• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.577-589
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• 2015

An unusual long-period and heavy snowfall occurred in the Yeongdong region from 6 to 14 February 2014. This event produced snowfall total of 194.8 cm and the recordbreaking 9-day snowfall duration in the 103-year local record at Gangneung. In this study, satellite-derived cloud-top brightness temperatures from the infrared channel in the atmospheric window ($10{\mu}m{\sim}11{\mu}m$) are examined to find out the characteristics of clouds related with this heavy snowfall event. The analysis results reveal that a majority of precipitation is related with the low-level stratiform clouds whose cloud-top brightness temperatures are distributed from -15 to $-20^{\circ}C$ and their standard deviations over the analysis domain (${\sim}1,000km^2$, 37 satellite pixels) are less than $2^{\circ}C$. It is also found that in the above temperature range precipitation intensity tends to increase with colder temperature. When the temperatures are warmer than $-15^{\circ}C$, there is no precipitation or light precipitation. Furthermore this relation is confirmed from the examination of some other heavy snowfall events and light precipitation events which are related with the low-level stratiform clouds. This precipitation-brightness temperature relation may be explained by the combined effect of ice crystal growth processes: the maximum in dendritic ice-crystal growth occurs at about $-15^{\circ}C$ and the activation of ice nuclei begins below temperatures from approximately -7 to $-16^{\circ}C$, depending on the composition of the ice nuclei.

• 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.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.163-174
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• 2012

Brightness temperature (BT) difference between sea fog and sea surface is small, because the top height of fog is low. Therefore, it is very difficult to detect sea fog with infrared (IR) channels in the nighttime. To overcome this difficulty, we have developed a new algorithm for detection of sea fog that consists in three tests. Firstly, both stratus and sea fog were discriminated from the other clouds by using the difference between BTs $3.7{\mu}m$ and $11{\mu}m$. Secondly, stratus occurring at a level higher than sea fog was removed when the difference between cloud top temperature and sea surface temperature (SST) is smaller than 3 K. In this process, we used daily SST data from AMSR-E microwave measurements that is available even in the presence of cloud. Then, the SST was converted to $11{\mu}m$ BT based on the regressed relationship between AMSR-E SST and MTSAT-1R $11{\mu}m$ BT at 1733 UTC over clear sky regions. Finally, stratus was further removed by using the homogeneity test based on the difference in cloud top texture between sea fog and stratus. Comparison between the retrievals from our algorithm and that from Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) algorithm, shows that the KMA algorithm often misconceived sea fog as stratus, resulting in underestimating the occurrence of sea fog. Monthly distribution of sea fog over northeast Asia in 2008 was derived from the proposed algorithm. The frequency of sea fog is lowest in winter, and highest in summer especially in June. The seasonality of the sea fog occurrence between East and West Sea was comparable, while it is not clearly identified over South Sea. These results would serve to prevent the possible occurrence of marine accidents associated with sea fog.

• Atmosphere
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.471-483
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• 2013

Nighttime sea fog detection from satellite is very hard due to limitation in using visible channels. Currently, most widely used method for the detection is the Dual Channel Difference (DCD) method based on Brightness Temperature Difference between 3.7 and 11 ${\mu}m$ channel (BTD). However, this method have difficulty in distinguishing between fog and low cloud, and sometimes misjudges middle/high cloud as well as clear scene as fog. Using CALIPSO Lidar Profile measurements, we have analyzed the intrinsic problems in detecting nighttime sea fog from various satellite remote sensing algorithms and suggested the direction for the improvement of the algorithm. From the comparison with CALIPSO measurements for May-July in 2011, the DCD method excessively overestimates foggy pixels (2542 pixels). Among them, only 524 pixel are real foggy pixels, but 331 pixels and 1687 pixels are clear and other type of clouds, respectively. The 514 of real foggy pixels accounts for 70% of 749 foggy pixels identified by CALIPSO. Our proposed new algorithm detects foggy pixels by comparing the difference between cloud top temperature and underneath sea surface temperature from assimilated data along with the DCD method. We have used two types of cloud top temperature, which obtained from 11 ${\mu}m$ brightness temperature (B_S1) and operational COMS algorithm (B_S2). The detected foggy 1794 pixels from B_S1 and 1490 pixel from B_S2 are significantly reduced the overestimation detected by the DCD method. However, 477 and 446 pixels have been found to be real foggy pixels, 329 and 264 pixels be clear, and 989 and 780 pixels be other type of clouds, detected by B_S1 and B_S2 respectively. The analysis of the operational COMS fog detection algorithm reveals that the cloud screening process was strictly enforced, which resulted in underestimation of foggy pixel. The 538 of total detected foggy pixels obtain only 187 of real foggy pixels, but 61 of clear pixels and 290 of other type clouds. Our analysis suggests that there is no winner for nighttime sea fog detection algorithms, but loser because real foggy pixels are less than 30% among the foggy pixels declared by all algorithms. This overwhelming evidence reveals that current nighttime sea fog algorithms have provided a lot of misjudged information, which are mostly originated from difficulty in distinguishing between clear and cloudy scene as well as fog and other type clouds. Therefore, in-depth researches are urgently required to reduce the enormous error in nighttime sea fog detection from satellite.

