• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.59-71
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• 2002

Theoretical models of radiative transfer are developed to simulate the 85 GHz brightness temperature (T85) observed by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) radiometer as a function of rain rate. These simulations are performed separately over regions of the convective and stratiform rain. TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR) observations are utilized to construct vertical profiles of hydrometeors in the regions. For a given rain rate, the extinction in 85 GHz due to hydrometeors above the freezing level is found to be relatively weak in the convective regions compared to that in the stratiform. The hydrometeor profile above the freezing level responsible for the weak extinction in convective regions is inferred from theoretical considerations to contain two layers: 1) a mixed (or mixed-phase) layer of 2 km thickness with mixed-phase particles, liquid drops and graupel above the freezing level, and 2) a layer of graupel extending from the top of the mixed layer to the cloud top. Strong extinction in the stratiform regions is inferred to result from slowly-falling, low-density ice aggregates (snow) above the freezing level. These theoretical results are consistent with the T85 measured by TMI, and with the rain rate deduced from PR for the convective and stratiform rain regions. On the basis of this study, the accuracy of the rain rate sensed by TMI is inferred to depend critically on the specification of the convective or stratiform nature of the rain.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.366-366
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• 2002

Cloud-to ground lightning and total precipitation over Korean peninsula during the summer monsoon season are studied extensively with a special emphasis on the characteristics of convective precipitation. Ten years (1988-1997) lightning and rainfall data and a temporal and spatial scale of one month and 10$^2$ km$^2$ respectively are used to calculate the monthly number of CG lightning flash count. Monsoonal convective activity is higher over the west coast with maxima at two different regions, one in the northern part which increases nortwestward and the other is at the middle west coast of Korea increasing towards the west coast. East coast represents the minimum value of monsoonal convective activity. In the east coast of Korean peninsula, particularly in the region east of Tae-back mountain, the value of Rain yield, (which is defined as the ratio of total precipitation to CG flash count over a common area), is maximum with an average value of 3$\times$10$^{8}$ kg fl$^{-1}$, while the minimum value of rain yield is occurred in the west of Tae-back mountain, with an average value of 0.8$\times$10$^{8}$ kg fl$^{-1}$. Results show in the west coast stations, nearly 82% of the total rainfall is convective in nature, at the middle of the peninsula 53% of the total rain is convective while in the east coast stations 46% contribution from the convective rain is seen. Kanghwa receives the maximum convective rain while at Ulsan the convective rain is minimum. Correlation coefficient between the total precipitation and CG lightning during the summer monsoon season is 0.54.

• Atmosphere
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.333-341
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• 2010

The stratiform rain fraction is investigated in the tropical boreal winter Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO) and summer intraseasonal oscillation (ISO) using Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Rader data for the 11-yr period from 1998 to 2008. Composite analysis shows that the MJO/ISO produces larger stratiform rain rate than convective rain rate for nearly all phases following the propagating MJO/ISO deep clouds, with the greatest stratiform rainfall amount when the MJO/ISO center is located over the central-eastern Indian Ocean and the western Pacific. The fraction of the intraseasonally filtered stratiform rainfall compared to total rainfall (i.e., convective plus stratiform rainfall) amounts to 53~56%, which is 13~16% larger than the stratiform rain fraction estimated for the same data on seasonal-to-annual time scales by Schumacher and Houze. This indicates that the MJO/ISO exhibits the organized rainfall process which is characterized by the shallow convection/heating at the incipient phase and the subsequent flare-up of strong deep convection, followed by the development of stratiform clouds at the upper troposphere.

