The purpose of this treatise was to induce the annual variation pattern of precipitation (that is one of the important elements of the precipitation characteristics), clarify the variation of its space scale, and study the subdivision of precipitation...
The purpose of this treatise was to induce the annual variation pattern of precipitation (that is one of the important elements of the precipitation characteristics), clarify the variation of its space scale, and study the subdivision of precipitation region in South Korea according to the combinations of annual precipitation amounts and annual variation pattern of monthly precipitation, using the mean values for the years 1954∼1984 at 70 stations of South Korea.
The classified annual precipitation, and the principal component vector and the amplitude coefficent by the principal component analysis were used for this study.
The results of this study can be summarized as follows:
1) The annual precitation of South Korea reaches the greatest in the southern parts below tat. 35.3°N, the high snowfall areas of east coastal region, and the eastern parts of the Kwangju mountains, and tile smallest in Yeongnam inland area of the southern part of the Soback mountains.
The amplitudes of annual variaion becomes great where the precipitation is great.
2) The characteristics of annual precipitation variation can be divided into two pattern. One is that precipitation reaches its great amount in summer, small in winter, to which actually all of the areas of South Korea partains.
The other is that precipitation reaches its great amount during July and August, and becomes greater when the winter comes, to which the heavy snow area of winter pertains.
3) 16 subdivisions (from Ⅰa_2 to Ⅲㅗ_3) were produced based on the above two characteristics and the volume of annual precipitation amounts, and resulted in 9 types of annual precipitation variation.
4) It can be divided the central east coastal area into Ⅱe_1, Ⅱe_2 sections and Cheiu island into Ⅱa_5, Ⅲa_2, Ⅲa_3, Ⅲc_1 Sections. This is one of the results of the principal component analysis of annual precipitation variation pattern, and suggest that annual precipitation and its characteristics of seasonal distribution can be the important index of climatic regional division.