Tri-agency radar networks in Korea: Where are we heading?

Korea has three radar networks operated by three agencies: Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), Korean Air Force and Flood Control Office. A recent tri-agency agreement opens a new era for common use of data, similar maintenance procedures and operations, and possibly unification of radar types. KMA built the Weather Radar Center (WRC) to facilitate this agreement and expects WRC to be a focal point for the Korean radar networks. We will discuss the current status and future plans for the radar networks. Some advantages of using tri-agency networks are demonstrated through a simulation study. Issues in the current networks and ongoing research to resolve them are discussed in terms of data quality control, radar calibration, etc. The fuzzy logic based algorithm of quality control is developed. The radar reflectivity calibration is performed by intercomparison and with a disdrometer. A new scanning strategy is proposed to optimize the ground rain estimation and wind retrieval in space.