• Atmosphere
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.473-481
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• 2012

The objective methods estimating the radius of maximum wind (RMW) of tropical cyclones (TCs) are discussed using infraed (IR) imagery of geostationary satellite, and an alternative method is suggested that can estimate RMW in the TCs having eyes using IR imagery. The RMW-estimating methods are based on the characteristic structure of the eyewall of a tropical cyclone. RMW is dependent upon the radius of the eye and the distance from the center to the top of the most developed convective cloud. In order to test these methods, blackbody brightness temperature of Korean geostationary satellite, COMS (Communication, Ocean, and Meteorological Satellite) IR imagery are utilized in this study. The estimated RMWs are compared with surface winds of ASCAT (Advanced Scatterometer) of a polar orbiting satellite.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.15-31
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• 2001

The relationship between GMS-5 IR1 brightness temperature (CTT:cloud top temperature) and AWS (automatic weather station) rainfall is investigated on a heavy rain event over the mid-western part of Korea for August 5-6, 1998. It is found that a temporal variability of the heavy rain can be described in detail y the time series of rain area and rain rates over the study area that are calculated from AWS accumulated rainfalls for 15 minutes. A time period of 0030-0430 LST 6 August 1998 is chosen in the time series as a heavy rain period which has relatively small rain area (20~25%) and very strong rain rates(6~9 mm/15 min.) with a good time continuity. In the heavy rain period, CTT of a point and AWS 15-minute rainfall beneath that point are compared. From the comparison, AWS rainfalls are shown to be not closely correlated with CTT. In the range of CTT lower than -5$0^{\circ}C$ where most AWS with rain are distributed, the probability of rain is at most about 30%. However, when the satellite images are shifted by 2~3 pixels southward and 3 pixels westward for the geometric correction of images, AWS rainfalls are shown to be statistically correlated with CTT (correlation coefficient:-0.46). Most AWS with rain are distributed in the much lower CTT range(lower than -58$^{\circ}C$), but there is still not much change in the rain probability. Even though a temporal change of CTT is taken into account, the rain probability amount to at most 50~55% in the same range.

• Proceedings of the KSRS Conference
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• 2009.03a
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• pp.227-236
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• 2009

