Method and apparatus for short-term prediction of convective weather

An apparatus for developing a short-term storm forecast comprising:

• a receiver receiving a first and second meteorological image at a first and a second time, respectively, each image comprising information indicative of a meteorological indicator in relation to a predetermined geographical area;
• a classification processor classifying a sub-image region of each image as being within at least one of a plurality of predetermined storm classifications;
• a tracker determining a tracking vector field comprising at least one tracking vector for each classified sub-image region, the tracking vector field indicative of relative motion;
• an image filter filtering the tracking vector field to reduce spurious tracking vectors;
• and
• a forecast processor generating a short-term forecast by advecting a meteorological image according to the conditioned tracking vectors.

An apparatus for developing a short-term storm forecast comprising:

• means for receiving a first and second meteorological images at a first and second times, respectively, each image comprising information indicative of a meteorological indicator in relation to a predetermined geographical area;
• means for classifying a sub-image region of each image as being within at least one of a plurality of predetermined storm classifications;
• means for determining a tracking vector field comprising at least one tracking vector for each classified sub-image region, the tracking vector field indicative of relative motion;
• means for filtering the tracking vector field to reduce spurious tracking vectors;
• and
• means for generating a short-term forecast by advecting a meteorological image according to the conditioned tracking vector field.