Status and Prospects of Marine Wind Observations from Geostationary and Polar-Orbiting Satellites for Tropical Cyclone Studies

Abstract

Satellite-derived sea surface winds (SSWs) and atmospheric motion vectors (AMVs) over the global ocean, particularly including the areas in and around tropical cyclones (TCs), have been provided in a real-time and continuous manner. More and better information is now derived from technologically improved multiple satellite missions and wind retrieving techniques. The status and prospects of key SSW products retrieved from scatterometers, passive microwave radiometers, synthetic aperture radar, and altimeters as well as AMVs derived by tracking features from multiple geostationary satellites are reviewed here. The quality and error characteristics, limitations, and challenges of satellite wind observations described in the literature, which need to be carefully considered to apply the observations for both operational and scientific uses, i.e., assimilation in numerical weather forecasting, are also described. Additionally, ongoing efforts toward merging them, particularly for monitoring three-dimensional TC wind fields in a real-time and continuous manner and for providing global profiles of high-quality wind observations with the new mission are introduced. Future research is recommended to develop plans for providing more and better SSW and AMV products in a real-time and continuous manner from existing and new missions.