Abstract
In this study, the observational environment for sunshine duration at Seoul and Daegu Automated Synoptic Observing Systems (ASOSs) was analyzed using a numerical model. In order to analyze the effects of topography and buildings on observational environment for sunshine duration, the model domains including the elevated building and mountainous areas around Seoul and Daegu ASOSs were considered. Three dimensional topography and buildings used as input data for the numerical model were constructed using a geographic information system (GIS) data. Solar azimuth and altitude angles calculated for the analysis period (one-week for each season in 2008) in this study were validated against those by Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). The starting and ending times of sunshine duration observed at ASOSs largely differed from the respective sunrise and sunset times simply calculated using solar angles and information of ASOSs' latitude and longitude, because uneven topography and elevated buildings around ASOSs cut off sunshine duration right after the sunrise and right before the sunset. The model produced the sunshine indices for Seoul and Daegu ASOSs with the time interval of one minute and the period of one week for each season and we compared the hourly averaged indices with those observed at the ASOSs. One week of which the cloudiness is lowest for each season is selected for analysis. Not only the adjacent buildings but also distant buildings and mountain cut off sunshine duration right after the sunrise and right before the sunset. The buildings and topography cutting off sunshine duration were found for each analyzing date. It was suggested that, in order to evaluate the observational environment for sunshine duration, we need to consider even the information of topography and/or building far away from ASOSs. This study also showed that the analyzing method considering the GIS data is very useful for evaluation of observational environment for sunshine duration.
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