Classification of Rainfall Types Using Parsivel Disdrometer and S-Band Polarimetric Radar in Central Korea

Jui Le Loh,Mi-Young Kang,Dong-In Lee,Cheol-Hwan You

doi:10.3390/rs12040642

Jui Le Loh, Mi-Young Kang + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs12040642

Copy DOI

Abstract

Tools to identify and classify stratiform and convective rains at various times of the 12 days from June 2015 to March 2016 in Jincheon, Korea, were developed by using a Parsivel disdrometer and S-band polarimetric (S-POL) radar data. Stratiform and convective rains were identified using three different methods (vertical profile of reflectivity (VPR), the method proposed by Bringi et al. (BR03), and a combination of the two (BR03-VPR)) by using a Parsivel disdrometer for its applications to radar as a reference. BR03-VPR exhibits a better classification scheme than the VPR and BR03 methods. The rain types were compared using the drop size distribution (DSD) retrieved from polarimetric variables and reflectivity only. By using the DSD variables, a new convective/stratiform classification line of the log-normalized droplet number concentration ( log 10 N w ) − median volume diameter ( D 0 ) was derived for this area to classify the rainfall types using DSD variables retrieved from the polarimetric radar. For the radar variables, the method by Steiner et al. (SHY95) was found to be the best method, with 0.00% misclassification of the stratiform rains. For the convective rains, the DSD retrieval method performed better. However, for both stratiform and convective rains, the fuzzy method performed better than the SHY95 and DSD retrieval methods.

Highlights

Rainfall is generally classified into stratiform and convective regimes [1,2,3] based on the spatial and temporal scales and vertical velocity of the cloud system [4]
The fuzzy method performs the best classification for stratiform and convective rains in this study
Two identification methods of stratiform and convective rains were applied, namely BR03 and vertical profile of reflectivity (VPR), and a new unified method (BR03-VPR) was introduced for rainfall in Korea based on Parsivel disdrometer data

Summary

Introduction

Rainfall is generally classified into stratiform and convective regimes [1,2,3] based on the spatial and temporal scales and vertical velocity of the cloud system [4]. Stratiform rains have relatively weak vertical velocity fields, greater horizontal homogeneity, and lower rainfall intensity, whereas convective rains are associated with strong vertical velocity fields, low areal coverage, and high rainfall intensities [1,5]. These parameters are important for understanding cloud physics, as stratiform and convective rains are characterized by different rainfall growth mechanisms [6], and for understanding radar-rainfall measurements [7,8]. Numerous studies have classified rainfall types using ground radar (e.g., [7,11,12,13,14]), ground-based in situ measurements (e.g., [8,15,16,17]) or satellite data (e.g., [5])

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion