Precipitation nowcasting using the satellite product Multi-Sensor Precipitation Estimate

Heavy rainfall and thunderstorm are among the most important hazards in aviation since they are often linked to other dangerous phenomena such as turbulence, icing, hail, lightning and low visibility. For this reason the early forecasting of precipitation is a crucial issue for flight support. In this work three different nowcasting algorithms for precipitation have been developed and compared. These algorithms are based on persistence and extrapolation of weather conditions provided by satellite data. Specifically, the Multi-Sensor Precipitation Estimate (MPE) EUMETSAT product has been adopted. The three proposed methods have been validated considering an area centered on Campania region and the performance analysis has shown satisfactory results.