• Journal of Radiation Protection and Research
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.28-43
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• 2023

Background: High-fidelity meteorological data is a prerequisite for the realistic simulation of atmospheric dispersion of radioactive materials near nuclear power plants (NPPs). However, many meteorological models frequently overestimate near-surface wind speeds, failing to represent local meteorological conditions near NPPs. This study presents a new high-resolution (approximately 1 km) meteorological downscaling method for modeling short-range (< 100 km) atmospheric dispersion of accidental NPP plumes. Materials and Methods: Six considerations from literature reviews have been suggested for a new dynamic downscaling method. The dynamic downscaling method is developed based on the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 3.6.1, applying high-resolution land-use and topography data. In addition, a new subgrid-scale topographic drag parameterization has been implemented for a realistic representation of the atmospheric surface-layer momentum transfer. Finally, a year-long simulation for the Kori and Wolsong NPPs, located in southeastern coastal areas, has been made for 2016 and evaluated against operational surface meteorological measurements and the NPPs' on-site weather stations. Results and Discussion: The new dynamic downscaling method can represent multiscale atmospheric motions from the synoptic to the boundary-layer scales and produce three-dimensional local meteorological fields near the NPPs with a 1.2 km grid resolution. Comparing the year-long simulation against the measurements showed a salient improvement in simulating near-surface wind fields by reducing the root mean square error of approximately 1 m/s. Furthermore, the improved wind field simulation led to a better agreement in the Eulerian estimate of the local atmospheric dispersion. The new subgrid-scale topographic drag parameterization was essential for improved performance, suggesting the importance of the subgrid-scale momentum interactions in the atmospheric surface layer. Conclusion: A new dynamic downscaling method has been developed to produce high-resolution local meteorological fields around the Kori and Wolsong NPPs, which can be used in short-range atmospheric dispersion modeling near the NPPs.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2023.05a
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• pp.26-26
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• 2023

General circulation models (GCMs) are widely used in hydrological prediction, however their coarse grids make them unsuitable for regional analysis, therefore a downscaling method is required to utilize them in hydrological assessment. As one of the downscaling methods, convolutional neural network (CNN)-based downscaling has been proposed in recent years. The aim of this study is to generate the process of dynamic downscaling using CNNs by applying GCM output as input and RCM output as label data output. Prediction accuracy is compared between different input datasets, and model structures. Several input datasets with key atmospheric variables such as precipitation, temperature, and humidity were tested with two different formats; one is two-dimensional data and the other one is three-dimensional data. And in the model structure, the hyperparameters were tested to check the effect on model accuracy. The results of the experiments on the input dataset showed that the accuracy was higher for the input dataset without precipitation than with precipitation. The results of the experiments on the model structure showed that substantially increasing the number of convolutions resulted in higher accuracy, however increasing the size of the receptive field did not necessarily lead to higher accuracy. Though further investigation is required for the application, this paper can contribute to the development of efficient downscaling method with CNNs.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.79-91
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• 2011

In order to study interactions between climate change and air quality, a modeling system including the downscaling scheme has been developed in the integrated manner. This research focuses on the development of a downscaling method to utilize CCSM3 outputs as the initial and boundary conditions for the regional climate model, MM5. Horizontal/vertical interpolation was performed to convert from the latitude/longitude and hybrid-vertical coordinate for the CCSM3 model to the Lambert-Conformal Arakawa-B and sigma-vertical coordinate for the MM5 model. A variable diagnosis was made to link between different variables and their units of CCSM and MM5. To evaluate the dynamic downscaling performance of this study, spatial distributions were compared between outputs of CCSM/MM5 and NRA/MM5 and statistic analysis was conducted. Temperature and precipitation patterns of CCSM/MM5 in summer and winter showed a similar pattern with those of observation data in East Asia and the Korean Peninsula. In addition, statistical analysis presented that the agreement index (AI) is more than 0.9 and correlation coefficient about 0.9. Those results indicate that the dynamic downscaling system built in this study can be used for the research of interaction between climate change and air quality.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2002.05b
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• pp.1187-1194
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• 2002

