The purposes of this study were to classify detailed climate types over the Republic of Korea (ROK) and to delineate their climate characteristics using the new normals of 1991-2020 for 219 weather stations. Total five climate types, Cfa, Cfb, Cwa, Dwa, and Dwb were identified in ROK based on the Köppen’s climate classification criteria. Subtropical climate types, Cfa or Cwa types were broadly covered with 79.9% of 219 stations and the most of remaining stations were included in Dwa types which had a very cold winter and hot summer with wet conditions. In the Trewartha classification, four climate types were identified, one subtropical Cfa, and three temperate Doa, Dca, and Dcb types. Dcb types were found at four stations (Daegwallyeong, Taebaek, Jinburyeong, and Sabuk) in Taebak mountains indicating the extent of cool summer climate types with more stations in mountain areas. The climate characteristics by climate types only were presented the results from the Trewartha classification with the new normals and 66 ASOS stations because Köppen’s climate classification was not appropriate for ROK. The annual mean precipitation of Cfa was the greatest while Dcb the lowest among four types. The annual range was the greatest at Dca types while the smallest at Cfa due to the geographical varieties. More detailed climate types were located in ROK with 219 weather stations and the new normals (1991-2020). However, there were some limitation applying the criteria of Köppen’s and Trewartha’s climate classification to a very complex topographical region.
This study tried to reveal pattern of change in climatic normals during 1981-2010 and 1991-2020 from 28 weather stations in South Korea as well as its relationships with land cover change. Most of the weather stations showed temperature increase during 1991-2020 compared to 1981-2010, and positive correlations were found between temperature and urbanization in land cover, with the highest correlation coefficient in min. temperature. Temperature data also showed negative correlations with suburbanization in land cover, with lower correlation coefficients than urbanization in land cover. Overall decreases in relative humidity were revealed from the weather stations. However, clear relationships between relative humidity and land cover were not found in this study. The other climate data such as precipitation, sunshine and mean wind speed showed various ratios of change depending on the weather stations, without certain relationships with land cover.
We projected the temperature changes in the mid-21st century with Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and RCP8.5 using the temperature data simulated by four regional climate models (RCMs: WRF, CCLM, MM5, RegCM4) in Korea. The simulation area and spatial resolution of RCMs were the CORDEXEA (COordinated Regional Climate Downscaling Experiment-East Asia) area and 25 km, respectively. We defined the temperature change as the difference (ratio) between the average annual temperature (IAV: Interannual Variation) over the projected 25 years (2026-2050) and that over the present 25 years (1981-2005). The fact that the average annual temperature bias of the four RCMs is within ±2.5°C suggests that the RCM simulation level is reasonable in Korea. Across all RCMs, scenarios, and geographic locations, we observed increased temperatures (IAV) in the mid-21st century. In RCP4.5 and RCP8.5, 1.27°C and 1.57°C will be increased by 2050, respectively. The ensemble suggests that the temperature increase is higher in winter (RCP4.5: 1.36°C, RCP8.5: 1.75°C) than summer (RCP4.5: 1.25°C, RCP8.5: 1.49°C). Central Korea exhibited a higher temperature increase than southern Korea. A slightly larger IAV is expected in the southeastern region than in the Midwest of Korea. IAV is also expected to increase significantly in RCP4.5 (summer) than in RCP8.5 (winter).
The purpose of this study is to elucidate the spatio-temporal characteristics of ultrafine dust generation in East Asia and the synoptic climate patterns related to its dispersal which has its adverse effects on public health across East Asia. To achieve this purpose, Level 3 monthly Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data extracted from MODIS satellite imagery (MOD08_M3) representing particle matters less than 2.5 micrometer (PM2.5) and the NCEP-NCAR reanalysis I upper-level climatic data associated with the exacerbation of ultrafine dust problem are analyzed for the recent 20-year (2001-2020) period. Analyses of long-term average MOD08 data show that high AOD value exceeding 0.5 or more frequently occurred in populous cities in East Asia but mainly in the vicinity of densely populated large rivers and the eastern lowlands in China between mid-winter and mid-spring, which is attributable to the accumulation effects of continuous fossil fuel consumption for heating and manufacturing. Despite the overall decreasing trend of ultrafine dust across China in the 2010s, the weakened westerlies in the warmer climate as well as its continuous generation from the densely populated industrial regions of China provide a favorable synoptic climate condition for frequent severe ultrafine dust problems across East Asia including South Korea. These results indicate that ultrafine dust from China is a long-lasting transboundary environmental problem across East Asia, which needs long-term international cooperation in developing the sustainable policies.
This study evaluates the quality of surface air temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation detection observed by 22 internet of thing (IoT)-based mini-weather stations in Seoul in 2020 summer. The automatic weather station (AWS) closest to each IoT-based station is used as reference. The IoT-based observations show surface air temperature and relative humidity are about 0.2-4.0°C higher and about -1--22% lower than the AWS observations, respectively. However, they exhibit temporal variability similar to the AWS observations on both diurnal and daily time scales, with daily correlations greater than 0.90 for temperature and 0.82 for relative humidity. Given these strong linear relationships, it show that temperature and relative humidity biases can be effectively corrected by applying a simple bias correction method. For IoT-based precipitation detection, we found that precipitation conductivity value (PCV) during precipitation events is well separated from that during non-precipitation events, providing a basis for distinguishing precipitation events from non-precipitation events. When the PCV threshold is set to 250 for precipitation detection, the highest critical success index and the bias score index close to one, suitable for operational precipitation detection, are obtained. These results demonstrate that IoT-based mini-weather stations can successfully measure surface air temperature, relative humidity, and precipitation detection with appropriate bias corrections.
The purpose of this study is to extract climate element affecting coffee yield by growth period using data of production and cultivation area of coffee and climate data for 2000-2018. During the analysis period, the production of coffee in Vietnam has been consistently increasing, but Ðăk Lăk in the Central Highlands, the main cultivation area for coffee production, has recently stagnated in the trend of increasing yield. The yield of Lâm Đồng, located in the relatively highlands of the Central Highlands, is steadily increasing. Coffee yields of Ðăk Lăk is negatively correlated with the temperature during flowering period, and is also significantly negatively correlated with the maximum temperature and precipitation during the late growing period. On the other hand, Lâm Đồng, located at a relatively high altitude, has a positive correlation with temperature during the late growing period. It is analyzed that the lower the altitude, the higher the temperature, the lower the coffee productivity due to the high temperature appearance, and the lower the low temperature appearance in the high altitude region.