Microburst windspeed potential assessment: progress and developments

Abstract

A suite of products has been developed and evaluated to assess hazards presented by convective downbursts to aircraft in flight derived from the current generation of GOES. The existing suite of GOES microburst products employs the sounder to calculate risk based on conceptual models of favorable environmental profiles for convective downburst generation. Accordingly, a diagnostic nowcasting product, the Microburst Windspeed Potential Index, is designed to infer attributes of a favorable microburst environment. In addition, a GOES-West imager microburst algorithm that employs brightness temperature differences between band 3 (upper level water vapor), band 4 (longwave infrared window), and split window band 5 has been developed to supplement the sounder-derived products. This paper provides an updated assessment of the sounder MWPI and imager microburst algorithms, presents case studies demonstrating effective operational use of the microburst products, and presents validation results for the 2008 convective season over United States Great Plains and Great Basin regions.