In this study, we have simulated regional climate over East Asia using dynamical downscaling For dynamic downscaling experiments for regional climate simulation, MM5method. with 27 km horizontal resolution and 18 layers of sigma-coordinate in vertical is nested within global-scale NCEP reanalysis data with 2.5。${\times}$2.5。 resolution in longitude and latitude. In regional simulation, January and July, 1979 monthly mean features have been obtained by both continuous integration and daily restart integration driven by updating the lateral boundary forcing at 6-hr intervals from the NCEP reanalysis data using a nudging scheme with the updating design of initial and boundary conditions in both continuous and restart integrations. In result, we may successfully generated regional detail features which might be forced by topography, lake, coastlines and land use distribution from a regional climate. There is no significant difference in monthly mean features either integrate continuously or integrate with daily restart. For climatologically long integration, the initial condition may not be significantly important. Accordingly, MM5 can be integrated for a long period without restart frequently, if a proper lateral boundary forcing is given.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.276-276
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• 2012

일반적으로 기후변화영향에 관한 연구수행을 위해 전지구기후모형(GCM; Global Climate Model)이 사용되고 있다. 하지만 GCM은 공간해상도(Spatial resolution)가 거칠기 때문에 수문학 분야에서 주로 사용되는 유역규모의 지역적인 스케일특성과 물리적 특징을 표현하는데 한계가 있다. 또한 GCM 기후변수들 중 강수량의 경우 한반도 지역의 6월과 10월 사이에 연강수량의 67% 이상이 집중되는 계절성을 반영하지 못하고 있으며, 높은 불확실성을 보이고 있다. 본 연구에서는 GCM 기반의 다지점 인공신경망기법을 적용한 상세화(Downscaling)를 실시하였다. GCM의 24개 2D변수에 대한 주성분분석을 실시하여 신경망의 학습인자로 사용하였으며, 학습, 검증 및 예측기간은 각각 1981~1995년, 1996~2000년, 2011~2100년으로 A1B 시나리오를 대상으로 상세화를 실시하였다. 또한, 여름철 태풍사상을 모의하기 위한 Stochastic Typhoon Simulation기법과 Baseline과 Projection 사이의 강수량 보정을 위한 Dynamic Quantile Mapping 기법을 적용하여, 강수량의 불확실성을 최소화 하고자 하였다.

• Korean Journal of Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.1-10
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• 2010

A regional climate model (RCM) can be a powerful tool to enhance spatial resolution of climate and weather information (IPCC, 2001). In this study we conducted dynamical downscaling using Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) as a RCM in order to obtain high resolution regional agroclimate indices over the Korean Peninsula. For the purpose of obtaining detailed high resolution agroclimate indices, we first reproduced regional weather for the period of March to June, 2002-2008 with dynamic downscaling method under given lateral boundary conditions from NCEP/NCAR (National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research) reanalysis data. Normally, numerical model results have shown biases against observational results due to the uncertainties in the modelis initial conditions, physical parameterizations and our physical understanding on nature. Hence in this study, by employing a statistical method, the systematic bias in the modelis results was estimated and corrected for better reproduction of climate on high resolution. As a result of the correction, the systematic bias of the model was properly corrected and the overall spatial patterns in the simulation were well reproduced, resulting in more fine-resolution climatic structures. Based on these results, the fine-resolution agro-climate indices were estimated and presented. Compared with the indices derived from observation, the simulated indices reproduced the major and detailed spatial distributions. Our research shows a possibility to simulate regional climate on high resolution and agro-climate indices by using a proper downscaling method with a dynamical weather forecast model and a statistical correction method to minimize the model bias.

• The Korean Journal of Quaternary Research
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.74-79
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• 2005

Recently, several attempts have been made to provide reasonable information on unusual severe weather phenomena such as tolerant heavy rains and very wild typhoons. Quantitative precipitation forecasts and probabilistic quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs and PQPFs, respectively) might be one of the most promising methodologies for early warning on the flesh floods because those diagnostic precipitation models require less computational resources than fine-mesh full-dynamics non-hydrostatic mesoscale model. The diagnostic rainfall model used in this study is the named QPM(Quantitative Precipitation Model), which calculates the rainfall by considering the effect of small-scale topography which is not treated in the mesoscale model. We examine the capability of probabilistic diagnostic rainfall model in terms of how well represented the observed several rainfall events and what is the most optimistic resolution of the mesoscale model in which diagnostic rainfall model is nested. Also, we examine the integration time to provide reasonable fine-mesh rainfall information. When we apply this QPM directly to 27 km mesh meso-scale model (called as M27-Q3), it takes about 15 min. while it takes about 87 min. to get the same resolution precipitation information with full dynamic downscaling method (called M27-9-3). The quality of precipitation forecast by M27-Q3 is quite comparable with the results of M27-9-3 with reasonable threshold value for precipitation. Based on a series of examination we may conclude that the proosed QPM has a capability to provide fine-mesh rainfall information in terms of time and accuracy compared to full dynamical fine-mesh meso-scale model.

