Airbus Cb-Global

Cb-Global is a satellite-based system that has been developed by Airbus in order to detect and nowcast thunderstorms. The system determines moving directions and speeds of all detected cells in real time. A nowcasting algorithm predicts the future positions of the cells within the next 60 minutes.
The precision of cell detection of the Cb-Global system is of great importance in aviation.

Thunderstorm Warning and Thunderstorm Severity

The two available parameters can be accessed by setting the source option of the API query to sat-cb.

• The storm warning index is used for cell detection. The index provides values of 0 and 1:

  sat_storm_warning:idx

  Value	Meaning
  0	No storm cells present
  1	Storm cells present

• The storm severity index assesses the strength of an occurring thunderstorm. The index provides values of 0, 1 and 2:

  sat_storm_severity:idx

  Value	Meaning
  0	No tunderstorms
  1	Thunderstorms
  2	Heavy Thunderstorms

• The storm stage index distinguishes between 4 development stages of a detected thunderstorm. The index provides values of 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4:

  sat_storm_stage:idx

  Value	Meaning
  0	No tunderstorms
  1	Potential development of convective clouds
  2	Rapid vertical development (vertically growing clouds)
  3	Mature stage (thunderstorm reaching/exceeding tropopause)
  4	Convectively induced turbulence (CIT)

Examples

• Storm warning index and hourly model precipitation for August 30th, 2020:
  

  

• Corresponding storm severity index:
  

  

Current Situation:
• https://api.meteomatics.com/__replace__0T00:00:00Z/sat_storm_warning:idx/60,-12_35,30:0.05,0.05/html?source=sat-cb
• https://api.meteomatics.com/__replace__0T00:00:00Z/sat_storm_severity:idx/60,-12_35,30:0.05,0.05/html?source=sat-cb
• https://api.meteomatics.com/__replace__0T00:00:00Z/sat_storm_stage:idx/60,-12_35,30:0.05,0.05/html?source=sat-cb