Establishment and Analysis of the Collection System of the Ground Hail Observation data for the verification of the Hail Detection Tech. using the High-resolution Weather Radar

  Hail, which causes severe property damage, is a highly localized phenomenon that is difficult to observe and predict. The Korea Meteorological Administration's Weather Radar Center has developed radar-based hail products (Potential Hail Area and Hail Risk Altitude) to support forecasters in responding to hail events. The collection of the ground-based hail observations is challenging task, and systematic management is difficult due to the two different data types: the structure data (official meteorological observations data) and unstructured data (various forms of reported data). Therefore, we developed an integrated data management system that combines both data types.

  In this study, the Hail Observation Data Collection System is a web platform developed using Python “Streamlit”. This system consists of three main components: First, the structured and the unstructured hail data is collected, separately. The structured data are automatically processed through APIs and the unstructured data are processed through the manual input of essential fields (date, time, location, reliability, source) and additional fields (detailed address, hail size, etc.). And the dataset forms of each observed hail are normalized and standardized the time of observation, location, and reliability of information, and recorded it in JSON file format. Second, this system integrates and displays to facilitate convenient analysis through the sorting of the date, time, size, and other criteria about hail cases. Third, the comprehensive analysis about spatial-temporal distribution can provide from these hail records for the long-term in Korea.

  Through the establishment of this integrated hail observation data system, the hail observation cases are systematically managed, and these data are being used to perform systematic validation and parameter improvement of radar-based hail detection technique. And the integrated spatial-temporal distribution and statistical analysis of hail data is available to support effective communication between researchers and forecasters. 

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This research was supported by “Development of integrated radar analysis and customized radar technology (KMA2021-03021)” of “Development of integrated application technology for Korea weather radar” project funded by the Weather Radar Center, Korea Meteorological Administration.