Meteorological radar precipitation pattern prediction method and

Abstract

Meteorological radar precipitation pattern prediction methods and apparatus are provided, by which operational costs can be reduced, a series of physical processes in a precipitation region and topographical influences can be considered. The main method has the steps of inputting radar images of a precipitation region storing the input radar images as time-series two-dimensional images; calculating various image-feature quantities with respect to two or more of the stored two-dimensional past images; calculating a spatial-temporal transition of the amount of precipitation using an advection-diffusion equation system which indicates various physical effects relating to precipitation phenomena, with the various image-feature quantities as initial values; predicting transition of a pattern with respect to the precipitation region based on results of the calculation; and outputting predicted results as time-series images. Preferably, the advection-diffusion equation system includes time, advection, diffusion, source, sink, and dispersion terms, and a gray-level at each pixel is supplied to the equation as a variable corresponding to an amount of precipitation. If the advection-diffusion equation system includes an advection term which is a product of an advection vector and the first derivative with respect to a gray-level of a relevant pixel in a precipitation pattern, the amount of precipitation is varied according to transition of advection vectors.