DONATE

IAHR Document Library


« Back to Library Homepage « Proceedings of the 18th IAHR APD Congress (Jeju, 2012)

A Parametric Approach to Estimate Snow Particle Size Distributions Using an Optical Sensing Disdrometer

Author(s): Mariko Ogawa; Satoru Oishi

Linked Author(s): Satoru Oishi

Keywords: Parametric approach; Snow particle size distribution; Modified gamma distribution; Median volume diameter; Radar reflectivity

Abstract: This study develops a parametric approach to estimate snow particle size distributions for the improvement of radar-based rainfall estimation. Three parameters of the modified gamma distribution were estimated using snow particle data from wintertime observation in the Minakami Highland, Gunma prefecture, Japan. A parametric approach was developed using median and maximum volume diameters and a radar reflectivity factor consisting of the sixth power of diameter. The proposed parametric approach achieves reasonable results when using observed data for more than 5000 snow particles. In the results, the ratio of estimated cloud water content to that observed ranged between 0.00 and 1.58. This study shows that the slope and shape parameters of snow particle size distributions can be expressed using the median and maximum volume diameters.

DOI:

Year: 2012

Copyright © 2024 International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research. All rights reserved. | Terms and Conditions