This study investigates the characteristics of cloud top brightness temperature (CTBT) of WV and IR1 from MTSAT-1R when lightning strikes in South Korea. For temporal and spatial collocations, lightnings, occurred only within ${\pm}5$ minutes from the six minutes added official satellite observation time (e.g., not 0600 UTC but 0606 UTC, considering the real scan time over South Korea), were selected. And the CTBTs corresponding to lightning spots were determined using the nearest pixel within 5 km. The brightness temperature difference (BTD, defined as WV - IR1) between two channels is negatively large when no lightning occurrs, whereas it increases up to positive values (sometimes, +5 K) and the largest frequency distributes around 225 K and 205 K in lightning cases. The probablistic approach for lightning frequency forecast, presented by Machado et al. (2008) in Southern America, was applied over South Korea and new exponential equations, with high coefficients of determination around 0.95 to 0.99, were developed using two channels' BTDs when lightning strikes. Moreover, a case study on 10th June, 2006, the largest number of lightning occurred between 2002 and 2006, was made. The major finding is that lightning activity is closely related to the dramatic decreases in BT and the increases in BTD (esp., equal to or larger than 0 K). Lightning frequency increases exponentially when BTD increases up to 0 K. Therefore, lightning forecast skill will be improved when the integrated strategy (synoptic background and satellite-based CTBT and BTD) is applied. It is believed that this study contributes to the application of the Korean first geostationary satellite (COMS), scheduled to launch at the end of this year, to severe weather detections.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.37 no.7
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• pp.420-433
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to improve the calibration matrixes of 2-D and 3-D convective rainfall rates (CRR) using the brightness temperature of the infrared $10.8{\mu}m$ channel (IR), the difference of brightness temperatures between infrared $10.8{\mu}m$ and vapor $6.7{\mu}m$ channels (IR-WV), and the normalized reflectance of the visible channel (VIS) from the COMS satellite and rainfall rate from the weather radar for the period of 75 rainy days from April 22, 2011 to October 22, 2011 in Korea. Especially, the rainfall rate data of the weather radar are used to validate the new 2-D and 3-DCRR calibration matrixes suitable for the Korean peninsula for the period of 24 rainy days in 2011. The 2D and 3D calibration matrixes provide the basic and maximum CRR values ($mm\;h^{-1}$) by multiplying the rain probability matrix, which is calculated by using the number of rainy and no-rainy pixels with associated 2-D (IR, IR-WV) and 3-D (IR, IR-WV, VIS) matrixes, by the mean and maximum rainfall rate matrixes, respectively, which is calculated by dividing the accumulated rainfall rate by the number of rainy pixels and by the product of the maximum rain rate for the calibration period by the number of rain occurrences. Finally, new 2-D and 3-D CRR calibration matrixes are obtained experimentally from the regression analysis of both basic and maximum rainfall rate matrixes. As a result, an area of rainfall rate more than 10 mm/h is magnified in the new ones as well as CRR is shown in lower class ranges in matrixes between IR brightness temperature and IR-WV brightness temperature difference than the existing ones. Accuracy and categorical statistics are computed for the data of CRR events occurred during the given period. The mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE), and root mean squire error (RMSE) in new 2-D and 3-D CRR calibrations led to smaller than in the existing ones, where false alarm ratio had decreased, probability of detection had increased a bit, and critical success index scores had improved. To take into account the strong rainfall rate in the weather events such as thunderstorms and typhoon, a moisture correction factor is corrected. This factor is defined as the product of the total precipitable waterby the relative humidity (PW RH), a mean value between surface and 500 hPa level, obtained from a numerical model or the COMS retrieval data. In this study, when the IR cloud top brightness temperature is lower than 210 K and the relative humidity is greater than 40%, the moisture correction factor is empirically scaled from 1.0 to 2.0 basing on PW RH values. Consequently, in applying to this factor in new 2D and 2D CRR calibrations, the ME, MAE, and RMSE are smaller than the new ones.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.239-252
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• 2022

Quality control methods for the first G-band vapor radiometer (GVR) mounted on a weather aircraft in Korea were developed using the GVR Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV). The aircraft attitude information (degree of pitch and roll) was applied to quality control to select the shortest vertical path of the GVR beam. In addition, quality control was applied to remove a GVR PWV ≥20 mm. It was found that the difference between the warm load average power and sky load average power converged to near 0 when the GVR PWV increased to 20 mm or higher. This could be due to the high brightness temperature of the substratus and mesoclouds, which was confirmed by the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS) data (cloud type, cloud top height, and cloud amount), cloud combination probe (CCP), and precipitation imaging probe (PIP). The GVR PWV before and after the application of quality control on a cloudy day was quantitatively compared with that of a local data assimilation and prediction system (LDAPS). The Root Mean Square Difference (RMSD) decreased from 2.9 to 1.8 mm and the RMSD with Korea Local Analysis and Precipitation System (KLAPS) decreased from 5.4 to 4.3 mm, showing improved accuracy. In addition, the quality control effectiveness of GVR PWV suggested in this study was verified through comparison with the COMS PWV by using the GVR PWV applied with quality control and the dropsonde PWV.