• Atmosphere
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.73-104
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• 2023

Over the past 60 years, Korean numerical weather prediction (NWP) has advanced rapidly with the collaborative effort between the science community and the operational modelling center. With an improved scientific understanding and the growth of information technology infrastructure, Korea is able to provide reliable and seamless weather forecast service, which can predict beyond a 10 days period. The application of NWP has expanded to support decision making in weather-sensitive sectors of society, exploiting both storm-scale high-impact weather forecasts in a very short range, and sub-seasonal climate predictions in an extended range. This article gives an approximate chronological account of the NWP over three periods separated by breakpoints in 1990 and 2005, in terms of dynamical core, physics, data assimilation, operational system, and forecast application. Challenges for future development of NWP are briefly discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.195-196
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• 2004

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2009.10a
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• pp.546-548
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• 2009

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Fisheries Technology Conference
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• 1995.06a
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• pp.375-376
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• 1995

• Atmosphere
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.263-276
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• 2022

The observation error of satellite radiation data that assimilated into the Korean Integrated Model (KIM) was diagnosed by applying the Hollingsworth and Lönnberg and Desrozier techniques commonly used. The magnitude and correlation of the observation error, and the degree of contribution for the satellite radiance data were calculated. The observation errors of the similar device, such as Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A shows different characteristics. The model resolution accounts for only 1% of the observation error, and seasonal variation is not significant factor, either. The observation error used in the KIM is amplified by 3-8 times compared to the diagnosed value or standard deviation of first-guess departures. The new inflation value was calculated based on the correlation between channels and the ratio of background error and observation error. As a result of performing the model sensitivity evaluation by applying the newly inflated observation error of ATMS, the error of temperature and water vapor analysis field were decreased. And temperature and water vapor forecast field have been significantly improved, so the accuracy of precipitation prediction has also been increased by 1.7% on average in Asia especially.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.119-130
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• 2015

Impacts of Argo temperature assimilation on the analysis fields in the East Sea is investigated by using DAESROM, the East Sea Regional Ocean Model with a 3-dimensional variational assimilation module (Kim et al., 2009). Namely, we produced analysis fields in 2009, in which temperature profiles, sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface height (SSH) anomaly were assimilated (Exp. AllDa) and carried out additional experiment by withdrawing Argo temperature data (Exp. NoArgo). When comparing both experimental results using assimilated temperature profiles, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of the Exp. AllDa is generally lower than the Exp. NoArgo. In particular, the Argo impacts are large in the subsurface layer, showing the RMSE difference of about $0.5^{\circ}C$. Based on the observations of 14 surface drifters, Argo impacts on the current and temperature fields in the surface layer are investigated. In general, surface currents along the drifter positions are improved in the Exp. AllDa, and large RMSE differences (about 2.0~6.0 cm/s) between both experiments are found in drifters which observed longer period in the southern region where Argo density was high. On the other hand, Argo impacts on the SST fields are negligible, and it is considered that SST assimilation with 1-day interval has dominant effects. Similar to the difference of surface current fields between both experiments, SSH fields also reveal significant difference in the southern East Sea, for example the southwestern Yamato Basin where anticyclonic circulation develops. The comparison of SSH fields implies that SSH assimilation does not correct the SSH difference caused by withdrawing Argo data. Thus Argo assimilation has an important role to reproduce meso-scale circulation features in the East Sea.

• Proceedings of the Korea Air Pollution Research Association Conference
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• 2004.11a
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• pp.415-416
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• 2004

• 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.

• The Sea:JOURNAL OF THE KOREAN SOCIETY OF OCEANOGRAPHY
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.102-118
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• 2015

This study summarized the results of the international ocean reanalysis intercomparison project. We introduced the characteristics of various ocean reanalysis systems and analyzed the assimilated performance on the typical eight oceanic variables (heat content, steric height, sea level, surface heat fluxes, mixed layer depth, subsurface salinity, depth of $20^{\circ}C$ isotherm, sea ice). In general, ensemble means show better estimations than those of any individual ocean reanalysis, but it depends on analyzed regions and variables. Among the eight oceanic variables, salinity and sea ice variabilities have large spreads among models. The deep sea, Southern Ocean, and coastal regions including western boundary current commonly appear as the areas with largest uncertainty between different objective analyses and assimilation models. We expect that intercomparison project for the ocean assimilation models independently operated in Korea should be processed, which allows us to join relevant international programs in the near future.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-14
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• 2009

Wind energy has been recognized as one of the most important and fastest growing energy resources without emission of air pollutant. Thus, it is necessary to predict wind speed and direction accurately both in time and space toward the efficient usage of wind energy. Numerical simulation experiments using the Fifth-Generation Mesoscale Model (MM5) are carried out to clarify the impact of surface observation data assimilation on the estimation of wind energy resources. The EXP_Radius run was designed with respect to the radius of influence in the Four-Dimensional Data Assimilation (FDDA), and the EXP_Impact run was made by changing the nudging coefficient that determines the relative magnitude of the nudging term. The simulation period covers a clear-sky event on 3 - 5 June 2007 and another is on 2 - 4 December 2006. It is found that the simulated results are very sensitive to the radius of influence and nudging parameters in the FDDA. The further analysis of the results shows that the impact of the radius of influence tends to be stronger in weak synoptic flow episode than that in strong synoptic flows episode. The nudging factor is also sensitive to the intensity of the synoptic flows.