Monitoring Intense Thunderstorms in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan Region

We propose an application that combines unique satellite data and innovative regional numerical weather prediction to facilitate assessments of high impact weather caused by the frequent intense thunderstorms that affect the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region. We will use the NASA Unified Weather Research and Forecasting model to provide environmental diagnostics that, when favorable for high impact weather, will trigger a high resolution ensemble modeling system to gauge the potential types of intense thunderstorms and related hazards on a given day. This will provide an impetus for interrogating satellite measurements of precipitating cloud systems to further gauge their intensity and potential hazards as well as refine their location and extent. These measurements will be obtained from NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission constellation of satellites, which includes passive microwave and radar sensors that enable thunderstorm intensity estimation. Since satellite-based estimates of storm intensity may not always reveal the exact nature and extent of damage, we will utilize satellite-based land imagery of varying resolutions to create products that enable thunderstorm-induced (hail, wind, tornado) damage assessment to serve in this aspect. This unique and innovative application of NASA Earth Observing System information provided by the proposed high impact weather toolkit should build the capacity of weather forecasting and early warning services as well as disaster response efforts to further facilitate well-informed decision making for governments in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan region.