NWC SAF convective precipitation product from MSG: A new day-time method based on cloud top physical properties

Abstract

Several precipitation products use radiances and reflectances obtained from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) to estimate convective precipitation. The direct use of these physical quantities in precipitation algorithms is known to generate an overestimation of the precipitation area and an underestimation of the rainfall rates. In order to extenuate these issues, the most recent Satellite Application Facility on Support to Nowcasting & Very Short Range Forecasting (NWC SAF/MSG) software package (version 2013) includes a new day-time algorithm that takes advantage of advances in cloud microphysics estimation, namely a better knowledge of Effective Radius (Reff), Cloud Optical Thickness (COT) and Water Phase. The improved algorithm, known as Convective Rainfall Rate from Cloud Physical Properties (CRPh), uses such Cloud Top Physical Properties (CPP) to estimate rainfall rates from convective clouds on a SEVIRI pixel basis (about 3 km at nadir). This paper presents the novelties of the new algorithm and provides both a comparison of the product with the previous versions in the NWC SAF/MSG software package, and a validation with independent ground radar data from the Spanish Radar Network operated by AEMET. Results obtained over 46 storms suggest that the CRPh provides more precise estimates than the previous algorithm, thus being more suitable for a number of quantitative applications.