Capability Assessment on Meteorological Technology - Comparative Study of Technological Prowess on Korea, U.S., and Japan -

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the meteorological capability of Korea by comparing with that of the U.S. and Japan as of 2010. The research was conducted based on various indices and surveys, and quantified the results using the Gordon's scoring model. The index assessment used 11 items derived from 9 segments - surface observation, advanced observation and observations quality in the observation field; data assimilation, numerical model and infrastructure in the data processing field; forecast accuracy in the forecast field; climate prediction and climate change in the climate field - in this research, we classified the meteorological technology into four fields. In the survey assessment, another 10 items in addition to the above 11 ones (total 21 items) were used. In the field of climate, Korea was found to lag far behind the U.S. (96.5p) and Japan (90.5p) with 77.6 points out of 100, which is 18.9 and 12.9 points lower than them respectively. On the other hand, Korea showed the narrowest gap with Japan (95.3p) and the U.S. (94.2) in the forecasting field, recording 90.3 points. Particularly, in surface observation, infrastructure and forecast accuracy segment, Korea was on a par with the U.S. and Japan, boasting 100.5 percent compared to their counterparts. However, in advanced observation, data quality and climate change segment, Korea was only at the level of 81.5 percent compared to that of the U.S. and Japan. All in all, the technological prowess of Korea, scoring 84.6 points, stood at 89.7 percent of that of the U.S. (94.3p) and 91.9 percent of Japan (92.1p).