Atmospheric Instability Parameters Derived from Msg Seviri Observations

Within the MSG Global Instability Index (GII) product, information on the static stability and other airmass parameters will be operationally derived and disseminated. The GII product should serve as a nowcasting tool to identify the potential of convection and possibly of severe storms in still preconvective conditions. The applied retrieval method makes use of six MSG SEVIRI thermal bands, and together with the a priori information of forecast profiles, the scheme infers an updated atmospheric profile for each MSG pixel or superpixel location, from which instability indices can be computed. First applications to early MSG imagery show good agreement to co-located radiosonde data. A case is presented which shows the potential of the satellite retrieved instability parameter as a preconvective warning measure.