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Evaluation of Topographic Effect Parameterizations in Weather Research and Forecasting Model over Complex Mountainous Terrain in Wildfire-Prone Regions

delete2025-05-14
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OA
AI
Y
Yonghan Jo
S
Seung Hee Kim *
Y
Yun Gon Lee *
C
Chang Ki Kim

Jinkyu Hong
J
Junhong Lee
K
Keunchang Jang
DOI:10.3390/fire8050196delete
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Abstract

Abstract

En 中文
Recent trends of intense forest fires in the Korean Peninsula have increased concerns about more extreme burning in the future under a warming climate. Accurate and reliable fire weather information has become more critical to reduce the risk of forest-related disasters over complex terrain. In this study, two parameterizations reflecting complex topographic effects were implemented in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The model performance was evaluated over the mountainous region in Gangwon-do, South Korea's most significant forest area. The simulation results of the wildfire case in 2019 show that subgrid-scale orographic parameterization considerably improves model performance regarding wind speed, with a lower root mean square error (RMSE) and bias by 53% and 57%, respectively. Another parameterization, reflecting slope and shading, effectively reflected sunrise and sunset effects. The second parametrization produced little effect on the daily averages of meteorological elements. However, thermodynamic components such as temperature and heat flux show more realistic values during sunset or sunrise when the solar altitude angle is low. The results imply that applying topographic parameterizations is required in numerical simulations, especially for hazardous weather conditions over complex terrain in mountainous regions.
Keywords:
WRF model
complex mountainous terrain
subgrid-scale orographic parameterization
topographic shading
slope parameterization
high-resolution numerical simulation

Journal

F
Fire Switzerland
IF:
2.7
Papers:
1.7K
Citations:
3.2K

Organization

N
natl inst forest sci
Scholars:
35
Papers: 23
Citations: 2
M
Max Planck Inst Meteorol
Scholars:
43
Papers: 38
Citations: 33
C
Chungnam Natl Univ
Scholars:
1.0K
Papers: 482
Citations: 112
K
Korea Inst Energy Res
Scholars:
130
Papers: 60
Citations: 20
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