Convection Working Group

Application:

Detection of possible unstable areas through satellite based stability indices in pre-convective environment.

The Global Instability Index (GII) product consists of four indices which describe the stability of the atmosphere (K-Index, KO Index, Lifted Index, Maximum Buoyancy) together with precipitable water content (Layer precipitable water content, Total precipitable water). Regional Instability Index (RII) is the pixel-based version of the GII, which is produced for a subset of the MSG image disc over Europe, available also every 5 minutes.

Limitations:

Not available in cloudy areas, resolution is 3 x 3 SEVIRI pixels.

Pros and Cons:

✓ Good for following the deviation from the NWP model stability indexes

✓ Available over MSG – 0 degree and MSG – Indian Ocean 41.5 degrees

✓ Available also during night-time

X BUFR format