NEFODINA
Operationally produced by Italian Air Force Met Service
Application:
To assess the presence of thunderstorms and their intensity and to monitor their life cycle (developing/dissolving phase) using geostationary satellite data.
NEFODINA provides information on convective nuclei inside cloudy systems using a multichannel approach. The product consists of the last infrared image (ch10.8) where the convective cells and their phase are represented. This graphical output image is associated to an ASCII file where the minimum, medium and modal BT of the IR1, WV1, WV2 channels are reported with position, shape, slope area and other information for each convective cell since when it was detected.
Limitations:
None.
Pros and cons:
✓ High geographic scalability
✓ Easy configurable (scene size, position, threshold, colors. additional information (CTH)
✓ Available over MSG – 0 degree (Rapid scan service too) and MSG- Indian Ocean area
✓ Available also during night-time
X High FAR in presence of cold base clouds
(The future developments of the model will involve the assimilation of the model and/or lightning data in order to improve the detection capabilities and reduce the number of false alarms)
Accessibility and Dissemination:
- 5 minute (Italy area)/15 minutes (other areas) data disseminated in ASCII and graphical format on ftp server accessible with credentials.
Additional Information:
Overview prepared by Maj. David Melfi, COMET, V.2017