Satellite Image Analysis of Low-Level Stratiform Cloud Related with the Heavy Snowfall Events in the Yeongdong Region

An unusual long-period and heavy snowfall occurred in the Yeongdong region from 6 to 14 February 2014. This event produced snowfall total of 194.8 cm and the recordbreaking 9-day snowfall duration in the 103-year local record at Gangneung. In this study, satellite-derived cloud-top brightness temperatures from the infrared channel in the atmospheric window ($10{\mu}m{\sim}11{\mu}m$) are examined to find out the characteristics of clouds related with this heavy snowfall event. The analysis results reveal that a majority of precipitation is related with the low-level stratiform clouds whose cloud-top brightness temperatures are distributed from -15 to $-20^{\circ}C$ and their standard deviations over the analysis domain (${\sim}1,000km^2$, 37 satellite pixels) are less than $2^{\circ}C$. It is also found that in the above temperature range precipitation intensity tends to increase with colder temperature. When the temperatures are warmer than $-15^{\circ}C$, there is no precipitation or light precipitation. Furthermore this relation is confirmed from the examination of some other heavy snowfall events and light precipitation events which are related with the low-level stratiform clouds. This precipitation-brightness temperature relation may be explained by the combined effect of ice crystal growth processes: the maximum in dendritic ice-crystal growth occurs at about $-15^{\circ}C$ and the activation of ice nuclei begins below temperatures from approximately -7 to $-16^{\circ}C$, depending on the composition of the ice nuclei.

영동 대설과 관련된 낮은 층운형 구름의 위성관측