Using maximum Vertical Integrated Liquid (VIL) maps for identifying hail-affected areas: an operative application for agricultural purposes
-
T. Rigo [1] ; C. Farnell [1]
-
[1] Servei Meteorologic de Catalunya
-
- Localización: Tethys : revista meteorología y climatología mediterránea, ISSN 1139-3394, Nº. 16, 2019, págs. 15-24
- Idioma: español
- Enlaces
-
Resumen
Catalonia (NE of the Iberian Peninsula) is commonly affected by severe and non-severe hail events. Every year, hailstorms cause considerable damage to agriculture areas. Therefore, the Meteorological Service of Catalonia (SMC) started a collaborative project with the Department of Agricultural, Livestock and Fishing (DARP) of the Generalitat de Catalunya in 2016. This project has the goal of providing geo-referenced fields of the maximum daily value of the Vertical Integrated Liquid (VIL) for an area of interest. The resulting map allows the DARP technicians of the particular region to focus their fieldwork analysis over the pixels where the VIL values exceed a certain threshold. This work is part of the SMC’s global project of nowcasting and hail diagnosis. This paper shows the procedure and some examples of the tool application, adapted to the necessities of the DARP technicians over the years. The algorithm has been found to be a good pointer of those hail-affected regions, mainly in combination with an agriculture exploitation boundary layer.
