Automatic Cloud Tracking Applied to GOES and METEOSAT Observations

Abstract Improvements to the SRI automatic cloud-tracking system are described that enable it to operate on multilayer clouds associated with severe storms. The improved method has been tested using rapid-scan observations of Hurricane Eloise obtained by the GOES satellite on 22 September 1975. We performed cloud tracking using target selection (clustering) based either on visible or infrared data and tracked the targets using a pattern recognition technique. The technique matches targets with their best likeness (in terms of size, brightness and shape) at successive times in a manner analogous to human pattern recognition, and also rejects vectors in disagreement with the predominant motion in their height (infrared) category. For data of 4 and 8 km resolution, the automatic system gave results very comparable in accuracy and coverage to those obtained by NASA analysts using the Atmospheric and Oceanographic Information Processing System (AOIPS). We also tracked the same targets using a cross-correlation...