Storm Detection by Visual Learning Using Satellite Images

TL;DR

This paper introduces a visual learning algorithm that analyzes satellite images to detect severe thunderstorms, aiming to improve short-term weather forecasts by mimicking meteorologists' interpretation of cloud patterns.

Contribution

The study presents a novel computer algorithm that extracts and models cloud motion from satellite images to identify storm signatures for better thunderstorm prediction.

Findings

The algorithm effectively detects storm signatures in satellite images.

Models trained on 2008 data successfully predict thunderstorms using historical reports.

Potential for more accurate thunderstorm forecasts demonstrated.

Abstract

Computers are widely utilized in today's weather forecasting as a powerful tool to leverage an enormous amount of data. Yet, despite the availability of such data, current techniques often fall short of producing reliable detailed storm forecasts. Each year severe thunderstorms cause significant damage and loss of life, some of which could be avoided if better forecasts were available. We propose a computer algorithm that analyzes satellite images from historical archives to locate visual signatures of severe thunderstorms for short-term predictions. While computers are involved in weather forecasts to solve numerical models based on sensory data, they are less competent in forecasting based on visual patterns from satellite images. In our system, we extract and summarize important visual storm evidence from satellite image sequences in the way that meteorologists interpret the images. In particular, the algorithm extracts and fits local cloud motion from image sequences to model the storm-related cloud patches. Image data from the year 2008 have been adopted to train the model, and historical thunderstorm reports in continental US from 2000 through 2013 have been used as the ground-truth and priors in the modeling process. Experiments demonstrate the usefulness and potential of the algorithm for producing more accurate thunderstorm forecasts.