• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.72-78
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• 2009

The demand for rainfall data in gridded digital formats has increased in recent years due to the close linkage between hydrological models and decision support systems using the geographic information system. One of the most widely used tools for digital rainfall mapping is the PRISM (parameter-elevation regressions on independent slopes model) which uses point data (rain gauge stations), a digital elevation model (DEM), and other spatial datasets to generate repeatable estimates of monthly and annual precipitation. In the PRISM, rain gauge stations are assigned with weights that account for other climatically important factors besides elevation, and aspects and the topographic exposure are simulated by dividing the terrain into topographic facets. The size of facet or grid cell resolution is determined by the density of rain gauge stations and a $5{\times}5km$ grid cell is considered as the lowest limit under the situation in Korea. The PRISM algorithms using a 270m DEM for South Korea were implemented in a script language environment (Python) and relevant weights for each 270m grid cell were derived from the monthly data from 432 official rain gauge stations. Weighted monthly precipitation data from at least 5 nearby stations for each grid cell were regressed to the elevation and the selected linear regression equations with the 270m DEM were used to generate a digital precipitation map of South Korea at 270m resolution. Among 1.25 million grid cells, precipitation estimates at 166 cells, where the measurements were made by the Korea Water Corporation rain gauge network, were extracted and the monthly estimation errors were evaluated. An average of 10% reduction in the root mean square error (RMSE) was found for any months with more than 100mm monthly precipitation compared to the RMSE associated with the original 5km PRISM estimates. This modified PRISM may be used for rainfall mapping in rainy season (May to September) at much higher spatial resolution than the original PRISM without losing the data accuracy.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.107-121
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• 2010

We conducted a sensitivity test of Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES), in which the influence of biophysical parameters on the simulation of gross primary productivity (GPP) and ecosystem respiration (RE) was investigated for two typical ecosystems in Korea. For this test, we employed the whole-year observation of eddy-covariance fluxes measured in 2006 at two KoFlux sites: (1) a deciduous forest in complex terrain in Gwangneung and (2) a farmland with heterogeneous mosaic patches in Haenam. Our analysis showed that the simulated GPP was most sensitive to the maximum rate of RuBP carboxylation and leaf nitrogen concentration for both ecosystems. RE was sensitive to wood biomass parameter for the deciduous forest in Gwangneung. For the mixed farmland in Haenam, however, RE was most sensitive to the maximum rate of RuBP carboxylation and leaf nitrogen concentration like the simulated GPP. For both sites, the JULES model overestimated both GPP and RE when the default values of input parameters were adopted. Considering the fact that the leaf nitrogen concentration observed at the deciduous forest site was only about 60% of its default value, the significant portion of the model's overestimation can be attributed to such a discrepancy in the input parameters. Our finding demonstrates that the abovementioned key biophysical parameters of the two ecosystems should be evaluated carefully prior to any simulation and interpretation of ecosystem carbon exchange in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.86-96
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• 2006

Ecoclimap-1, a new complete surface parameter global database at a 1-km resolution, was previously presented. It is intended to be used to initialize the soil-vegetation- atmosphere transfer schemes in meteorological and climate models. Surface parameters in the Ecoclimap-1 database are provided in the form of a per-class value by an ecoclimatic base map from a simple merging of land cover and climate maps. The principal objective of this ecoclimatic map is to consider intra-class variability of life cycle that the usual land cover map cannot describe. Although the ecoclimatic map considering land cover and climate is used, the intra-class variability was still too high inside some classes. In this study, a new strategy is defined; the idea is to use the information contained in S10 NDVI SPOT/VEGETATION profiles to split a land cover into more homogeneous sub-classes. This utilizes an intra-class unsupervised sub-clustering methodology instead of simple merging. This study was performed to provide a new ecolimatic map over Northeast Asia in the framework of Ecoclimap-2 global database construction for surface parameters. We used the University of Maryland's 1km Global Land Cover Database (UMD) and a climate map to determine the initial number of clusters for intra-class sub-clustering. An unsupervised classification process using six years of NDVI profiles allows the discrimination of different behavior for each land cover class. We checked the spatial coherence of the classes and, if necessary, carried out an aggregation step of the clusters having a similar NDVI time series profile. From the mapping system, 29 ecosystems resulted for the study area. In terms of climate-related studies, this new ecosystem map may be useful as a base map to construct an Ecoclimap-2 database and to improve the surface climatology quality in the climate model.