A Study on the Characteristics of Heavy Rainfalls in Chungcheong Province using Radar Reflectivity

레이더 자료를 이용한 충청지역 집중호우 사례 특성 분석

This paper describes the detailed characteristics of heavy rainfall events occurred in Chungcheong province on 15 and 16 April and from 6 to 8 August 2002 based on the analysis of raingauge rainfall rate and radar reflectivity from the METRI's X-band Weather Radar located in Cheongju. A synoptic analysis of the case is carried out, first, and then the analysis is devoted to seeing how the radar observes the case and how much information we obtain. The highly resolved radar reflectivity of horizontal and vertical resolutions of 1 km and 500 m, respectively shows a three-dimensional structure of the precipitating system, in a similar sequence with the ground rainfall rate. The radar echo classification algorithm for convective/stratiform cloud is applied. In the convectively-classified area, the radar reflectivity pattern shows a fair agreement with that of the surface rainfall rate. This kind of classification using radar reflectivity is considered to be useful for the precipitation forecasting. Another noteworthy aspect of the case includes the effect of topography on the precipitating system, following the analysis of the surface rainfall rate, topography, and precipitating system. The results from this case study offer a unique opportunity of the usefulness of weather radar for better understanding of structural and variable characteristics of flash flood-producing heavy rainfall events, in particular for their improved forecasting.