Elements for Life

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] 171

HE FIRST RECORD

of dust phenomenon in Korea was

found during the reign of the Silla Dynasty’s King Ahdalla

(174 A.D.) and was called ‘Woo-To’. At that time, people

believed that the god became so angry he lashed down dirt

instead of rain or snow. Since then, the Asian Dust has been

considered an unavoidable natural phenomenon in Korea,

which comes uninvited every year.

However, unprecedented severe Asian Dust, about forty times

more severe than usual, attacked Korea in March 2002 and

caused the temporary closure of 4,373 primary schools, 164

flight cancellations and the reduction of working hours in facto-

ries for semi conductors and other precision products.

Following this, both the media and the general public

demanded that the government should take all possible

measures to reduce the impact of the Asian Dust Storm.

The most fundamental measure to protect Korea from the Asian

Dust was to forest the desert areas in China and Mongolia, which

are deemed to be the source of the Asian Dust. However, as deser-

tification progresses faster than forestation, the best way for the

Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) to protect the people

from the Asian Dust was to more accurately predict the density of

the Asian Dust which comes from China, and provide quantified

information on it. For this, the establishment of an observation

network for the Asian Dust in China is needed.

In cooperation with the Korea International Cooperation

Agency (KOICA) and the Korea Ministry of Foreign Affairs and

Trade (MOFAT), KMA negotiated with and persuaded the China

Meteorological Administration (CMA) to establish the joint

monitoring network of the Asian Dust. About three years later

KMA and CMA accomplished this and have shared the Asian

Dust data observed at the five joint monitoring stations in real

time since March 2005. The observed data from the KMA-CMA

joint monitoring stations is used as input data for the numeri-

cal prediction model for the Asian Dust. Since then, it has been

possible to produce more accurate and quantitative forecasts.

The Meteorological Research Institute (METRI) of KMA

developed the trajectory model that has been used routinely to

forecast the air stream movement including dust since 2000.

The trajectories are initiated in the source region on the isen-

tropic surface of 295K, 300K, and 305K.

Recently, KMA raised the forecast accuracy of the Asian Dust,

named the Asian Dust Aerosol Model (ADAM), which was

jointly developed by METRI and Seoul National University.

After the installation and optimization of ADAM on the KMA

supercomputer, KMA has made great strides in producing more

rapid Asian Dust forecasts. ADAM is operating routinely to fore-

cast the dust concentration after 48 hours at intervals of three

hours.

The KMA-CMA joint network proved its real capability in

April 2005. The extremely severe Asian Dust affected the Korean

peninsula again on 20 April 2005. But the situation was quite

different from that in 2002. It was possible for KMA to issue

and deliver the pre-warning report of the Asian Dust to the

media and related agencies on 19 April, giving them time to

take measures and prepare for the events of the next day.

Even though the thick dust covered the sky over the Korean

peninsula on 20 April, following the countermeasures made on the

previous day, industries had already changed filters of the air clean-

ers before the dust attacked Korea, and primary schools allowed

the students to return home after morning classes on 20 April.

This clearly illustrates that the people coped with the event calmly

and systematically. It was a striking contrast to the case of 2002.

KMA is processing the project in cooperation with CMA to

extend the joint monitoring network in the northeast area of

China for better monitoring and forecasting of the Asian Dust

which moves from the Inner Mongolia to the north area of the

Korean peninsula. CMA agreed with KMA on the extension of

Saving the public from the Asian Dust Storm

Nam Jae-Cheol, Korean Meteorological Administration

(a) 10:00 LST 21 March 2002

(b) 10:00 LST 23 March 2002

During and after the dust in Korea

Photos: KMA