This "Convective Cloud Mask" image is one of the SATCAST convective initiation products used for Nowcasting.
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The SERVIR project is working in collaboration with the Atmospheric Science Department at the University of Alabama in Huntsville to implement and extend a suite of short-term (0-6 hour) weather prediction products over Mesoamerica. These products, known as 'convective initiation', predict the onset of thunderstorm rainfall and lightning within a 1-hour timeframe.

The "convective initiation" products will be driven by a program called the SATellite Convection AnalySis and Tracking (SATCAST) System that monitors infrared fields for developing, moving, and evolving cumulus clouds. The SATCAST products are updated every 30-minutes, and will be posted to the SERVIR website. Other information for evaluating the threats of thunderstorms will be integrated into the SATCAST program, and will come from weather prediction models and satellite.

These will be used to estimate the flooding potential of thunderstorms as well as land-surface energy and water fluxes on regional scales. Other stand-alone satellite nowcasting products will be those that estimate the daily incoming solar insolation (used to estimate evaporation), and that may be used to monitor volcanic ash clouds.

Current and previous forecasts can be viewed, animated, and downloaded from the Realtime Image Viewer. WRF forecasts can be overlayed with other regional weather products and datasets using the 3D SERVIR-VIZ Earth viewer application. Click here for more detailed information on SATCAST.

Mesoamerican NowCasting Weather Products
• Click on the Realtime Image Viewer icon
to view and animate these products
• Click on the SERVIR-VIZ icon to download and install the 3D Earth viewer to view, animate, and
compare these products with other datasets
• Click on the SERVIR Data Portal icon to search and download related data products
• SATCAST/Convective Initiation Research Home Page
• Download a paper describing the Convective Initiation Process