• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.39-48
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• 2014

This study provides a comparative analysis of cloud top heights observed by a Ka-band cloud radar and the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) at Boseong National Center for Intensive Observation of severe weather (NCIO) from May 25, 2013 (1600 UTC) to May 27. The rainfall duration is defined as the period of rainfall from start to finish, and the no rainfall duration is defined as the period other than the rainfall duration. As a result of the comparative analysis, the cloud top heights observed by the cloud radar have been estimated to be lower than that observed by the COMS for the rainfall duration due to the signal attenuation caused by raindrops. The stronger rainfall intensity gets, the more the difference grows. On the other hand, the cloud top heights observed by the cloud radar have been relatively similar to that observed by the COMS for the no rainfall duration. In this case, the cloud radar can effectively detect cloud top heights within the range of its observation. The COMS indicates the cloud top heights lower than the actual ones due to the upper thin clouds under the influence of ground surface temperature. As a result, the cloud radar can be useful in detecting cloud top heights when there are no precipitation events. The COMS data can be used to correct the cloud top heights when the radar gets beyond the valid range of observation or there are precipitation events.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.275-275
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• 2021

A fixed Z-R relationship approach, such as the Marshall-Palmer relationship, for an entire year and for different seasons can be problematic in cases where the relationship varies spatially and temporally throughout a region. From this perspective, this study explores the use of long-term radar reflectivity for South Korea to obtain a nationwide calibrated Z-R relationship and the associated uncertainties within a Bayesian regression framework. This study also investigates seasonal differences in the Z-R relationship and their roles in reducing systematic error. Distinct differences in the Z-R parameters in space are identified, and more importantly, an inverse relationship between the parameters is clearly identified with distinct regimes based on the seasons. A spatially structured pattern in the parameters exists, particularly parameter α for the wet season and parameter β for the dry season. A pronounced region of high values during the wet and dry seasons may be partially associated with storm movements in that season. Finally, the radar rainfall estimates through the calibrated Z-R relationship are compared with the existing Z-R relationships for estimating stratiform rainfall and convective rainfall. Overall, the radar rainfall fields based on the proposed modeling procedure are similar to the observed rainfall fields, whereas the radar rainfall fields obtained from the existing Marshall-Palmer Z-R relationship show a systematic underestimation. The obtained Z-R relationships are validated by testing the predictions on unseen radar-gauge pairs in the year 2018, in the context of cross-validation. The cross-validation results are largely similar to those in the calibration process, suggesting that the derived Z-R relationships fit the radar-gauge pairs reasonably well.

• Journal of Wetlands Research
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.191-201
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• 2013

Landslide in Korea occurs generally in summer, and rainfall is a major factor to trigger landslides. This study evaluates the applicability of radar rainfall to estimate landslide occurs locally in mountainous area. Temporal changes in spatial distribution of rainfall is analyzed using radar data, and the characteristics of rainfall in landslide area during the landslide occurred in Inje, July 2006. This study shows radar rainfall field can estimate local landslides more precisely than the rainfall data from ground gauges.

• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.283-294
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• 2015

For urban flash flood simulation, we need the higher resolution radar rainfall than radar rainfall of KMA, which has 10 min time and 1km spatial resolution, because the area of subbasins is almost below $1km^2$. Moreover, we have to secure the high quantitative accuracy for considering the urban hydrological model that is sensitive to rainfall input. In this study, we developed the quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), which has 250 m spatial resolution and high accuracy using KMA AWS and SK Planet stations with Mt. Gwangdeok radar data in Seoul area. As the results, the rainfall field using KMA AWS (QPE1) is showed high smoothing effect and the rainfall field using Mt. Gwangdeok radar is lower estimated than other rainfall fields. The rainfall field using KMA AWS and SK Planet (QPE2) and conditional merged rainfall field (QPE4) has high quantitative accuracy. In addition, they have small smoothed area and well displayed the spatial variation of rainfall distribution. In particular, the quantitative accuracy of QPE4 is slightly less than QPE2, but it has been simulated well the non-homogeneity of the spatial distribution of rainfall.

