• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.67-83
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• 2015

Predicting the location and intensity of precipitation still remains a main issue in numerical weather prediction (NWP). Resolution is a very important component of precipitation forecasts in NWP. Compared with a lower resolution model, a higher resolution model can predict small scale (i.e., storm scale) precipitation and depict convection structures more precisely. In addition, an ensemble technique can be used to improve the precipitation forecast because it can estimate uncertainties associated with forecasts. Therefore, NWP using both a higher resolution model and ensemble technique is expected to represent inherent uncertainties of convective scale motion better and lead to improved forecasts. In this study, the limited area ensemble prediction system for the convective-scale (i.e., high resolution) operational Unified Model (UM) in Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) was developed and evaluated for the ensemble forecasts during August 2012. The model domain covers the limited area over the Korean Peninsula. The high resolution limited area ensemble prediction system developed showed good skill in predicting precipitation, wind, and temperature at the surface as well as meteorological variables at 500 and 850 hPa. To investigate which combination of horizontal resolution and ensemble member is most skillful, the system was run with three different horizontal resolutions (1.5, 2, and 3 km) and ensemble members (8, 12, and 16), and the forecasts from the experiments were evaluated. To assess the quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF) skill of the system, the precipitation forecasts for two heavy rainfall cases during the study period were analyzed using the Fractions Skill Score (FSS) and Probability Matching (PM) method. The PM method was effective in representing the intensity of precipitation and the FSS was effective in verifying the precipitation forecast for the high resolution limited area ensemble prediction system in KMA.

• Atmosphere
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.257-271
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• 2011

The aim of this study is to examine weather modification by urbanization and human activities. The characteristics of the urban heat island (UHI) and precipitation in Seoul metropolitan area of Korea are investigated to demonstrate that cities can change or modify local and nearby weather and climate, and to confirm that cities can initiate convection, change the behavior of convective precipitation, and enhance downstream precipitation. The data used in this study are surface meteorological station data observed in Seoul and its nearby 5 cities for the period of 1960 to 2009, and 162 Automatic Weather System stations data observed in the Seoul metropolitan area from 1998 to 2009. Air temperature and precipitation amount tend to increase with time, and relative humidity decreases because of urbanization. Similar to previous studies for other cities, the average maximum UHI is weakest in summer and is strong in autumn and winter, and the maximum UHI intensity is more frequently observed in the nighttime than in the daytime, decreases with increasing wind speed, and is enhanced for clear skies. Relatively warm regions extend in the east-west direction and relatively cold regions are located near the northern and southern mountains inside Seoul. The satellite cities in the outskirts of Seoul have been rapidly built up in recent years, thus exhibiting increases in near-surface air temperature. The yearly precipitation amount during the last 50 years is increased with time but rainy days are decreased. The heavy rainfall events of more than $20mm\;hr^{-1}$ increases with time. The substantial changes observed in precipitation in Seoul seem to be linked with the accelerated increase in the urban sprawl in recent decades which in turn has induced an intensification of the UHI effect and enhanced downstream precipitation. We also found that the frequency of intense rain showers has increased in Seoul metropolitan area.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.57-67
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• 2015

One of main benefits of a dual polarization radar is improvement of quantitative rainfall estimation. In this paper, performance of two representative rainfall estimation methods for a dual polarization radar, JPOLE and CSU algorithms, have been compared by using data from a MOLIT S-band dual polarization radar. In addition, this paper presents evaluation of specific differential phase ($K_{dp}$) retrieval algorithm proposed by Lim et al. (2013). Current $K_{dp}$ retrieval methods are based on range filtering technique or regression analysis. However, these methods can result in underestimating peak $K_{dp}$ or negative values in convective regions, and fluctuated $K_{dp}$ in low rain rate regions. To resolve these problems, this study applied the $K_{dp}$ distribution method suggested by Lim et al. (2013) and evaluated by adopting new $K_{dp}$ to JPOLE and CSU algorithms. Data were obtained from the Mt. Biseul radar of MOLIT for two rainfall events in 2012. Results of evaluation showed improvement of the peak $K_{dp}$ and did not show fluctuation and negative $K_{dp}$ values. Also, in heavy rain (daily rainfall > 80 mm), accumulated daily rainfall using new $K_{dp}$ was closer to AWS observation data than that using legacy $K_{dp}$, but in light rain(daily rainfall < 80mm), improvement was insignificant, because $K_{dp}$ is used mostly in case of heavy rain rate of quantitative rainfall estimation algorithm.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.496-503
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• 2021

