Convective Downbursts
Challenge ID |
C-CORE_OFF1.17 |
Title |
|
Challenge originator: |
|
General Description |
|
What data/products do you use? |
Offshore convective downbursts that are beyond the footprints of land-based radar systems are currently not directly identified via products; however, the existence of convective downbursts may be indirectly inferred by using geostationary and polar-orbiting satellite observations, as well as surface-based observations. Most convective downbursts offshore are not qualified and quantified properly, because, typically, the events are not directly observed. |
When do you use this kind of dataset? |
Observations of convective downbursts are mostly used by the O&G industry in affected areas during operations. The onset of thee events can be sudden and interrupt all kinds of operations on deck, helicopter activity etc as they pose a large threat to personnel onboard rigs and vessels. Historical data are important to assess risk of operations in these areas, frequency of occurrence, strength of gusts etc, but are mostly used as input to improve operational forecasting. Also, many other data sources do not catch the extremes in the area without these data added to the time series for the point of interest, since data often are averaged and conditions often are mostly benign.
|
What are your actual limitations and do you have a work around? |
In the absence of surface-based radar data, in order to qualify and quantify convective downbursts at sea requires (a) vertical wind profile data, (b) satellite imagery and (c) surface wind data, which must be analyzed together. Typically, the spatial and temporal resolution of a and c are inadequate for the identification of historical convective downbursts.
|
Needs and expectations on EO data |
EO is used for this today, to spot convective cells and try to assess they movement. However, it is hard to assess the wind speed of each individual cell based on satellite data. Also, the direction of movement for each individual cell is often hard to predict. This leads to unnecessary downtime because of warnings.
|
Challenge classification |
|
Pre license |
1 |
Exp. |
3 |
Dev. |
1 |
Prod. |
3 |
Decom. |
2 |
Geographic context/ restrictions |
Applies to all six Areas of interest.
|
Topographic classification / Offshore classification |
Ocean |
Activity impacted/concerned |
|
Technology Urgency |
Short term (2-5 years) |
Information requirements |
|
Update frequency |
The parameter is not directly available in observations. |
Temporal resolution |
The parameter is not directly available in observations. |
Spatial resolution |
The parameter is not directly available in observations. |
Data quality |
The selected sources in this document are selected because they are known to have sufficient quality (after some work arounds and adaptations). In general separate indepth verification studies has to be made for each source planned to be used for analysis, and the analysis has to be repeated for each geographical area (since sources might be of sufficient quality in one area but not another). |
Data Coverage and extent |
Regional |
Example format |
The parameter is not directly available in observations. |
Timeliness |
Real- time or near-real time |
Existing standards |
NA |
There is no content with the specified labels