The European geostationary Meteosat Second Generation satellite (MSG) offers a variety of channels to use for various purposes, including nowcasting of convection. A number of applications have also been developed to make use of these new capabilities for nowcasting, especially for the detection and prediction of severe weather. The MSG infrared channel selection makes it possible to assess the air stability in pre-convective, i.e. still cloud free conditions. Instability indices typically combine measures of the thermal and the moisture properties and often only use a small quantity of vertical profile parameters. MSG based temperature and moisture retrievals are used for the derivation of stability indices, which are a part of the MSG meteorological products derived centrally at EUMETSAT and disseminated via EUMETCast. Such indices are of empirical nature, are often only applicable to certain geographic regions and their thresholds are dependent on seasonal variation, but they can assess the likelihood of convection within the next few hours, thus providing a warning lead of about 6 to 9 hours. Examples are shown to demonstrate the generally good warning potential of the derived instability field, together with a more quantitative verification analysis provided by the South African Weather Service. The paper will at the end provide a brief outlook on other potential benefits of MSG in nowcasting the different stages of convection, which is a very active area of current research.Pages: 2234-224