By analyzing the characteristics of atmospheric stability in the southern coastal region of the Korean Peninsula in the summer of 2019, a quantitative threshold of atmospheric instability indices was derived for predicting rainfall events in the Korean Peninsula. For this analysis, we used data from all of the 243 radiosonde intensive observations recorded at the Boseong Standard Weather Observatory (BSWO) in the summer of 2019. To analyze the atmospheric stability of rain events and mesoscale atmospheric phenomena, convective available potential energy (CAPE) and storm relative helicity (SRH) were calculated and compared. In particular, SRH analysis was divided into four levels based on the depth of the atmosphere (0-1, 0-3, 0-6, and 0-10 km). The rain events were categorized into three cases: that of no rain, that of 12 h before the rain, and that of rain. The results showed that SRH was more suitable than CAPE for the prediction of the rainfall events in Boseong during the summer of 2019, and that the rainfall events occurred when the 0-6 km SRH was 150 m² s^-2 or more, which is the same standard as that for a possible weak tornado. In addition, the results of the atmospheric stability analysis during the Changma, which is the rainy period in the Korean Peninsula during the summer and typhoon seasons, showed that the 0-6 km SRH was larger than the mean value of the 0-10 km SRH, whereas SRH generally increased as the depth of the atmosphere increased. Therefore, it can be said that the 0-6 km SRH was more effective in determining the rainfall events caused by typhoons in Boseong in the summer of 2019.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.148-161
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• 2012

The intensive observation (ProbeX-2010) with 6-hour launches of radiosonde was performed over Seoul metropolitan area (Dongducheon, Incheon Airport, and Yangpyeong) from 13 Aug. to 3 Sep. 2010. Five typical heavy rainfall patterns occurred consecutively which are squall line, stationary front, remote tropical cyclone (TC), tropical depression, and typhoon patterns. On 15 Aug. 03 KST, when squall line developed over Seoul metropolitan area, dry mid-level air was drawn over warm and moist low-level air, inducing strong convective instability. From 23 to 26 Aug and from 27 to 29 Aug. Rainfall event occurred influenced by stationary front and remote TC, respectively. During the stationary frontal rainy period, thermal instability was dominant in the beginning stage, but dynamic instability became strong in the latter stage. Especially, heavy rainfall occurred on 25 Aug. when southerly low level jet formed over the Yellow Sea. During the rainy period by the remote TC, thermal and dynamic instability sustained together. Especially, heavy rainfall event occurred on 29 Aug. when the tropical air with high equivalent potential temperature (>345 K) occupied the deep low-middle level. On 27 Aug. and 2 Sep. tropical depression and typhoon Kompasu affected Seoul metropolitan area, respectively. During these events, dynamic instability was very strong.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.219-227
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• 2000

In Korea, heavy rainfall is mainly induced by the Changma front or frontal system passed over Korea periodically. Both its unknown mesoscale characteristics and the lack of direct measurements make it difficult to predict precipitation reasonably. To understand its 3-dimensional structure, initiation and development mechanism of precipitation in that system will be very helpful to forecast it more accurately. A meteorological radar is specially useful because it produces direct measurement with high resolution in time and space. In this study, representative frontal system is selected and analyzed specially focused on its vertical structure using radar data. Results shows that there are convective cells with horizontal scale of 10 - 20 km in precipitation system. Melting layer located between 3 and 5 km height, maximum fall speeds of rain drops were seen just below bright band.

• Atmosphere
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.441-458
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• 2008

A TP/WVP-3000A, ground-based microwave radiometer, that was first introduced to South Korea has been operated since August 22, 2007 at the National Center for Intensive Observation of Severe Weathers (NCIO). Using the dual-band, the radiometer provides temperature and humidity soundings from the surface up to 10 km height with the high-temporal resolution of a few minutes. In this study, the performance of the radiometer on the predictability of the high impact weathers was evaluated and various practical applications were investigated. To verify the retrieved profile data from the radiometer, temperature and relative humidity soundings are compared with those from the rawinsonde launched at the NCIO and Gwangju station. The root mean squared errors for temperature and relative humidity soundings were smaller under rainy weather conditions. The correlation coefficient between PWVs (Precipitable Water Vapors) obtained from the radiometer and Global Positioning System satellite at Mokpo station is 0.92 on average. In order to investigate the structure and characteristics of precipitation, stability indexes related to rainfall such as the Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE), K-index, and Storm RElative Helicity (SREH) were calculated using windprofiler at the NCIO from 14 to 16 September, 2007. CAPE and K-index tended to be large when the thermodynamic unstability was strong. On the other hand, SREH index was dominantly large when the dynamic unstability was strong due to the passage of the typhoon 'Nari'.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.33 no.7
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• pp.569-582
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• 2012

