• Atmosphere
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.511-520
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• 2015

Existing studies on radar rainfall uncertainties were performed to reduce the uncertainty for each stage by using bias correction during the quantitative radar rainfall estimation process. However, the studies do not provide quantitative comparison with the uncertainties for all stages. Consequently, this study proposes a suitable approach that can quantify the uncertainties at each stage of the quantitative radar rainfall estimation process. First, the new approach can present initial and final uncertainties, increasing or decreasing the uncertainty, and the uncertainty percentage at each stage. Furthermore, Maximum Entropy (ME) was applied to quantify the uncertainty in the entire process. Second, for the uncertainty quantification of radar rainfall estimation at each stage, this study used two quality control algorithms, two rainfall estimation relations, and two bias correction techniques as post-processing and progressed through all stages of the radar rainfall estimation. For the proposed approach, the final uncertainty (ME = 3.81) from the ME of the bias correction stage was the smallest while the uncertainty of the rainfall estimation stage was higher because of the use of an unsuitable relation. Additionally, the ME of the quality control was at 4.28 (112.34%), while that of the rainfall estimation was at 4.53 (118.90%), and that of the bias correction at 3.81 (100%). However, this study also determined that selecting the appropriate method for each stage would gradually reduce the uncertainty at each stage. Finally, the uncertainty due to natural variability was 93.70% of the final uncertainty. Thus, the results indicate that this new approach can contribute significantly to the field of uncertainty estimation and help with estimating more accurate radar rainfall.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.22 no.12
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• pp.1430-1437
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• 2019

In this paper, we proposed a methodology for estimating rainfall intensity using a W-band FMCW automotive radar signal which is the core technology of autonomous driving car. By comparing and analyzing the results of rainfall and non-rainfall observation, we found that the reflection intensity of the automotive radar is changed with rainfall intensity. We could confirm the possibility of deriving the quantitative precipitation estimation using the methodology derived from this result. In addition it can be possible to develop a new paradigm of precipitation observation technique by observing various events together with the weather radar and the ground rainfall observation equipment.

• 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.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.46 no.11
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• pp.1041-1052
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• 2013

In this study, we estimate parameters of a distributed hydrologic model, GRM (grid based rainfall-runoff model), using a model-independent parameter estimation tool, PEST. We implement auto calibration of model parameters such as initial soil moisture, multipliers of overland roughness and soil hydraulic conductivity in the Geumho River Catchment and the Gamcheon Catchment using radar rainfall estimates and ground-observed rainfall represented by Thiessen interpolation. Automatic calibration is performed by GRM-MP (multiple projects), a modified version of GRM without GUI (graphic user interface) implementation, and "Parallel PEST" to improve estimation efficiency. Although ground rainfall shows similar or higher cumulative amount compared to radar rainfall in the areal average, high spatial variation is found only in radar rainfall. In terms of accuracy of hydrologic simulations, radar rainfall is equivalent or superior to ground rainfall. In the case of radar rainfall, the estimated multiplier of soil hydraulic conductivity is lower than 1, which may be affected by high rainfall intensity of radar rainfall. Other parameters such as initial soil moisture and the multiplier of overland roughness do not show consistent trends in the calibration results. Overall, calibrated parameters show different patterns in radar and ground rainfall, which should be carefully considered in the rainfall-runoff modelling applications using radar rainfall.

• Atmosphere
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.365-378
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• 2014

The limits of S-band dual-polarization radars in Korea are not reflected on the recent weather forecasts of Korea Meteorological Administration and furthermore, they are only utilized for rainfall estimations and hydrometeor classification researches. Therefore, this study applied four merging methods [SA (Simple Average), WA (Weighted Average), SSE (Sum of Squared Error), TV (Time-varying mergence)] to the QPE (Quantitative Precipitation Estimation) model [called RAR (Radar-AWS Rainfall) calculation system] using single-polarization radars and S-band dual-polarization radar in order to improve the accuracy of the rainfall estimation of the RAR calculation system. As a result, the merging results of the WA and SSE methods, which are assigned different weights due to the accuracy of the individual model, performed better than the popular merging method, the SA (Simple Average) method. In particular, the results of TVWA (Time-Varying WA) and TVSSE (Time-Varying SSE), which were weighted differently due to the time-varying model error and standard deviation, were superior to the WA and SSE. Among of all the merging methods, the accuracy of the TVWA merging results showed the best performance. Therefore, merging the rainfalls from the RAR calculation system and S-band dual-polarization radar using the merging method proposed by this study enables to improve the accuracy of the quantitative rainfall estimation of the RAR calculation system. Moreover, this study is worthy of the fundamental research on the active utilization of dual-polarization radar for weather forecasts.

