Tracking Severe Storms Using a Pseudo Storm Concept

Tracking storms in radar images can be conceived of as a problem of tracking deformable objects. Our current relaxation labelling-based tracking algorithm that represents these deformable objects as “fuzzy” points can track objects that undergo shape deformations. One other type of deformation is the splitting of an object into multiple objects or the merging of multiple objects into one object from one image to the next. With our current algorithm, tracks are interrupted when such events happen in image sequences. We remove this deficiency of the current algorithm by adding the concept of a Pseudo Storm to its representational repertoire. With only minor modifications to the current algorithm, the new algorithm can track deformable objects that undergo both merging and splitting events. The new pseudo storm tracking algorithm outperforms our previous storm tracking algorithm for Great Lakes Doppler precipitation datasets.