Abstract
The estimation of tropical cyclone (TC) intensity using Ku-band scatterometer data is challenging due to rain perturbation and signal saturation in the radar backscatter measurements. In this paper, an alternative approach to directly taking the maximum scatterometer-derived wind speed is proposed to assess the TC intensity. First, the TC center location is identified based on the unique characteristics of wind stress divergence/curl near the TC core. Then the radial extent of 17-m/s winds (i.e., R17) is calculated using the wind field data from the Haiyang-2B (HY-2B) scatterometer (HSCAT). The feasibility of HSCAT wind radii in determining TC intensity is evaluated using the maximum sustained wind speed (MSW) in the China Meteorological Administration best-track database. It shows that the HSCAT R17 value generally better correlates with the best-track MSW than the HSCAT maximum wind speed, therefore indicating the potential of using the HSCAT data to improve the TC nowcasting capabilities.
Highlights
Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 1035.Tropical cyclones (TCs) may cause severe damages, notably in coastal areas, through strong winds, heavy rain, and potential storm surges
This paper aims at improving estimates of the TC center location and R17 using scatterometer data, using best-track information on storm intensity and evolution as the reference
For the 9 Advanced Scatterometers (ASCAT) acquisitions, the mean difference between the best-track position and the ASCAT-derived (ECMWF-derived) TC center is about 24.9 km (37.9 km), which is consistent with the above results
Summary
Note that the used MSW represents the maximum two-minute sustained wind speed at 10-m sea surface level pressure (MSLP) of TCs with at least tropical storm intensity (MSW > 25 m/s), are extracted and evaluated from the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) TC database [26,27]. Both MSW and MSLP are common indicators of the TC intensity, e.g., TC intensification refers to an increase in MSW or a decrease in MSLP [28]. Both MSW and MSLP are interpolated spatially and temporally to the scatterometer acquisitions for comparison purposes
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