebaek Mountain Range and thus the easterly was not observed near Daegwallyeong. On the other hand, the numerical simulations utilizing land cover data of USGS, MODIS30s+USGS, and KLC showed easterlies beyond the Taebaek Mountain Range up to Daegwallyeong. In addition, rather different penetration distances of each easterly, and different timings of beginning and ending of sea breeze were identified among the simulations. The Bias, MAE(Mean Absolute Error) and RMSE(Root Mean Square Error) of the wind from WRF simulation using MODIS30s+USGS land cover data were the least among the simulations particularly over Gangwon Yeongdong coastal area(Sokcho, Gangneung and Donghae), while those of the wind over the Gangwon Mountain area(Daegwallyeong and Jinbu) from the simulation using KLC land cover data were the least among them. The wind field over Gangwon Yeongdong coastal area from the simulation using USGS land cover data was rather poor among them.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.135-148
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• 2019

Although the technology for the observation of solar radiation is rapidly developing worldwide, in Korea the guidelines for comparing observations of solar radiation are only now under preparation. In this study, a procedure for intercomparison observations of solar radiation was established which accounts for meteorological and geographical conditions. The intercomparisons among observations by national reference pyranometers were carried out at the Asia Regional Radiation Center, Japan, in 2017. Recently, the result of the calibration of the reference pyranometer of the Korean Meteorological Administration (KMA) has been reported. Using the KMA pyranometer as a reference, comparisons between observations and calibrations were carried out for the standard (B to J) pyranometers of the KMA, and for the reference (A) and the standard pyranometers of the Gangneung-Wonju National University. The intercomparisons were carried out between October 24 and October 25, 2018. The sensitivity constants were adjusted according to the results of the data analysis performed on October 24. On October 25, a post-comparison observation was also performed, and the data of the participating pyranometers were verified. The sensitivity constants were calculated using only data corresponding to a solar radiation of $450.0W\;m^{-2}$ or higher. The B and I pyranometers exhibited a small error (${\pm}0.50W\;m^{-2}$), and the applied sensitivity constants were in the range $0.08-0.16{\mu}V(W\;m^{-2})^{-1}$. For the C pyranometer, the adjustment of the sensitivity constant was the largest, i.e., $-0.16{\mu}V(W\;m^{-2})^{-1}$. As a result, the nine candidate pyranometers could be calibrated with an average error of $0.06W\;m^{-2}$ (0.08%) with respect to the KMA reference, which falls within the allowed tolerance of ${\pm}1.00%$ (or ${\pm}4.50W\;m^{-2}$).