P4.3
Improvements to the WSR-88D Storm Cell Identification and Tracking algorithm
Arthur Witt, NOAA/NSSL, Norman, OK; and V. K. McCoy
Accurate storm identification and tracking are basic and essential parts of radar and severe weather warning operations in today's meteorological community. Improvements over the original WSR-88D storm series algorithm were made with the implementation of the Storm Cell Identification and Tracking (SCIT) algorithm. However, the SCIT algorithm has a tendency to fragment larger-scale storm cells (e.g., supercells) into multiple algorithm detections. When this happens, storm cell attributes (e.g., cell-based VIL) are usually inaccurate, and tracking errors often occur, leading to poor trend plots. In order to reduce the amount of storm fragmentation, enhancements have been made to the SCIT algorithm's vertical-association (VA) process. Test results on a variety of storm types show that the enhanced SCIT algorithm has fewer VA errors compared to a baseline version of the algorithm. Results also show a substantial reduction in tracking errors for the enhanced SCIT versus the baseline algorithm.
Poster Session 4, Radar Applications
Tuesday, 13 August 2002, 3:00 PM-4:30 PM
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