• Atmosphere
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.637-656
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• 2021

The United States has been known as the world's major producer of crops such as wheat, corn, and soybeans. Therefore, using meteorological long-term forecast data to project reliable crop yields in the United States is important for planning domestic food policies. The current study is part of an effort to improve the seasonal predictability of regional-scale precipitation across the United States for estimating crop production in the country. For the purpose, a dynamic downscaling method using Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is utilized. The WRF simulation covers the crop-growing period (March to October) during 2000-2020. The initial and lateral boundary conditions of WRF are derived from the Pusan National University Coupled General Circulation Model (PNU CGCM), a participant model of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Climate Center (APCC) Long-Term Multi-Model Ensemble Prediction System. For bias correction of downscaled daily precipitation, empirical quantile mapping (EQM) is applied. The downscaled data set without and with correction are called WRF_UC and WRF_C, respectively. In terms of mean precipitation, the EQM effectively reduces the wet biases over most of the United States and improves the spatial correlation coefficient with observation. The daily precipitation of WRF_C shows the better performance in terms of frequency and extreme precipitation intensity compared to WRF_UC. In addition, WRF_C shows a more reasonable performance in predicting drought frequency according to intensity than WRF_UC.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.18-18
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• 2011

Climate change is impacting and will increasingly impact both the quantity and quality of the world's water resources in a variety of ways. In some areas warming climate results in increased rainfall, surface runoff, and groundwater recharge while in others there may be declines in all of these. Water quality is described by a number of variables. Some are directly impacted by climate change. Temperature is an obvious example. Notably, increased atmospheric concentrations of $CO_2$ triggering climate change increase the $CO_2$ dissolving into water. This has manifold consequences including decreased pH and increased alkalinity, with resultant increases in dissolved concentrations of the minerals in geologic materials contacted by such water. Climate change is also expected to increase the number and intensity of extreme climate events, with related hydrologic changes. A simple framework has been developed in New Zealand for assessing and predicting climate change impacts on water resources. Assessment is largely based on trend analysis of historic data using the non-parametric Mann-Kendall method. Trend analysis requires long-term, regular monitoring data for both climate and hydrologic variables. Data quality is of primary importance and data gaps must be avoided. Quantitative prediction of climate change impacts on the quantity of water resources can be accomplished by computer modelling. This requires the serial coupling of various models. For example, regional downscaling of results from a world-wide general circulation model (GCM) can be used to forecast temperatures and precipitation for various emissions scenarios in specific catchments. Mechanistic or artificial intelligence modelling can then be used with these inputs to simulate climate change impacts over time, such as changes in streamflow, groundwater-surface water interactions, and changes in groundwater levels. The Waimea Plains catchment in New Zealand was selected for a test application of these assessment and prediction methods. This catchment is predicted to undergo relatively minor impacts due to climate change. All available climate and hydrologic databases were obtained and analyzed. These included climate (temperature, precipitation, solar radiation and sunshine hours, evapotranspiration, humidity, and cloud cover) and hydrologic (streamflow and quality and groundwater levels and quality) records. Results varied but there were indications of atmospheric temperature increasing, rainfall decreasing, streamflow decreasing, and groundwater level decreasing trends. Artificial intelligence modelling was applied to predict water usage, rainfall recharge of groundwater, and upstream flow for two regionally downscaled climate change scenarios (A1B and A2). The AI methods used were multi-layer perceptron (MLP) with extended Kalman filtering (EKF), genetic programming (GP), and a dynamic neuro-fuzzy local modelling system (DNFLMS), respectively. These were then used as inputs to a mechanistic groundwater flow-surface water interaction model (MODFLOW). A DNFLMS was also used to simulate downstream flow and groundwater levels for comparison with MODFLOW outputs. MODFLOW and DNFLMS outputs were consistent. They indicated declines in streamflow on the order of 21 to 23% for MODFLOW and DNFLMS (A1B scenario), respectively, and 27% in both cases for the A2 scenario under severe drought conditions by 2058-2059, with little if any change in groundwater levels.