Quantitative forecast experiment of a heavy rainfall event over Korea in a global model: horizontal resolution versus lead time issues

In this study, we examine the deterministic predictability of heavy rainfall over the Korean peninsula using a global model, the Global/Regional Integrated Model system, by focusing on the effects of horizontal resolution and lead time prior to the onset of the target event. The control run reproduces locally concentrated heavy rainfall over the mid-western part of the Korean peninsula on 27-29 July 2011, with a model setup of about 25 km grid spacing and 24 h in advance of the onset of heavy rainfall. We found that small-scale features are represented well at higher resolution, but without significant change in the distribution of rainfall. Increase of lead time reduces the predictability of large-scale features, accompanying a northward shift of major rainfall. At lower resolution, the accuracy of the heavy rainfall prediction decreases more rapidly as lead time increases. We concluded that the increase in predictability of heavy rainfall achieved by enhancing horizontal resolution is promising, but an additional set of experiments also indicates that efforts should be made to improve the physics packages in models.