• Atmosphere
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.155-165
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• 2005

The characteristics of six precipitation systems occurred around Cheongju in 2002 are analyzed after the convective/stratiform radar echo classification using radar reflectivity from the Meteorological Research Institute"s X-band Doppler weather radar. The Biggerstaff and Listemaa (2000) algorithm is applied for the classification and reveals a physical characteristics of the convective and stratiform rain diagnosed from the three-dimensional structure of the radar reflectivity. The area satisfying the vertical profile of radar reflectivity is well classified, while the area near the radar site and the topography-shielded area show a mis-classification. The seasonal characteristics of the precipitation system are also analyzed using the contoured frequency by altitude diagrams (CFADs). The heights of maximum reflectivity are 4 km and 5.5 km in spring and summer, respectively, and the vertical gradient of radar reflectivity from 1.5 km to the melting layer in spring is larger than in summer.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.33-45
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• 2011

The characteristics and vertical structure of the rainfall are examined in terms of rain types using TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) PR (Precipitation Radar) data during the JJA period of 2002-2006 over three different regions; midlatitude region around the Korean Peninsula (EA1), subtropical East Asia (EA2), and tropical East Asia (EA3). The convective rain fraction in the EA1 region is 12.2%, which is smaller by 6% than those in the EA2 and EA3 regions. EA1 shows less frequent convective rain events, which are about 0.5 times as many as those in EA3. EA1 produces the mean convective rain rate of 10.4 mm/h that is about 40% larger than EA2 and EA3 while all regions have similar mean stratiform rain rate. The relationships between storm height and rain rate indicate that the rain rate is proportional to the storm height. Based on the vertical structure of radar reflectivity, EA1 produces deeper and stronger convective clouds with higher rain rate compared to the other regions. In EA3, radar reflectivity increases distinctly toward the land surface at altitude below 5 km, indicating more dominant coalescence-collision processes than the other regions. Furthermore, the bright band of stratiform rain clouds in EA3 is very distinct. In convective rain clouds, the first EOFs of radar reflectivity profiles are similar among the three regions, while the second EOFs are slightly different. The larger variability exists at upper layers for EA1 while it exits at lower levels for EA3.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.423-441
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• 2013

On 21 September 2010, one of Chuseok holidays in Korea, localized heavy rainfalls occurred over the midwestern region of the Korean peninsula. In this study MTSAT-2 infrared and water vapor channel imagery are examined to find out some features which are obvious in each stage of the life cycle of convective cell for this heavy rain event. Also the kinematic and thermodynamic features probably associated with them are investigated. The first clouds related with the Chuseok heavy rain are detected as low-level multicell cloud (brightness temperature: $-15{\sim}0^{\circ}C$) in the middle of the Yellow sea at 1630~1900 UTC on 20 Sept., which are probably associated with the convergence at 1000 hPa. Convective cells are initiated in the vicinity of Shantung peninsula at 1933 UTC 20, which have developed around the edge of the dark region in water vapor images. At two times of 0033 and 0433 UTC 21 the merging of two convective cells happens near midwestern coast of the peninsula and then they have developed rapidly. From 0430 to 1000 UTC 21, key features of convective cell include repeated formation of secondary cell, slow horizontal cloud motion, persistence of lower brightness temperature ($-75{\sim}-65^{\circ}C$), and relatively small cloud size (${\leq}-50^{\circ}C$) of about $30,000km^2$. Radar analysis showed that this heavy rain is featured by a narrow line-shaped rainband with locally heavy rainrate (${\geq}50$ mm/hr), which is located in the south-western edge of the convective cell. However there are no distinct features in the associated synoptic-scale dynamic forcing. After 1000 UTC 21 the convective cell grows up quickly in cloud size and then is dissipated. These satellite features may be employed for very short range forecast and nowcasting of mesoscale heavy rain system.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.457-470
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• 2014

