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Classification of Localized Heavy Rainfall Events in South Korea

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Abstract

Characteristics of localized heavy rainfall events (LHREs) in South Korea are analyzed using high-resolution precipitation reanalysis data from the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). The LHREs, defined as summertime heavy rainfall events with 30 mm/h or more, are detected using in-situ measurements, and their spatio-temporal structures are classified into the three groups using precipitation reanalysis data. The first group is mainly composed of band-type precipitation around the central regions of South Korea (CHREs). The second group predominantly consists of LHREs in the southern regions (SHREs). The third group contains diverse and isolated rainfall events (IHREs). Each group exhibits a different rainfall persistency, diurnal cycle, and occurrence frequency. In general, CHREs peak mostly in July and have shorter time scales compared to SHREs. SHREs are more nocturnal in nature with maximum frequencies in both July and August. IHREs, which consist of 47% of total LHREs, are composed of both nocturnal rainfall events in the southern coastal regions and daytime rainfall events in the inland regions. These results suggest that LHREs in South Korea have multiple characteristics and cannot be simply explained by one or two representative mechanisms.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions that substantially improved the manuscript. Funding for this research was provided by the office of the Research and Development for Numerical Weather Prediction and Earthquake Services of the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA-2018-00720) and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2018R1A5A1024958).

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  1. Enoch Jo

    Present address: Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, 61801, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea

    Enoch Jo, Chanil Park & Seok-Woo Son

  2. The Research Institute of Basic Science, Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea

    Joon-Woo Roh

  3. Department of Astronomy and Atmospheric Sciences, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, South Korea

    Gyu-Won Lee

  4. Numerical Modeling Center, Korea Meteorological Administration, Seoul, South Korea

    Yong-Hee Lee

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Jo, E., Park, C., Son, SW. et al. Classification of Localized Heavy Rainfall Events in South Korea. Asia-Pacific J Atmos Sci 56, 77–88 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13143-019-00128-7

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