• 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.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.26 no.1B
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• pp.7-14
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• 2006

The radar relationship was estimated for the selected rainfall event at Yeongchun station within Chungjudam basin where the discharge record was the range of from 1,000 CMS to 9,000 CMS. By calibrating the rainfall coefficient parameter estimated by radar relationship in small hydrology basin, rainfall with the topography properties was calculated. Three different rainfall estimation methods were compared:(1) radar relationship method (2) Thiessen method (3) Isohyetal method (4) Inverse distance method. Basin model was built by applying HEC-GeoHMS which uses digital elevation model to extract hydrological characteristic and generate river network. The proposed basin model was used as an input to HEC-HMS to build a runoff model. The runoff estimation model applying radar data showed the good result. It is proposed that the radar data would produce more rapid and accurate runoff forecasting especially in the case of the partially concentrated rainfall due to the atmospheric change. The proposed radar relationship could efficiently estimate the rainfall on the study area(Chungjudam basin).

• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.643-646
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• 2006

An operational calibration is applied to improve radar rainfall intensity using rainfall obtained from rain gauge. The method is applied under the assumption of the temporal continuity of rainfall, the rainfall intensity from rain gauge is linearly related to that from radar. The method is applied to the cases of typhoon and rain band using the reflectivity of CAPPI at 1.5km obtained from Jindo radar. The CAPPI is obtained by bilinear interpolation. For the two cases, the rainfall intensities obtained by operational calibration are very consistent with the ones by the rain gauges. The present study shows that the correlation between the rainfall intensity by operational calibration and rain gauges is better than the one between the rainfall intensity by M-P relationship and rain gauges. The correlation coefficients between the total rainfall intensity obtained by operational calibration and rain gauges in typhoon and rain band cases are 0.99 and 0.97, respectively. Areal rainfalls are estimated using the field of calibration factor interpolated by Barnes objective analysis. The method applied here shows an improvement in the areal rainfall estimation. For the cases of typhoon and rain band, the correlation between the areal rainfall by operational calibration and rain gauges is better than the one between the area rainfall by M-P relationship and rain gauges. The correlation coefficients between the areal rainfall obtained by operational calibration and rain gauges in typhoon and rain band cases are 0.97 and 0.84, respectively. The present study suggests that the operational calibration is very useful for the real-time estimation of rainfall intensity and areal rainfall.

• 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%.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.439-449
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• 2018

Many potential sources of bias are used in several steps of the radar-rainfall estimation process because the hydrological and meteorological radars measure the rainfall amount indirectly. Previous studies on radar-rainfall uncertainties were performed to reduce the uncertainty of each step by using bias correction methods in the quantitative radar-rainfall estimation process. However, these studies do not provide comprehensive uncertainty for the entire process and the relative ratios of uncertainty between each step. Consequently, in this study, a suitable approach is proposed that can quantify the uncertainties at each step of the quantitative radar-rainfall estimation process and show the uncertainty propagation through the entire process. First, it is proposed that, in the suitable approach, the new concept can present the initial and final uncertainties, variation of the uncertainty as well as the relative ratio of uncertainty at each step. Second, the Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) and Uncertainty Delta Method (UDM) were applied to quantify the uncertainty and analyze the uncertainty propagation for the entire process. Third, for the uncertainty quantification of radar-rainfall estimation at each step, two quality control algorithms, two radar-rainfall estimation relations, and two bias correction methods as post-processing through the radar-rainfall estimation process in 18 rainfall cases in 2012. For the proposed approach, in the MEM results, the final uncertainty (from post-processing bias correction method step: ME = 3.81) was smaller than the initial uncertainty (from quality control step: ME = 4.28) and, in the UDM results, the initial uncertainty (UDM = 5.33) was greater than the final uncertainty (UDM = 4.75). However uncertainty of the radar-rainfall estimation step was greater because of the use of an unsuitable relation. Furthermore, it was also determined in this study that selecting the appropriate method for each stage would gradually reduce the uncertainty at each step. Therefore, the results indicate that this new approach can significantly quantify uncertainty in the radar-rainfall estimation process and contribute to more accurate estimates of radar rainfall.