Weather forecasting by interactive analysis of radar and satellite imagery

At the Meteorological Office, Bracknell, quantitative rainfall maps from a network of ground-based radars, augmented by cloud images from Meteosat , are used to produce analyses and very-short-period forecasts of precipitation. These remotely sensed images provide the only way of presenting the current weather situation quickly enough and with the required spatial resolution and areal coverage. The processing of the radar and satellite data is highly automated, but there are some tasks that require judgements based upon many strands of information and an understanding of meteorological processes. To this end, forecasters use a specially developed display system to interact with the imagery. The facilities for interacting with the pictures have been optimized so that the forecaster, who is kept very busy in active weather situations, can keep pace with the flow of real-time data. Even so, as more radars are added to the network, ways must be found of reducing the burden of the forecaster’s interpretive and judgemental functions by automating some of them and making others easier to perform.