Observing Hail Swaths Using the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager. Part II: Use in Detection and Verification

Several times a year widespread damage to vegetation and property are caused by wind-driven hail storms. Wind-driven hail events are rarely documented as an area or swath of damage in NOAA’s Storm Data publication because storm surveys are rarely done for these events. Instead, many wind-driven hail events are officially recorded at a single point or several isolated points. As a result, the area impacted by wind-driven hail and the degree of damage can be underestimated giving the impression that warning polygons issued by the National Weather Service may be too large. Previous research using polar-orbiting satellites and the new GOES-16 ABI has shown that examining changes in the Normalized Derived Vegetation Index (NDVI) in the vicinity of wind-driven hail events can identify both the area of damage and provide qualitative information on the degree of damage to crops. Using both GOES-R NDVI change and the Multi-Radar Multi-Sensor (MRMS) Maximum Estimated Size of Hail, hail swaths can be identified and the percent of the warning area where hail damage to vegetation occurred calculated. We find that the percent of the warning area impacted by wind-driven hail using satellite is significantly larger than the current method using point observations. The result of using satellite detection of hail swaths is a more complete description of the area impacted by wind-driven hail, a better understanding of the percent of the warned area impacted, and better documentation of wind-driven hail events in NOAA’s Storm Data.