• Journal of Environmental Science International
• /
• v.28 no.9
• /
• pp.765-784
• /
• 2019

The synoptic structural characteristics associated with heavy snowfall (Bukgangneung: 31.3 cm) that occurred in the Yeongdong area on 20 January 2017 was investigated using surface and upper-level weather charts, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis data, radiosonde data, and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) cloud product. The cold dome and warm trough of approximately 500 hPa appeared with tropopause folding. As a result, cold and dry air penetrated into the middle and upper levels. At this time, the enhanced cyclonic potential vorticity caused strong baroclinicity, resulting in the sudden development of low pressure at the surface. Under the synoptic structure, localized heavy snowfall occurred in the Yeongdong area within a short time. These results can be confirmed from the vertical analysis of radiosonde data and the characteristics of the MODIS cloud product.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.31 no.2
• /
• pp.193-203
• /
• 2015

In this study, effects of buildings and topography on observation environment of weather stations located on mountainous terrain in metropolitan areas are investigated using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. In order to investigate the characteristics of flow pattern around the weather stations, geographic information system (GIS) data are used to construct surface boundary input data of the CFD model. In order to evaluate effects of buildings and topography on wind speed and direction at three weather stations located in Deajeon, Busan, and Gwangju., target areas around the weather stations are selected and 16 cases with different inflow directions for each target area are considered. The simulated wind speed and direction at the weather stations are compared with those of inflow. As a whole, wind speed at the weather stations decreases due to drag effects of the buildings and topography in the upwind regions. This study shows that GIS data and the CFD model are successfully applicable to evaluation of observation environment for weather stations.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.27 no.2
• /
• pp.235-249
• /
• 2017

This paper describes methodology verifying near-surface predictability of numerical weather prediction models against the surface synoptic weather station network (SYNOP) observation. As verification variables, temperature, wind, humidity-related variables, total cloud cover, and surface pressure are included in this tool. Quality controlled SYNOP observation through the pre-processing for data assimilation is used. To consider the difference of topographic height between observation and model grid points, vertical inter/extrapolation is applied for temperature, humidity, and surface pressure verification. This verification algorithm is applied for verifying medium-range forecasts by a global forecasting model developed by Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems to measure the near-surface predictability of the model and to evaluate the capability of the developed verification tool. It is found that the verification of near-surface prediction against SYNOP observation shows consistency with verification of upper atmosphere against global radiosonde observation, suggesting reliability of those data and demonstrating importance of verification against in-situ measurement as well. Although verifying modeled total cloud cover with observation might have limitation due to the different definition between the model and observation, it is also capable to diagnose the relative bias of model predictability such as a regional reliability and diurnal evolution of the bias.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
• /
• v.30 no.6
• /
• pp.600-618
• /
• 2014

The metadata for urban meteorological observation is standardized through comparison with those established at the World Meteorological Organization and the Korea Meteorological Administration to understand the surrounding environment around the sites exactly and maintain the networks and sites efficiently. It categorizes into metadata for an observational network and observational sites. The latter is again divided into the metadata for station general information, local scale information, micro scale information, and visual information in order to explain urban environment in detail. The metadata also contains the static information such as urban structure, surface cover, metabolism, communication, building density, roof type, moisture/heat sources, and traffic as well as the update information on the environment change, maintenance, replacement, and/or calibration of sensors. The standardized metadata for urban meteorological observation is applied to the Weather Information Service Engine (WISE) integrated meteorological sensor network and sites installed at Incheon area. It will be very useful for site manager as well as researchers in fields of urban meteorology, radiation, surface energy balance, anthropogenic heat, turbulence, heat storage, and boundary layer processes.

• Journal of Multimedia Information System
• /
• v.5 no.4
• /
• pp.245-256
• /
• 2018

This study estimated rainfall information more effectively by image signals through the information system of weather radar. Based on this, we suggest the way to estimate quantitative precipitation utilizing overlapped observation area of radars. We used the overlapped observation range of ground hyetometer observation network and radar observation network which are dense in our country. We chose the southern coast where precipitation entered from seaside is quite frequent and used Sungsan radar installed in Jeju island and Gudoksan radar installed in the southern coast area. We used the rainy season data generated in 2010 as the precipitation data. As a result, we found a reflectivity bias between two radar located in different area and developed the new quantitative precipitation estimation method using the bias. Estimated radar rainfall from this method showed the apt radar rainfall estimate than the other results from conventional method at overall rainfall field.

