On a New Approach for Instantaneous Rain Area Delineation in the Midlatitudes Using GOES Data

Abstract

Using satellite and weather radar data, a simple clustering analysis has been used in order to differentiate between raining and nonraining clouds. Based on these results, a scheme is proposed for instantaneous rain area delineation in the midlatitudes. Delineation of the rain areas will not require coextensive radar data which are only used to develop and evaluate the method. Warm season data during daylight hours were used to test the scheme. Results indicate that the proposed scheme has very good skills in delineating rain areas in the midlatitudes, resulting in an average probability of detection of about 66% and an average false alarm ratio of about 37%.