• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.349-362
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• 2024

We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of ensemble optimal interpolation (EnOI) in improving the analysis of significant wave height (SWH) within wave models using satellite-derived SWH data. Satellite observations revealed higher SWH in mid-latitude regions (30° to 60° in both hemispheres) due to stronger winds, whereas equatorial and coastal areas exhibited lower wave heights, attributed to calmer winds and land interactions. Root mean square error (RMSE) analysis of the control experiment without data assimilation revealed significant discrepancies in high-latitude areas, underscoring the need for enhanced analysis techniques. Data assimilation experiments demonstrated substantial RMSE reductions, particularly in high-latitude regions, underscoring the effectiveness of the technique in enhancing the quality of analysis fields. Sensitivity experiments with varying ensemble sizes showed modest global improvements in analysis fields with larger ensembles. Sensitivity experiments based on different decorrelation length scales demonstrated significant RMSE improvements at larger scales, particularly in the Southern Ocean and Northwest Pacific. However, some areas exhibited slight RMSE increases, suggesting the need for region-specific tuning of assimilation parameters. Reducing the observation error covariance improved analysis quality in certain regions, including the equator, but generally degraded it in others. Rescaling background error covariance (BEC) resulted in overall improvements in analysis fields, though sensitivity to regional variability persisted. These findings underscore the importance of data assimilation, parameter tuning, and BEC rescaling in enhancing the quality and reliability of wave analysis fields, emphasizing the necessity of region-specific adjustments to optimize assimilation performance. These insights are valuable for understanding ocean dynamics, improving navigation, and supporting coastal management practices.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.2161-2166
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• 2009

It is important for 0-6 hour nowcasting to provide for a high-quality initial condition in a meso-scale atmospheric model by a data assimilation of several observation data. The polarimetric radar data is expected to be assimilated into the forecast model, because the radar has a possibility of measurements of the types, the shapes, and the size distributions of hydrometeors. In this paper, an impact on rainfall prediction of the data assimilation of hydrometeor types (i.e. raindrop, graupel, snowflake, etc.) is evaluated. The observed information of hydrometeor types is estimated using the fuzzy logic algorism. As an implementation, the cloud-resolving nonhydrostatic atmospheric model, CReSS, which has detail microphysical processes, is employed as a forecast model. The local ensemble transform Kalman filter, LETKF, is used as a data assimilation method, which uses an ensemble of short-term forecasts to estimate the flowdependent background error covariance required in data assimilation. A heavy rainfall event occurred in Okinawa in 2008 is chosen as an application. As a result, the rainfall prediction accuracy in the assimilation case of both hydrometeor types and the Doppler velocity and the radar echo is improved by a comparison of the no assimilation case. The effects on rainfall prediction of the assimilation of hydrometeor types appear in longer prediction lead time compared with the effects of the assimilation of radar echo only.

• 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.30 no.2
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• pp.103-113
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• 2020

In this study, we analyzed and developed the monitoring system in order to confirm the effect of observations on forecast sensitivity on ensemble-based data assimilation. For this purpose, we developed the Ensemble Forecast Sensitivity to observation (EFSO) monitoring system based on Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF) system coupled with Korean Integrated Model (KIM). We calculated 24 h error variance of each of observations and then classified as beneficial or detrimental effects. In details, the relative rankings were according to their magnitude and analyzed the forecast sensitivity by region for north, south hemisphere and tropics. We performed cycle experiment in order to confirm the EFSO result whether reliable or not. According to the evaluation of the EFSO monitoring, GPSRO was classified as detrimental observation during the specified period and reanalyzed by data-denial experiment. Data-denial experiment means that we detect detrimental observation using the EFSO and then repeat the analysis and forecast without using the detrimental observations. The accuracy of forecast in the denial of detrimental GPSRO observation is better than that in the default experiment using all of the GPSRO observation. It means that forecast skill score can be improved by not assimilating observation classified as detrimental one by the EFSO monitoring system.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.287-306
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• 2010

An ensemble Kalman filter (EnKF) with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model is applied for Typhoon Wukong (200610) to investigate the performance of ensemble forecasts depending on experimental configurations of the EnKF. In addition, the ensemble sensitivity analysis is applied to the forecast and analysis ensembles generated in EnKF, to investigate the possibility of using the ensemble sensitivity analysis as the adaptive observation guidance. Various experimental configurations are tested by changing model error, ensemble size, assimilation time window, covariance relaxation, and covariance localization in EnKF. First of all, experiments using different physical parameterization scheme for each ensemble member show less root mean square error compared to those using single physics for all the forecast ensemble members, which implies that considering the model error is beneficial to get better forecasts. A larger number of ensembles are also beneficial than a smaller number of ensembles. For the assimilation time window, the experiment using less frequent window shows better results than that using more frequent window, which is associated with the availability of observational data in this study. Therefore, incorporating model error, larger ensemble size, and less frequent assimilation window into the EnKF is beneficial to get better prediction of Typhoon Wukong (200610). The covariance relaxation and localization are relatively less beneficial to the forecasts compared to those factors mentioned above. The ensemble sensitivity analysis shows that the sensitive regions for adaptive observations can be determined by the sensitivity of the forecast measure of interest to the initial ensembles. In addition, the sensitivities calculated by the ensemble sensitivity analysis can be explained by dynamical relationships established among wind, temperature, and pressure.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.205-205
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• 2021

