• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.293-303
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• 2000

The typhoon Jelawat, which was formed over the tropical Pacific ocean on August 1, 2000 and made a landfall over China on August 10, 2000, was observed by Korea Multi-purpose Satellite (KOMPSAT-1) Ocean Scanning Multispectral Imager (OSMI), Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)/Precipitation Radar(PR) and Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT). In spite of discontinuous observation, important mesoscale features of typhoon depending on life cycle were detected prominently. It is possible to distinguish on the OSMI photograph between the eye-wall convection and the stratiform and other convective clouds near the center of typhoon Jelawat. The TRMM/PR observations show quite clearly the eye-wall convection, stratiform regions, and convective bands. Vertical cross section of rainfall in the genesis stage of typhoon Jelawat exhibits circular ring of intense convection surrounding the eye. The mature stage of typhoon Jelawat consists of a strong rotational circulation with clouds which are well organized about a center of low pressure. The OSMI, TRMM/PR and QuikSCAT measurements presented here agree qualitatively with each other and provide a wealth of information on the structure of typhoon Jelawat.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.495-508
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• 2016

In order to determine the prediction possibility of heavy rainfall, a variety of analyses was conducted by using three-dimensional data obtained from Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS) re-analysis data. Strong moisture convergence occurring around the time of the heavy rainfall is consistent with the results of previous studies on such continuous production. Heavy rainfall occurred in the cloud system with a thick convective clouds. The moisture convergence, temperature and potential temperature advection showed increase into the heavy rainfall occurrence area. The distribution of integrated liquid water content tended to decrease as rainfall increased and was characterized by accelerated convective instability along with increased buoyant energy. In addition, changes were noted in the various characteristics of instability indices such as K-index (KI), Showalter Stability Index (SSI), and lifted index (LI). The meteorological variables used in the analysis showed clear increases or decreases according to the changes in rainfall amount. These rapid changes as well as the meteorological variables changes are attributed to the surrounding and meteorological conditions. Thus, we verified that heavy rainfall can be predicted according to such increase, decrease, or changes. This study focused on quantitative values and change characteristics of diagnostic variables calculated by using numerical models rather than by focusing on synoptic analysis at the time of the heavy rainfall occurrence, thereby utilizing them as prognostic variables in the study of the predictability of heavy rainfall. These results can contribute to the identification of production and development mechanisms of heavy rainfall and can be used in applied research for prediction of such precipitation. In the analysis of various case studies of heavy rainfall in the future, our study result can be utilized to show the development of the prediction of severe weather.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.219-227
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• 2000

In Korea, heavy rainfall is mainly induced by the Changma front or frontal system passed over Korea periodically. Both its unknown mesoscale characteristics and the lack of direct measurements make it difficult to predict precipitation reasonably. To understand its 3-dimensional structure, initiation and development mechanism of precipitation in that system will be very helpful to forecast it more accurately. A meteorological radar is specially useful because it produces direct measurement with high resolution in time and space. In this study, representative frontal system is selected and analyzed specially focused on its vertical structure using radar data. Results shows that there are convective cells with horizontal scale of 10 - 20 km in precipitation system. Melting layer located between 3 and 5 km height, maximum fall speeds of rain drops were seen just below bright band.

• Atmosphere
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.183-196
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• 2019

High-quality and high-resolution meteorological information is essential to reduce damages due to disastrous weather phenomena such as flash flood, strong wind, and heat/cold waves. There are many meteorological observation stations operated by Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) in Seoul Metropolitan Area (SMA). Nonetheless, they are still not enough to represent small-scale weather phenomena like convective storm cells due to its poor resolution, especially over urban areas with high-rise buildings and complex land use. In this study, feasibilities to use additional pre-existing networks (e.g., operated by local government and private company) are tested by investigating the effects of network density on the gridded horizontal distribution of two meteorological variables (temperature and precipitation). Two heat wave event days and two precipitation events are chosen, respectively. And the automatic weather station (AWS) networks operated by KMA, local-government, and SKTechX in Incheon area are used. It is found that as network density increases, correlation coefficients between the interpolated values with a horizontal resolution of 350 m and observed data also become large. The range of correlation coefficients with respect to the network density shows large in nighttime rather than in daytime for temperature. While, the range does not depend on the time of day, but on the precipitation type and horizontal distribution of convection cells. This study suggests that temperature and precipitation sensors should be added at points with large horizontal inhomogeneity of land use or topography to represent the horizontal features with a resolution higher than 350 m.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.41-53
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• 2014

