Comparison of MK-PRISM according to horizontal resolution in South Korea

In this study, we produced grid climate data sets of 1km×1km and 5km×5km horizontal resolutions based on MK (Modified Korean)-PRISM (Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model), a statistical method that can estimate grid data of horizontal high-resolution using observational station data in Korea. To compare the MK-PRISM performance according to resolution, RMSEs of 1km resolution data and 5km resolution data were calculated and analyzed. The RMSEs of the two data sets were similar, but the results classified according to the elevation were different. The 1km high resolution estimated data was shown to better reflect the impact of the terrain for the daily mean temperature and daily maximum temperature, whereas the difference between the two data sets for daily minimum temperature was not statistically significant at each elevation. Furthermore, we also divided the temperature data into 9-classes based on the observed temperatures, and then compared the estimated performance of the two data sets according to elevation. For the low temperature group, performance of the 1 km resolution data at high elevations outperformed that of the 5 km resolution data, regardless of the season. In addition, we have verified the improved PRIDE (PRism based Dynamic downscaling Error correction) model, which can produce future high-resolution scenarios data using the results of RCM and MK-PRISM.