engleski

The Value of Satellite-Derived Instability Indices in the Assessment of Pre-Convective Conditions

Instability indices derived from Meteosat satellite data were evaluated against radiosonde and lightning data in order to assess their applicability in estimating the potential for convective development. Satellite derived values for the K Index, the Lifted index and for Total Precipitable Water, retrieved from the EUMETSAT archive for the summer seasons 2009 and 2010, were evaluated against instability indices derived from radiosonde data, and against the lightning data, taken as the indication of convective development. Statistical analysis showed that satellite-based indices correlate very well with the same indices derived from the radiosonde data, correlation coefficients being above 0.9 and the significance tested with Monte-Carlo method. The evaluation against lightning occurrence resulted in threshold values for each instability index and the probabilities of lightning occurrence for each index value.

satellite data ; instability indices ; radiosonde ; lightning

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