• Atmosphere
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.457-475
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• 2023

Accurately predicting localized heavy rainfall is challenging without high-resolution mesoscale cloud information in the numerical model's initial field, as precipitation intensity and amount vary significantly across regions. In the Korean Peninsula, the radar observation network covers the entire country, providing high-resolution data on hydrometeors which is suitable for data assimilation (DA). During the pre-processing stage, radar reflectivity is classified into hydrometeors (e.g., rain, snow, graupel) using the background temperature field. The mixing ratio of each hydrometeor is converted and inputted into a numerical model. Moreover, assimilating saturated water vapor mixing ratio and decomposing radar radial velocity into a three-dimensional wind vector improves the atmospheric dynamic field. This study presents radar DA experiments using a numerical prediction model to enhance the wind, water vapor, and hydrometeor mixing ratio information. The impact of radar DA on precipitation prediction is analyzed separately for each radar component. Assimilating radial velocity improves the dynamic field, while assimilating hydrometeor mixing ratio reduces the spin-up period in cloud microphysical processes, simulating initial precipitation growth. Assimilating water vapor mixing ratio further captures a moist atmospheric environment, maintaining continuous growth of hydrometeors, resulting in concentrated heavy rainfall. Overall, the radar DA experiment showed a 32.78% improvement in precipitation forecast accuracy compared to experiments without DA across four cases. Further research in related fields is necessary to improve predictions of mesoscale heavy rainfall in South Korea, mitigating its impact on human life and property.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.38 no.12 s.161
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• pp.1051-1060
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• 2005

The present study analyzes hydrologic utilization of optimal radar-derived rainfall by using semi-distributed TOPMODEL and evaluates the impacts of radar rainfall and model parametric uncertainty on a hydrologic model. Monte Carlo technique is used to produce the flow ensembles. The simulated flows from the corrected radar rainfalls with real-time bias adjustment scheme are well agreed to observed flows during 22-26 July 2003. It is shown that radar-derived rainfall is useful for simulating streamflow on a basin scale. These results are diagnose with which radar-rainfall Input and parametric uncertainty influence the character of the flow simulation uncertainty. The main conclusions for this uncertainty analysis are that the radar input uncertainty is less influent than the parametric one, and combined uncertainty with radar and Parametric input can be included the highest uncertainty on a streamflow simulation.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.15-15
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• 2011

