1 Cloud Screening and Classification in Satellite Imagery Shona Mackie PhD student, University of Edinburgh CASE studentship: Met Office, U.K. Supervisor: Chris Merchant

2 Clouds are important! Weather and climate –Energy budget –Temperature –Precipitation –Height –Optical thickness –Diurnal variation

3 Numerical Forecast –Cloud treatment not perfect »Spatial and temporal »Sub-grid parameterisation Satellite Imagery –Visual inspection »amendments –Automated assimilation Weather Forecasting

4 Overall Aim Bayesian Cloud Classification (Chris Old) –Physically based –Flexible –Expand »To land »To cloud types

5 Current state of project Problems –Ocean fronts –Coastline –Land Clustering

6 General Method Small area of one image scene –Cloud detection on clusters »Classification?

7 Clustering to aid detection Expand technique to land Expand to cloud types (low, medium, high) Expand to refined cloud types Implement method at the MET Office PLAN

8 The End