Detection of Cb and TCu clouds using MSG-SEVIRI cloud physical properties and weather radar observations

Deep convective clouds, such as Towering Cumulus (TCu) and Cumulonimbus (Cb) clouds, may pose a serious risk to aviation. For a responsible replacement of human observers at airport weather stations in the Netherlands by automated observation systems of present weather, a Probability Of Detection (POD) of at least 80 % and a False Alarm Rate (FAR) of no more than 20 % is required. Therefore, the POD (58 %) and FAR (70 %) of the present KNMI automated radar-based Cb/TCu cloud detection method are not considered satisfactory. In this study, satellite derived cloud physical properties and High Resolution reflectances in the Visible (HRV) as well as weather radar data are used to develop a new Cb/TCu cloud detection method.