• Journal of Integrative Natural Science
• /
• v.2 no.2
• /
• pp.131-167
• /
• 2009

Global warming is regarded as one of the most critical issues that should be taken care of by the entire global community as it threatens the survival of mankind. South Korea, in particular, undergoes faster warming than the average rate of global warming. South Korea has revealed various warming rates and trends being surrounded by sea on three sides and having complex terrains dominated by mountains. The rates vary according to regions and their urbanization and industrialization. Differences also derive from seasons and weather elements. Changes to the highest, mean, and lowest temperature are also different according to the characteristics of regions and observatories, which is more apparent where the force of artificial weather applies. In an urban area, temperature gaps tend to decrease as the lowest temperature rises more than the highest temperature. Meanwhile, temperature gaps grow further in a coastal or country region where the force of artificial weather is small and the force of natural weather prevails. In this study, the investigator analyzed the changes to the weather elements of 11 observation spots that had gone through no changes in terms of observation environment since 1961, were consecutively observed, and had the quality of their observation data monitored on an ongoing basis. Using the results, I tried to identify natural and artificial causes affecting certain spots. Located on the east coast of the Asian Continent, South Korea sees weather changing very dynamically. Having huge influences on our weather, China has achieved very rapid industrialization for the last 30 years and produced more and more greenhouse gases and air pollution due to large-size development projects. All those phenomena affect our weather system in significant ways. Global warming continues due to various reasons with regional change differences. Thus the analysis results of the study will hopefully serve as basic data of weather statistics with which to set up countermeasures against climate changes.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.365-382
• /
• 2016

The results from the Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of the Mobile Observation Vehicle (MOVE) on the eastern coast of Korea have been compared with REFerence (REF) values from the fixed GPS sites to assess the performance of Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) retrievals in a kinematic environment. MOVE-PWV retrievals had comparatively similar trends and fairly good agreements with REF-PWV with a Root-Mean-Square Error (RMSE) of 7.4 mm and $R^2$ of 0.61, indicating statistical significance with a p-value of 0.01. PWV retrievals from the June cases showed better agreement than those of the other month cases, with a mean bias of 2.1 mm and RMSE of 3.8 mm. We further investigated the relationships of the determinant factors of GPS signals with the PWV retrievals for detailed error analysis. As a result, both MultiPath (MP) errors of L1 and L2 pseudo-range had the best indices for the June cases, 0.75-0.99 m. We also found that both Position Dilution Of Precision (PDOP) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) values in the June cases were better than those in other cases. That is, the analytical results of the key factors such as MP errors, PDOP, and SNR that can affect GPS signals should be considered for obtaining more stable performance. The data of MOVE can be used to provide water vapor information with high spatial and temporal resolutions in the case of dramatic changes of severe weather such as those frequently occurring in the Korean Peninsula.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
• /
• v.24 no.4
• /
• pp.360-365
• /
• 2014

There are many types of advanced devices for weather prediction process such as weather radar, satellite, radiosonde, and other weather observation devices. Among them, the weather radar is an essential device for weather forecasting because the radar has many advantages like wide observation area, high spatial and time resolution, and so on. In order to analyze the weather radar observation result, we should know the inside structure and data. Some non-precipitation echoes exist inside of the observed radar data. And these echoes affect decreased accuracy of weather forecasting. Therefore, this paper suggests a method that could remove line-shaped non-precipitation echo from raw radar data. The line-shaped echoes are distinguished from the raw radar data and extracted their own features. These extracted data pairs are used as learning data for naive bayesian classifier. After the learning process, the constructed naive bayesian classifier is applied to real case that includes not only line-shaped echo but also other precipitation echoes. From the experiments, we confirm that the conclusion that suggested naive bayesian classifier could distinguish line-shaped echo effectively.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
• /
• v.38 no.1
• /
• pp.66.1-66.1
• /
• 2013

Six universities, four institutes and agencies, and two vendors are working for space weather in South Korea. Along with education and research activities, they have been extending ground-based observation system and upgrading space weather service, and participating in international space weather programs. Recently, several space missions for space weather have been proposed in accordance with the national space program of Korea. Here, we report and discuss the current status and future perspective of Korean community for space weather.

• Atmosphere
• /
• v.29 no.1
• /
• pp.21-39
• /
• 2019

The conventional observations of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) and National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) are compared in the numerical weather forecast system at the Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems (KIAPS). The weather forecasting system used in this study is consists of Korea Integrated Model (KIM) as a global numerical weather prediction model, three-dimensional variational method as a data assimilation system, and KIAPS Package for Observation Processing (KPOP) as an observation pre-processing system. As a result, the forecast performance of NCEP observation was better while the number of observation is similar to the KMA observation. In addition, the sensitivity of forecast performance was investigated for each SONDE, SURFACE and AIRCRAFT observations. The differences in AIRCRAFT observation were not sensitive to forecast, but the use of NCEP SONDE and SURFACE observations have shown better forecast performance. It is found that the NCEP observations have more wind observations of the SONDE in the upper atmosphere and more surface pressure observations of the SURFACE in the ocean. The results suggest that evenly distributed observations can lead to improved forecast performance.