Surface soil moisture, which governs the partitioning of precipitation into infiltration and runoff, plays an important role in the hydrological cycle. The assimilation of satellite soil moisture retrievals into a land surface model or hydrological model has been shown to improve the predictive skill of hydrological variables. This study aims to improve streamflow prediction with Weather Research and Forecasting model-Hydrological modeling system (WRF-Hydro) by assimilating Soil Moisture Active and Passive (SMAP) data at 3 km and analyze its impacts on hydrological components. We applied Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) technique to remove the bias of SMAP data and assimilate SMAP data (April to July 2015-2019) into WRF-Hydro by using an Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF) with a total 12 ensembles. Daily inflow and soil moisture estimates of major dams (Soyanggang, Chungju, Sumjin dam) of South Korea were evaluated. We investigated how hydrologic variables such as runoff, evaporation and soil moisture were better simulated with the data assimilation than without the data assimilation. The result shows that the correlation coefficient of topsoil moisture can be improved, however a change of dam inflow was not outstanding. It may attribute to the fact that soil moisture memory and the respective memory of runoff play on different time scales. These findings demonstrate that the assimilation of satellite soil moisture retrievals can improve the predictive skill of hydrological variables for a better understanding of the water cycle.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Atmospheric Sciences
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.623-637
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• 2018

This study investigates the effects of horizontal resolution, cumulus parameterization scheme (CPS), and probability forecasting on precipitation forecasts over the Korean Peninsula from 00 UTC 15 August to 12 UTC 14 September 2013, using the limited-area ensemble prediction system (LEPS) of the Korea Meteorological Administration. To investigate the effect of resolution, the control members of the LEPS with 1.5- and 3-km resolution were compared. Two 3-km experiments with and without the CPS were conducted for the control member, because a 3-km resolution lies within the gray zone. For probability forecasting, 12 ensemble members with 3-km resolution were run using the LEPS. The forecast performance was evaluated for both the whole study period and precipitation cases categorized by synoptic forcing. The performance of precipitation forecasts using the 1.5-km resolution was better than that using the 3-km resolution for both the total period and individual cases. The result of the 3-km resolution experiment with the CPS did not differ significantly from that without it. The 3-km ensemble mean and probability matching (PM) performed better than the 3-km control member, regardless of the use of the CPS. The PM complemented the defect of the ensemble mean, which better predicts precipitation regions but underestimates precipitation amount by averaging ensembles, compared to the control member. Further, both the 3-km ensemble mean and PM outperformed the 1.5-km control member, which implies that the lower performance of the 3-km control member compared to the 1.5-km control member was complemented by probability forecasting.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• v.42 no.3
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• pp.179-194
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• 2020

The present study aims to evaluate the effects of satellite-based SST (OSTIA) assimilation on a regional ocean circulation model for the Yellow and East China Seas (YECS), using three different assimilation methods: the Ensemble Optimal Interpolation (EnOI), Ensemble Kalman Filter (EnKF), and 4-Dimensional Variational (4DVAR) techniques, which are widely used in the ocean modeling communities. The model experiments show that an improved initial condition by assimilating the SST affects the seasonal water temperature and water mass distributions of the YECS. In particular, the SST data assimilation influences the temperature structures horizontally and vertically in winter, thereby improving the behavior of the YS warm current water. This is due to the fact that during wintertime the water column is well mixed, which is directly updated by the SST assimilation. The model comparisons indicate that the SST assimilation can improve the model performance in resolving the subsurface structures in wintertime, but has a relatively small impact in summertime due to the strong stratification. The differences among the different assimilation experiments are obvious when the SST was sharply changed due to a typhoon passage. Overall, the EnKF and 4DVAR show better agreement with the observations than the EnOI. The relatively low performance of EnOI under storm conditions may be related with a limitation of EnOI method whereby an analysis is obtained from a number of climatological fields, and thus the typhoon-induced SST changes in short-time scales may not be adequately reflected in the data assimilation.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.529-541
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• 2015

Korea Institute of Atmospheric Prediction System (KIAPS) has been developing a global numerial prediction model and data assimilation system. We has implemented LETKF (Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter, Hunt et al., 2007) data assimilation system to NCAR CAM-SE (National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model with Spectral Element dynamical core, Dennis et al., 2012) that has cubed-sphere grid, known as the same grid system of KIAPS Integrated Model (KIM) now developing. In this study, we have assimilated Global Positioning System Radio Occultation (GPS-RO) bending angle measurements in addition to conventional data within ensemble-based data assimilation system. Before assimilating bending angle data, we performed a vertical unit conversion. The information of vertical localization for GPS-RO data is given by the unit of meter, but the vertical localization method in the LETKF system is based on pressure unit. Therefore, with a clever conversion of the vertical information, we have conducted experiments to search for the best vertical localization scale on GPS-RO data under the Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs). As a result, we found the optimal setting of vertical localization for the GPS-RO bending angle data assimilation. We plan to apply the selected localization strategy to the LETKF system implemented to KIM which is expected to give better analysis of GPS-RO data assimilation due to much higher model top.

• Journal of the korean society of oceanography
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.52-59
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• 2003

In this paper, a brief overview on data assimilation is provided in the context of oceanographic application. The ocean data assimilation needs to ingest various types of data such as satellites and floats, thus essentially requires dynamically-consistent assimilation methods. For such purpose, sequential and variational approaches are discussed and compared. The major advantage of the Kalman filter (KF) is that it can forecast error covariances at each time step. However, for models with very large dimension of state vector, the KF Is exceedingly expensive and computationally less efficient than four-dimensional variational assimilation (4D-Var). For operational application, simplified 4D-Var schemes as well as ensemble KF may be considered.