• Journal of Multimedia Information System
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.245-256
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• 2018

This study estimated rainfall information more effectively by image signals through the information system of weather radar. Based on this, we suggest the way to estimate quantitative precipitation utilizing overlapped observation area of radars. We used the overlapped observation range of ground hyetometer observation network and radar observation network which are dense in our country. We chose the southern coast where precipitation entered from seaside is quite frequent and used Sungsan radar installed in Jeju island and Gudoksan radar installed in the southern coast area. We used the rainy season data generated in 2010 as the precipitation data. As a result, we found a reflectivity bias between two radar located in different area and developed the new quantitative precipitation estimation method using the bias. Estimated radar rainfall from this method showed the apt radar rainfall estimate than the other results from conventional method at overall rainfall field.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.433-444
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• 2014

Although the Radar-AWS Rainrate (RAR) calculation system operated by Korea Meteorological Administration estimated precipitation using 2-dimensional composite components of single polarization radars, this system has several limitations in estimating the precipitation accurately. To to overcome limitations of the RAR system, the Korea Meteorological Administration developed and operated the RMQ (Radar-based Multi-sensor Quantitative Precipitation Estimation) system, the improved version of NMQ (National Mosaic and Multi-sensor Quantitative Precipitation Estimation) system of NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory) for the Korean Peninsula. This study introduced the RMQ system domestically for the first time and verified the precipitation estimation performance of the RMQ system. The RMQ system consists of 4 main parts as the process of handling the single radar data, merging 3D reflectivity, QPE, and displaying result images. The first process (handling of the single radar data) has the pre-process of a radar data (transformation of data format and quality control), the production of a vertical profile of reflectivity and the correction of bright-band, and the conduction of hydrid scan reflectivity. The next process (merger of 3D reflectivity) produces the 3D composite reflectivity field after correcting the quality controlled single radar reflectivity. The QPE process classifies the precipitation types using multi-sensor information and estimates quantitative precipitation using several Z-R relationships which are proper for precipitation types. This process also corrects the precipitation using the AWS position with local gauge correction technique. The last process displays the final results transformed into images in the web-site. This study also estimated the accuracy of the RMQ system with five events in 2012 summer season and compared the results of the RAR (Radar-AWS Rainrate) and RMQ systems. The RMQ system ($2.36mm\;hr^{-1}$ in RMSE on average) is superior to the RAR system ($8.33mm\;hr^{-1}$ in RMSE) and improved by 73.25% in RMSE and 25.56% in correlation coefficient on average. The precipitation composite field images produced by the RMQ system are almost identical to the AWS (Automatic Weather Statioin) images. Therefore, the RMQ system has contributed to improve the accuracy of precipitation estimation using weather radars and operation of the RMQ system in the work field in future enables to cope with the extreme weather conditions actively.

• 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 the Korean earth science society
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• v.44 no.6
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• pp.557-577
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• 2023

This study defines non-precipitation information as areas with weak precipitation or cloud particles that radar cannot detect due to weak returned signals, and suggests methods for its utilization in data assimilation. Previous studies have demonstrated that assimilating radar data from precipitation echoes can produce precipitation in model analysis and improve subsequent precipitation forecast. However, this study also recognizes the non-precipitation information as valuable observation and seeks to assimilate it to suppress spurious precipitation in the model analysis and forecast. To incorporate non-precipitation information into data assimilation, we propose observation operators that convert radar non-precipitation information into hydrometeor mixing ratios and relative humidity for the Weather Research and Forecasting Data Assimilation system (WRFDA). We also suggest a preprocessing method for radar non-precipitation information. A single-observation experiment indicates that assimilating non-precipitation information fosters an environment conducive to inhibiting convection by lowering temperature and humidity. Subsequently, we investigate the impact of assimilating non-precipitation information to a real case on July 23, 2013, by performing a subsequent 9-hour forecast. The experiment that assimilates radar non-precipitation information improves the model's precipitation forecasts by showing an increase in the Fractional Skill Score (FSS) and a decrease in the False Alarm Ratio (FAR) compared to experiments in which do not assimilate non-precipitation information.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.358-360
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• 2002

