Spatial and temporal variations in planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) over the Korean Peninsula and its surrounding oceans are investigated using a regional grid model operated at the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA). Special attention is placed on daily maximum mixing height for evaluation against two radiosonde observation datasets. In order to construct a new high-resolution PBLH database with 3-hour time and 10？km spatial resolution, short-term integrations with the regional model are carried out for a one-year period from June 2010 to May 2011. The resulting dataset is then utilized to explore the seasonal patterns of horizontal PBLH distribution over the peninsula for one year. Frequency distributions as well as monthly and diurnal variations of PBLH at two selected locations are examined. This study reveals specific spatiotemporal structure of boundary layer depth over the Korean Peninsula for the first time at a relatively high-resolution scale. The results are expected to provide insights into the direction for operational tuning and future development in the model boundary layer schemes at KMA. 1. Introduction The diurnally evolving structure of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) for a typical synoptic high-pressure system is described by Stull [1]. The depth of the PBL provides important information for numerical weather prediction (NWP) and atmospheric dispersion models. It has been used as a key parameter in the trigger function for convection in cumulus parameterization schemes in many NWP models (e.g., [2, 3]). Accurate prediction of PBL’s vertical extent is crucial in determining whether harmful gases (e.g., those erupted from a volcano) would reach the ground or not [4]. It affects near-surface atmospheric pollutant concentrations (e.g., [5]), low-level moisture availability, and updraft conditions prior to thundershowers (e.g., [6]). In particular, daytime mixed-layer (ML) height has been regarded as the location of a capping temperature inversion atop the convective boundary layer. Raupach et al. [7] and Denmead et al. [8] formularized the relationship between carbon dioxide concentration and ML depth through entrainment processes. To identify the ML top, there have been several methods for which radiosondes, wind profilers, and ceilometer/light detection and ranging (LIDAR) were utilized (e.g., [9–14]). These kinds of techniques to extract PBLH information have been also applied over the Korean Peninsula to surface flux [15–17], radiosonde [18, 19], LIDAR [20], and wind profiler [21] data. Most of the researchers
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