KAIST "Extreme Heavy Rain Culprit 'Global Warming' Proven with Metaverse Technology"

Over the past 60 years, the intensity of heavy rainfall in the East Asian region has increased by approximately 17%, and this has been proven through comparative experiments using metaverse technology to be largely influenced by the acceleration of global warming caused by human activities.

(From left) Professor Kim Hyung-jun, Graduate School of MoonSul Future Strategy, Dr. Moon Soo-yeon, Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences. Provided by KAIST

KAIST announced on the 5th that Professor Kim Hyung-jun of the Graduate School of Culture Technology and Dr. Moon Soo-yeon of the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences successfully demonstrated the causal relationship between global warming and heavy rainfall intensity through an international joint study involving Korea, the United States, and Japan.

The intensity of summer heavy rainfall has changed over recent decades, causing disasters such as floods and landslides, which have impacted regional ecosystems and posed significant threats to human society.

However, summer heavy rainfall in East Asia is caused by various processes such as typhoons, temperate cyclones, and fronts, and research on rainfall caused by fronts?which account for more than 40% of summer heavy rainfall?has been insufficient until now.

Additionally, since heavy rainfall is influenced by natural variability or randomness within the climate system, it has been challenging to clarify the extent to which warming caused by human activities affects the intensity of rainfall originating from fronts.

In response, an international joint research team composed of eight institutions from Korea, the United States, and Japan?including KAIST, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Chonnam National University, GIST, and Utah State University?examined meteorological observation data from the past 60 years to understand the intensity of heavy rainfall caused by weather fronts in East Asia. They discovered that the intensity of rainfall spanning from the coastal areas of southeastern China to the Korean Peninsula and Japan increased by approximately 17% during the investigation period.

Based on this, the research team conducted a metaverse experiment comparing two scenarios to identify the causes of changes in rainfall intensity. The simulation compared a world with greenhouse gas emissions to one without.

As a result of the comparison, Professor Kim Hyung-jun and others confirmed that the intensity of heavy rainfall was about 6% higher on the Earth with greenhouse gas emissions. This experimentally demonstrated the actual impact of global warming caused by human activities on rainfall intensity.

Professor Kim Hyung-jun of KAIST stated, "This research result reveals that the intensity of heavy rainfall caused by weather fronts in East Asia has significantly increased over the past half-century, and that the traces of humanity are clearly left in these changes. This will serve as an important clue to understanding the impact of climate change."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.