Monitoring convective clouds over India and nearby regions using multi-spectral satellite observations

Abstract

Convective clouds are the sources of severe weather and extreme precipitation events which often produce flooding, landslides and other disasters. The physical characteristics of convective clouds influence the distribution of radiative heating/cooling in the troposphere. They play a crucial role in atmospheric circulation and the hydrological cycle. Present study deals with the detection of convective clouds using multispectral observations at split window channels (near 11 and 12 µm) and water vapour absorption channels (near 6.7 µm) from EUMETSAT (Meteosat 7) data. Results are compared with the observations (reflectivity-based threshold) from Precipitation Radar (PR) on-board Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). The Results have also been validated against convective clouds derived from rain gauge based precipitation product from the IMD data. Validation results show a correlation coefficient (cc) of 0.79 and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 2.61 (%) against rain gauge based observations of convective clouds.