Atmospheric thickness and vertical structure properties in wintertime precipitation events from microwave radiometer, radiosonde and wind profiler observations

Abstract

With a focus on the properties of atmospheric thickness, temporal variations of various atmospheric quantities at isobaric levels measured and retrieved from microwave radiometer (MWR) and radiosonde soundings were investigated for precipitation events during the winter of 2011 near Seoul, Korea. Wind profiler analyses were performed additionally for examining the returned radar power signal and Doppler velocity characteristics of the vertical structure. It was found that there exists a lead period of 9 to 12 h that shows little change (almost no increase) in the 1000–850 hPa thickness before precipitation. Between snow and rain events, thermodynamic characteristics were similar at lower levels but were noticeably different at upper levels, showing their dependence on the cloud-top height and updraft intensity. Higher correlation in thickness and temperature between the MWR and radiosonde data was found at lower levels than upper, suggesting that the lead period of the 1000–850 hPa thickness as shown by the MWR is reliable in this study. The vertical structure and precipitation properties analysed from wind profiler observations showed close agreement with MWR retrievals of precipitable water vapour and liquid water content, indicating the effectiveness of the wind profiler as a complementary tool in MWR studies.