The radar observation system in Japan is operated by two governmental groups: Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) of Japan. The JMA radar observation network is comprised of 20 C-band radars (with a wavelength of 5.6 cm), which cover most of the Japan Islands and observe rainfall intensity and distribution. And the MLIT's radar observation system is composed of 26 C-band radars throughout Japan. The observed radar echo from each radar unit is first modified, and then sent to the National Bureau of Synthesis Process within the MLIT. Through several steps for homogenizing observation accuracy, including distance and elevation correction, synthesized rainfall intensity maps for the entire nation of Japan are generated every 5 minutes. The MLIT has recently launched a new radar observation network system designed for flash flood observation and forecasting in small river basins within urban areas. It is called the X-band multi parameter radar network, and is distinguished by its dual polarimetric wave pulses of short length (3cm). Attenuation problems resulting from the short wave length of radar echo are strengthened by polarimetric wavelengths and very dense radar networks. Currently, the network is established within four areas. Each area is observed using 3-4 X-band radars with very fine resolution in spatial (250 m) and temporal (1 minute intervals). This study provides a series of utilization procedures for the new input data into a real-time forecasting system. First of all, the accuracy of the X-band radar observation was determined by comparing its results with the rainfall intensities as observed by ground gauge stations. It was also compared with conventional C-band radar observation. The rainfall information from the new radar network was then provided to a distributed hydrologic model to simulate river discharges. The simulated river discharges were evaluated again using the observed river discharge to estimate the applicability of the new observation network in the context of operations regarding flood forecasting. It was able to determine that the newly equipped X-band polarimetric radar network shows somewhat improved observation accuracy compared to conventional C-band radar observation. However, it has a tendency to underestimate the rainfall, and the accuracy is not always superior to that of the C-band radar. The accuracy evaluation of the X-band radar observation in this study was conducted using only limited rainfall events, and more cases should be examined for developing a broader understanding of the general behavior of the X-band radar and for improving observation accuracy.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.48 no.11
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• pp.925-936
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of dual-polarization radar rainfall by comapring with the flood inundation record map through KIMSTORM(Grid-based KIneMatic wave STOrm Runoff Model). For Namgang dam ($2,293km^2$) watershed, the Bisl dual-polarization radar data for 3 typhoons (Khanun, Bolaven, Sanba) and 1 heavy rain event in 2012 were prepared. For both 28 ground rainfall data and radar rainfall data, the model was calibrated using observed discharge data at 5 stations with $R^2$, Nash and Sutcliffe Model Efficiency (ME) and Volume Conservation Index (VCI). The calibration results of $R^2$, ME and VCI were 0.85, 0.78 and 1.09 for ground rainfall and 0.85, 0.79, and 1.04 for radar rainfall respectively. The flood inundation record areas (SY and MD/SG district) by typhoon Sanba were compared with the distributed modeling results. The spatial distribution by radar rainfall produced more surface runoff from the watershed and simulated higher stream discharge than the ground rainfall condition in both SY and MD/SG district. In case of MD/SG district, the stream water level by radar rainfall near the flood inundation area showed 0.72 m higher than the water level by ground rainfall.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.9
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• pp.813-826
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• 2018

Recently, weather radar system has been widely used for effectively monitoring near real-time weather conditions. The radar rainfall estimates are generally relies on the Z-R equation that is an indirect approximation of the empirical relationship. In this regards, the bias in the radar rainfall estimates can be affected by spatial-temporal variations in the radar profile. This study evaluates the uncertainty of the Z-R relationship while considering the rainfall types in the process of estimating the parameters of the Z-R equation in the context of stochastic approach. The radar rainfall estimates based on the Bayesian inference technique appears to be effective in terms of reduction in bias for a given season. The derived Z-R equation using Bayesian model enables us to better represent the hydrological process in the rainfall-runoff model and provide a more reliable forecast.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.47 no.12
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• pp.1227-1237
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• 2014

Dual-polarization can distinguish precipitation type and dual-polarization is provide not only meteorological phenomena in the atmosphere but also non-precipitation echoes. Therefore dual-polarization radar can improve radar estimates of rainfall. However polarimetric measurements by transmitting vertically vibration waves and horizontally vibrating waves simultaneously is contain systematic bias of the radar itself. Thus the calibration bias is necessary to improve quantitative precipitation estimation. In this study, the calibration bias of reflectivity (Z) and differential reflectivity ($Z_{DR}$) from the Bislsan dual-polarization radar is calculated using the 2-Dimensional Video Disdrometer (2DVD) data. And an improvement in rainfall estimation is investigated by applying derived calibration bias. A total of 33 rainfall cases occurring in Daegu from 2011 to 2012 were selected. As a results, the calibration bias of Z is about -0.3 to 5.5 dB, and $Z_{DR}$ is about -0.1 dB to 0.6 dB. In most cases, the Bislsan radar generally observes Z and $Z_{DR}$ variables lower than the simulated variables. Before and after calibration bias, compared estimated rainfall from the dual-polarization radar with AWS rain gauge in Daegu found that the mean bias has fallen by 1.69 to 1.54 mm/hr, and the RMSE has decreased by 2.54 to 1.73 mm/hr. And estimated rainfall comparing to the surface rain gauge as ground truth, rainfall estimation is improved about 7-61%.