USING THE METEOSAT-9 IMAGES TO THE DETECTION OF DEEP CONVECTIVE SYSTEMS IN BRAZIL

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to present a simple method of identification of deep convective clouds using water vapor (WV) and thermal infrared (IR) brightness temperature differences from the multispectral images of Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager (SEVIRI) sensor. The use of this method is part of an international effort to calibrate the radiances of SEVIRI sensor for microphysical properties of deep convective systems. This approach was applied to the image from 08 September 2009 for the demonstration of its efficacy analysis. The results show that the difference values larger than –2º C for BT Differences (WV6.2 μm – WV7.3 μm) and + 50º C (IR3.9 μm –IR10.8 μm) were associated with areas of intense precipitation. The method can be easily implemented and effectively utilized in operational basis to monitor deep convective cloud clusters over Brazil.