A Satellite-Based Remote-Sensing Framework to Quantify the Upwelling Radiation Due to Tropical Cyclones

We present a framework to quantify the radiation from tropical cyclones (TCs) in shortwave (SW, wavelength smaller than 3 micron) and longwave (LW, wavelength larger than 3 micron) portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The framework includes two stages: segmentation of TC clouds and calculation of the radiation effects attributable to TC clouds. The segmentation task is accomplished by an algorithm which takes a time series of brightness temperature images of TCs and uses image processing techniques to acquire segmentation for each image in a semisupervised manner. The radiation is calculated by combining the segmentation results with the cloud and earth's radiant energy system dataset via a coordinate-matching scheme due to their difference in resolution. The framework was implemented to analyze the net contribution of TCs to the upwelling radiation in 2016 and in summer months between 2015 and 2019 at regional and global scales. Results show that both the magnitude and the variability of radiation contribution by TCs are of an order of magnitude that could have a significant effect on the overall earth's energy balance.

Automated summary

The study introduces a framework to quantify the radiation impact of tropical cyclones, involving the segmentation of TC clouds and calculation of radiation effects. Results suggest that the magnitude and variability of radiation contribution by TCs could have a significant effect on the overall energy balance of the Earth.