In order to find horizontal and vertical precipitation structure in Korean peninsula, we use ground-based radar, and Automatic Weather Station (AWS) data. Radar data was selected for rain events in the Pusan and Jindo in Korea, during the spring and summer season of 2002. AWS point gauge measurements are analyzed as part of spatial structure of precipitation. TRMM/PR and ground-based radar is used vertical correlation. The results showed, as expected that the correlation decreased rapidly with distance.

• 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.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.265-271
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• 2020

Automotive radar that is one of the most important equipment in high-tech vehicles, is commonly used to detect the speed and range of objects such as cars. In this paper, in addition to objects detection, a method of retrieving precipitation information using the automotive radar data is proposed. The proposed method is based on the fact that the degree of attenuation of the returned radar signal differs depending on the precipitation intensity and the assumption that the distribution of precipitation is constant in short spatial and temporal observation. The purpose of this paper is to assesses the possibility of retrieving precipitation information using a vehicle radar. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method during actual driving, a method of estimating precipitation information for each time segment of various precipitation events was applied. From the results of driving field experiments, it was found that the proposed method is suitable for estimating precipitation information in various rainfall types.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2020.06a
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• pp.183-183
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• 2020

Accurate quantitative precipitation estimation plays an important role in hydrological modelling and prediction. Instantaneous quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) by utilizing the weather radar data is a great applicability for operational hydrology in a catchment. Previously, regression technique performed between reflectivity (Z) and rain intensity (R) is used commonly to obtain radar QPEs. A novel, recent approaching method which might be applied in hydrological area for QPE is Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) Networks. LSTM networks is a development and evolution of Recurrent Neuron Networks (RNNs) method that overcomes the limited memory capacity of RNNs and allows learning of long-term input-output dependencies. The advantages of LSTM compare to RNN technique is proven by previous works. In this study, LSTM networks is used to estimate the quantitative precipitation from weather radar for an urban catchment in South Korea. Radar information and rain-gauge data are used to evaluate and verify the estimation. The estimation results figure out that LSTM approaching method shows the accuracy and outperformance compared to Z-R relationship method. This study gives us the high potential of LSTM and its applications in urban hydrology.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2004.10a
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• pp.178-181
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• 2004

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is an US-Japan joint space mission to observe tropical and subtropical rainfall. This satellite is equipped with the world's first precipitation radar that operates at 13.8 GHz. We introduce the TRMM precipitation radar (PR) system, along with the PR data processing and analysis algorithms, and some observation results obtained by the TRMM PR. It is concluded that the TRMM PR can give quite useful rainfall data for the understanding of global climate changes, meteorology, climatology, atmospheric science, and also for the studies of satellite communication.

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2021.06a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2021

Access to accurate spatial precipitation in many hydrological studies is necessary. Existence of many mountains with diverse topography in South Korea causes different spatial distribution of precipitation. Rain gauge stations show accurate precipitation information in points, but due to the limited use of rain gauge stations and the difficulty of accessing them, there is not enough accurate information in the whole area. Weather radars can provide an integrated precipitation information spatially. Despite this, weather radar data have some errors that can not provide accurate data, especially in heavy rainfall. In this study, some location-based variable like aspect, elevation, plan curvature, profile curvature, slope and distance from the sea which has most effect on rainfall was considered. Then Automatic Weather Station data was used for spatial training of variables in each event. According to this, K-fold cross-validation method was combined with Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System. Based on this, 80% of Automatic Weather Station data was used for training and validation of model and 20% was used for testing and evaluation of model. Finally, spatial distribution of precipitation for 1×1 km resolution in Gwangdeoksan radar station was estimates. The results showed a significant decrease in RMSE and an increase in correlation with the observed amount of precipitation.