The heavy rainfalls caused large property damages and human casualties. For example, Changma caused 0.25 billion dollars in damages and 57 deaths and 112 missing by accompanying the torrentially convective heavy rainfall in Seoul, 2011. In addition, TY15 (Bolaven) caused a small damage by bringing a relatively small amount of rainfall and strong wind in Gwanju, 2012. The investigation and analyses of these mesoscale processes of rainfall events for different physical properties using KLAPS for weather environments of the above cases were performed. These typical and ideal meoscale systems by better and more favorable cloud systems were chosen to retrieve rain intensity from Radar and Chullian data. The quantitative rain intensities of Radar and Chullian differ greatly from the ground-based gauge values with underestimating over 50 mm/hr at the peak time of hourly maximum rain intensity about over than 85 mm/hr. However, the Radar rain intensity demonstrated approximately lower than 35 mm/hr, and the Chullian rain intensity less than 60 mm/hr for Changma in Seoul, 2011. For typhoon (TY15, Bolaven) in Gwangju, similarly, the quantitative rain intensities of Radar and Chullian differ from the ground-based gauge values. At the peak time, the hourly maximum rain intensity of ground-based gauge was more than 15 mm/hr. However, the Radar rain intensity showed lower than 5 mm/hr, and the Chullian rain intensity lower than 10 mm/hr. Regarding the above two cases of typhoon and Changma, even though Radar and Chullian rain intensities have been underestimated when compared to the ground-based rain intensity, the distributions of time scale features of both Radar and Chullian rain intensities still delineated a similar tendency of rain intensity distribution of the ground-based gauge data.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.40 no.6
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• pp.572-583
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• 2019

In this study, the atmospheric vertical structure (AVS) associated with summertime (June, July, and August) heavy rainfall in Seoul was classified into three patterns (Loaded Gun: L, Inverted V: IV, and Thin Tube: TT) using rawinsonde soundings launched at Osan from 2009 to 2018. The characteristics of classified AVS and precipitation property were analyzed. Occurrence frequencies in each type were 34.7% (TT-type), 20.4% (IV-type), 20.4% (LG-type), and 24.5% (Other-type), respectively. The mean value of Convective Available Potential Energy (1131.1 J kg^-1) for LG-types and Storm Relative Helicity (357.6 ㎡s^-2) for TT-types was about 2 times higher than that of other types, which seems to be the difference in the mechanism of convection at the low level atmosphere. The composited synoptic fields in all cases showed a pattern that warm and humid southwesterly wind flows into the Korean Peninsula. In the cases of TT-type, the low pressure center (at 850 hPa) was followed by the trough in upper-level (at 500 hPa) as the typical pattern of a low pressure deepening. The TT-type was strongly influenced by the low level jet (at 850 hPa), showing a pattern of connecting the upper- and low-level jets. The result of analysis indicated that precipitation was intensified in the first half of all types. IV-type precipitation induced by thermal instability tended to last for a short term period with strong precipitation intensity, while TT-type by mechanical instability showed weak precipitation over a long term period.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.367-385
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• 2022

This study evaluates the temperature and precipitation results in East Asia simulated from the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model version 3 regional climate model (HadGEM3-RA) developed by the UK Met Office. The HadGEM3-RA is conducted in the Coordinated Regional climate Downscaling Experiment-East Asia (CORDEX-EA) Phase II domain for 15 year (2000-2014). The spatial distribution of rainbands produced from the HadGEM3-RA by the summer monsoon is in good agreement with the Asian Precipitation Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of water resources (APRODITE) data over the East Asia. But, precipitation amount is overestimated in Southeast Asia and underestimated over the Korean Peninsula. In particular, the simulated summer rainfall and APRODITE data show the least correlation coefficient and the maximum value of root mean square error in South Korea. Prediction of temperature in Southeast Asia shows underestimation with a maximum error during winter season, while it appears the largest underestimation in South Korea during spring season. In order to evaluate local predictability, the time series of temperature and precipitation compared to the ASOS data of the Seoul Meteorological Station is similar to the spatial average verification results in which the summer precipitation and winter temperature underestimate. Especially, the underestimation of the rainfall increases when the amounts of precipitation increase in summer. The winter temperature tends to underestimate at low temperature, while it overestimates at high temperature. The results of the extreme climate index comparison show that heat wave is overestimated and heavy rainfall is underestimated. The HadGEM3-RA simulated with a horizontal resolution of 25 km shows limitations in the prediction of mesoscale convective system and topographic precipitation. This study indicates that improvement of initial data, horizontal resolution, and physical process are necessary to improve predictability of regional climate model.