Thermodynamic conditions related with localized torrential rainfall in the middle west region of Korean peninsula are examined using radar rain rate and radiosonde observational data. Localized torrential rainfall events in this study are defined by three criteria base on 1) any one of Automated Synoptic Observing System (ASOS) hourly rainfall exceeds $30mmhr^{-1}$ around Osan, 2) the rain (> $1mmhr^{-1}$) area estimated from radar reflectivity is less than $20,000km^2$, and 3) the rain (> $10mmhr^{-1}$) cell is detected clearly and duration is short than 24 hr. As a result, 13 cases were selected during the summer season of 10 years (2004-13). It was found that the duration, the maximum rain area, and the maximum volumetric rain rate of convective cells (> $30mmhr^{-1}$) are less than 9hr, smaller than $1,000km^2$, and $15,000{\sim}60,000m^3s^{-1}$ in these cases. And a majority of cases shows the following thermodynamic characteristics: 1) Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) > $800Jkg^{-1}$, 2) Convective Inhibition (CIN) < $40Jkg^{-1}$, 3) Total Precipitable Water (TPW) ${\approx}$ 55 mm, and 4) Storm Relative Helicity (SRH) < $120m^2s^{-2}$. These cases mostly occurred in the afternoon. These thermodynamic conditions indicated that these cases were caused by strong atmospheric instability, lifting to overcome CIN, and sufficient moisture. The localized torrential rainfall occurred with deep moisture convection result from the instability caused by convective heating.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.465-474
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• 2009

Convective/stratiform radar echo classification schemes by Steiner et al. (1995) and Biggerstaff and Listemaa (2000) are examined on a monsoonal front during the summer monsoon-Changma period, which is organized as a cloud cluster with mesoscale convective complex. Target radar is S-band with wavelength of 10cm, spatial resolution of 1km, elevation angle interval of 0.5-1.0 degree, and minimum elevation angle of 0.19 degree at Jindo over the Korean Peninsula. For verification of rainfall amount retrieved from the echo classification, ground-based rain gauge observations (Automatic Weather Stations) are examined, converting the radar echo grid data to the station values using the inverse distance weighted method. Improvement from the echo classification is evaluated based on the correlation coefficient and the scattered diagram. Additionally, an optimal use method was designed to produce combined rainfalls from the radar echo and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (TRMM/PR) data. Optimal values for the radar rain and TRMM/PR rain are inversely weighted according to the error variance statistics for each single station. It is noted how the rainfall distribution during the summer monsoon frontal system is improved from the classification of convective/stratiform echo and the use of the optimal use technique.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• v.2
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• pp.930-933
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• 2006

A new algorithm for satellite microwave rainfall retrievals over the land of Taiwan using TMI (TRMM Microwave Imager) data on board TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) satellite is described in this study. The scattering index method (Grody, 1991) was accepted to develop a rainfall estimation algorithm and the measurements from Automatic Rainfall and Meteorological Telemetry System (ARMTS) were employed to evaluate the satellite rainfall retrievals. Based on the standard products of 2A25 derived from TRMM/PR data, the rainfall areas over Taiwan were divided into convective rainfall area and stratiform rainfall areas with/without bright band. The results of rainfall estimation from the division of rain type are compared with those without the division of rain type. It is shown that the mean rainfall difference for the convective rain type is reduced from -6.2mm/hr to 1.7mm/hr and for the stratiform rain type with bright band is decreased from 10.7 mm/hr to 2.1mm/hr. But it seems not significant improvement for the stratiform rain type without bright band.

• Journal of Environmental Science International
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.345-359
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• 2016

This study analyze the synoptic meteorological cause of rainfall, rainfall intensity, drop size distribution(DSD), fall velocity and oblateness measured by the 2D-Video distrometer(2DVD) by comparing two cases which are heavy rainfall event case and a case that is not classified as heavy rainfall but having more than $30mm\;h^{-1}$ rainrate in July, 2014 at Gimhae region. As a results; Over the high pressure edge area where strong upward motion exists, the convective rain type occurred and near the changma front, convective and frontal rainfall combined rain type occurred. Therefore, rainrate varies based on the synoptic meteorological condition. The most rain drop distribution appeared in the raindrops with diameters between 0.4 mm and 0.6 mm and large particles appeared for the convective rain type since strong upward motion provide favorable conditions for the drops to grow by colliding and merging so the drop size distribution varies based on the location or rainfall types. The rainfall phases is mainly rain and as the diameter of the raindrop increase the fall velocity increase and oblateness decrease. The equation proposed based on the 2DVD tends to underestimated both fall velocity and oblateness compared with observation. Since these varies based on the rainfall characteristics of the observation location, standard equation for fall velocity and oblateness fit for Gimhae area can be developed by continuous observation and data collection hereafter.