The special observation using Radiosonde was performed to investigate precipitation events over the east coast of Korea during the winter season from 5 January to 29 February 2012. This analysis focused on the various indices to describe the characteristics of the atmospheric instability. Equivalent Potential Temperature (EPT) from surface (1000 hPa) to middle level (near 750 hPa) was increased when the precipitation occurred and these levels (1000~750 hPa) had moisture enough to cause the instability of atmosphere. The temporal evolution of Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) appeared to be enhanced when the precipitation fell. Similar behavior was also observed for the temporal evolution of Storm Relative Helicity (SRH), indicating that it had a higher value during the precipitation events. To understand a detailed structure of atmospheric condition for the formation of precipitation, the surface remote sensing data and Automatic Weather System (AWS) data were analyzed. We calculated the Total Precipitable Water FLUX (TPWFLUX) using TPW and wind vector. TPWFLUX and precipitation amount showed a statistically significant relationship in the north easterly winds. The result suggested that understanding of the dynamical processes such as wind direction be important to comprehend precipitation phenomenon in the east coast of Korea.

• Atmosphere
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.509-522
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• 2016

Heavy snowfall events have occurred frequently in the Yeongdong region but understanding of these events have trouble in lack of snowfall observation in this region because it is composed of complex topography like the "Taebaek mountains" and the "East sea". These problems can be solved by quantitative precipitation estimation technique using remote sensing such as radar, satellite, etc. Two radars which are able to cover over Yeondong region were installed at Gangneung (GNG) and Gwangdeoksan (GDK). This study uses radar and water equivalent of snow cover to investigate the characteristics of radar echoes and the $Z_e-R$ relations associated with the 10 Yeongdong heavy snowfall events during the last 5 years (2010~2014). It was found that the heights which the probability of detection (POD) of snow detection by GNG radar is more than 80% are 3,000 m and 1,500 m in convective cloud and stratiform cloud, respectively. The vertical gradient of radar reflectivity is less decreased in convective cloud than stratiform cloud. However, POD by GDK radar are lower than 80% at all layers because the majority of Yeondong observational stations are more than 100 km away from GDK radar site. Furthermore, we examined $Z_e-R$ relation from the 10 events using GNG radar and compared the "a" and "b" obtained from these examinations at Sokcho (SC) and Daegwallyeong (DG). These "a" and "b" are estimated from radar echo at 500 m (SC) and 1,500 m (DG). The values of "a" differ in their stations such as SC and DG are 30~116 and 6~39, respectively. But "b" is 0.4~1.7 irrespective of stations. Moreover, the value of "a" increased with surface air temperature. Therefore, quantitative precipitation estimation in heavy snowfall events by radar echo using fixed "a" and "b" is difficult because these values changed according to those precipitation characteristics.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.173-188
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• 2014

The KMA has cooperated with the Oklahoma University in USA to develop a Polarimetric Radar Data (PRD) simulator to improve the microphysical processes in Korea Local Analysis and Prediction System (KLAPS), which is critical for the utilization of PRD into Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) field. The simulator is like a tool to convert NWP data into PRD, so it enables us to compare NWP data with PRD directly. The simulator can simulate polarimetric radar variables such as reflectivity (Z), differential reflectivity ($Z_{DR}$), specific differential phase ($K_{DP}$), and cross-correlation coefficient (${\rho}_{hv}$) with input of the Drop Size Distribution (DSD) and scattering calculation of the hydrometeors. However, the simulator is being developed based on the foreign observation data, therefore the PRD simulator development reflecting rainfall characteristics of Korea is needed. This study analyzed a potential application of the 2-Dimension Video Disdrometer (2DVD) data by calculating the raindrop axis ratio according to the rain-types to reflect Korea's rainfall characteristics into scattering module in the simulator. The 2DVD instrument measures the precipitation DSD including the fall velocity and the shape of individual raindrops. We calculated raindrop axis ratio for stratiform, convective and mixed rainfall cases after checking the accuracy of 2DVD data, which usually represent the scattering characteristics of precipitation. The raindrop axis ratio obtained from 2DVD data are compared with those from foreign database in the simulator. The calculated the dual-polarimetric radar variables from the simulator using the obtained raindrop axis ratio are also compared with in situ dual-polarimetric observation data at Bislsan (BSL). 2DVD observation data show high accuracies in the range of 0.7~4.8% compared with in situ rain gauge data which represents 2DVD data are sufficient for the use to simulator. There are small differences of axis ratio in the diameter below 1~2 mm and above 4~5 mm, which are more obvious for bigger raindrops especially for a strong convective rainfall case. These differences of raindrop axis ratio between domestic and foreign rainfall data base suggest that the potential use of disdrometer observation can develop of a PRD simulated suitable to the Korea precipitation system.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 1999.11a
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• pp.103-106
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• 1999

