Storm Tracker Analysis Tool and Archive

An interactive tool for tracking convective clusters from satellite and radar data*


Robert Rabin1,2 and Tom Whittaker2


1NOAA/National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL)
2UW-Madison/CIMSS

    Collage of Storm Tracker Displays



This web site provides access to the following experimental products:


1. Near real-time and archived satellite and radar data for the central U.S.

                              Spring of 2003 - present

                              GOES-12 IR (11 micron) imagery at 15-minute intervals (from SSEC University of Wisconsin-Madison)
                             National composite reflectivity from WSR-88D network  (from UNIDATA)

                             RUC-2 analysis variables along user selected path
                             Size (area)
                             Cloud-top temperature (CTT)
                             Reflectivity (dBZ)
 

2. Interactive tools for identifying and tracking convective clusters
1) Selectable Cloud-top Temperature threshold:
    warmer: for tracking larger-scale convective systems
    colder: for locating and tracking smaller-scale penetrating tops

2) Selectable Radar Reflectivity threshold:
    smaller: for tracking larger-scale echo clusters
    larger: for locating and tracking smaller-scale features
Click here to launch Storm Tracker

*Support for this work was provided by the NOAA High Performance Computing and  Communications  project (HPCC) and the GOES I/M Product Assurance Plan (GIMPAP)

 Presentation at the AMS Annual meeting in January 2004: "Storm Tracker: a Web-Based Tool for Working with the Automated Tracking of Thunderstorm Clusters": 

Disclaimer. The products and imagery shown here are experimental. These have been generated within a research environment and are not intended to be considered operational. Timeliness, availability, and accuracy are sought but not guaranteed.

CIMSS (UW-Madison),   NSSL (NOAA/NSSL).
Last update was 24 June 2004. Feedback.