The Operational Run of the Newly Developed KIM and Update Efforts at Korea Meteorological Administration

Abstract

Korean Institute of Atmospheric Prediction Systems (KIAPS) successfully developed the next-generation global model (KIM; Korean Integrated Model) at 2019 by nine-year national project (2011~2019). After being refined several components suitable to the operational environment, the KIM has been the operational global model of Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) since April 2020. Because the performance of the initial version of KIM is 2% behind the existing operational global model (2019 version of United Kingdom Meteorological Office—Unified Model; KMA-UM) in terms of 500 hPa anomaly correlation coefficient (ACC) over northern hemisphere, KMA continues struggling to improve the accuracy of KIM. The efforts consist of addition of new observation data to data assimilation (DA) system, especially satellite data, introduction of new DA techniques, such as variational bias correction (VARBC), and update of physics packages based on diagnostics of model output compared to observation or analysis data. Among the updates, one of the most impactful upgrades will be described in this chapter. In addition, outstanding issues related to the future plans will also be discussed.