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(TRMM) is a United States-Japan project for rain measurement from space. The first spaceborne Precipitation Radar(PR) has been installed aboard the TRMM satellite. The ground based validation of the TRMM satellite observations was conducted by TRMM science team through a Global Validation Program(GVP) consisted of 10 or more ground validation sites throughout the tropics. However, TRMM radar should always be validated and assessed against reference data to be used in Korean Peninsula because the rainrates measured with satellite varies by time and space. We have analyzed errors in the comparison of rainrates measured with the TRMM/PR and the ground-based instrument i.e. Automatic Weather System(AWS) by means of statistical methods. Preliminary results show that the near surface rainrate of TRMM/PR are highly correlated with ground measurements especially for the very deep convective rain clouds, though the correlation is changed according to the type and amount of precipitating clouds. Results also show that TRMM/PR instrument is inclined to underestimate the rainrate on the whole over Korea than the AWS measurement for the cases of heavy rainfall.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.1-21
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• 1995

The characteristics of the Asian summer monsoon have been investigated for the periods of 1993/1994, the contrasting years in a view of the summer monsoon precipitation. In order to investigate the monsoon features over the eastern Asian monsoon region, the cloudiness(using the extensive data derived by the geostationary meteorological satellite), the condition of underlying surface including sea-surface temperature, and the summer rainfall are analyzed and some comparisons with 1993 and 1994 are also made and the characteristic differences are discussed. An analysis of the 2-degree latitude-longitude gridded 5-day mean high cloud amount data shows the detailed movement and persistence of the convective activities. In order to describe the spatial and temporal structures of the intraseasonal oscillation for the movement and evolution of the monsoon cloud, the extended empirical orthogonal fnction analysis with the twenty-day window size is used for the each year. Also, in order to find out the periodicity of the equatorial convective cluster, Fourier harmonic analysis is applied to the each year. The most prevailing intraseasonal oscillations of high cloud amount are 61 day mode and 15day mode in the equatorial and the subtropical oceans. However it was found that the most prevailing modes over the equatorial western Pacific and Indian Ocean were different for each year, hence raising the possibillity that the contrasting monsoon presipitation may be more fundamentally related to the interaction of intraseasonal oscillations and seasonal variation of convective activities over the lower latitude ocean.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.621-635
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• 1998

The feasibility of cloud seeding in Korea is presented from analyses of precipitation, cloud amount, satellite data, and upper air data. The daily mean precipitation over Dae-Kwan-Ryong is the largest(~4.5 mm/day), while the intensity of precipitation (amount of yearly rainfall divided by the frequency of rain days) over Southern area is above 14 mm/day, which shows the largest in Korea. Both the daily mean and the intensity of precipitation over Andong area are the smallest with values of ~2.7 mm/day and ~11 mm/day, respectively. In the meanwhile, the occurrence frequency of appropriate cloud top temperature (-10'~-30') for cloud seeding over the region has a large value (~130 days/year). The precipitation patterns of the region vary with wind direction and intensity calculated from 43 AWSs(Automatic Weather Station) and the additional 7 rain guages which were installed along Northern and Southern part of the Sobaek mountain. The Sc(Stratocumulus) cloud type over Andong is frequently observed, and Cirrus and Altostratus next. From the results, it is estimated that the feasibility of cloud seeding over the area would be high if a proper strategy of cloud seeding is set up. LCL (Lifting Condensation Level) and CCL (Convective Condensation Level) have the most frequency in 1000-950 hPa being occupied 4/9 of total analysis period and in 400-500 hPa, respectively, with both small variations from season to season. The correlation between vapor mixing ratio and CCL is the highest in Summer and the lowest in Winter. It means that the height of cumulus in Summer is high with an abundant water vapor but vice versa in Winter, and that the strategy of cloud seeding should be different with seasons.