Estimating Tropical Cyclone Wind Structure and Intensity From Spaceborne Radiometer and Synthetic Aperture Radar

We present a relatively simple method to estimate tropical cyclone (TC) surface wind structure (34-, 50-, and 64-kt wind radii) and intensity [maximum wind speed (MWS)] from wind fields acquired from the L-band SMAP radiometer and C-band Sentinel-1A/B and RADARSAT-2 synthetic aperture radar (SAR) between 2015 and 2020. The radiometer and SAR-derived wind radii and MWS are systematically compared with the best-track estimates. The root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of R34, R50, and R64 are 31.2, 21.8, and 17.0 nmi (1 nmi = 1.852 km) for radiometer, and 21.7, 16.5, and 16.3 nmi for SAR, respectively. These error values are smaller than the averaged best-track uncertainty estimates for the three wind radii. Compared with the best-track reports, the bias and RMSE for the MWS estimates are -0.2 m/s and 5.8 m/s for radiometer, and 4.4 m/s and 9.1 m/s for SAR, respectively. These results are for the wind speeds in the range of 17-80 m/s. For the two typical TCs (Lionrock and Noru) in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, our results show that a combination of the radiometer and SAR wind data acquired within a very short time interval has the potential to simultaneously obtain reasonable measurements of the wind radii and intensity parameters. Moreover, for a TC with a long lifecycle, such as Typhoon Noru, we demonstrate that the high-resolution and multitemporal synergistic observations from SAR and radiometer are valuable for studying fine-scale features of the wind field and characteristics of wind asymmetry associated with intensity change, as well as the evolution of TC surface wind structure and intensity.

Automated summary

A simple method using radiometer and SAR wind field data to estimate tropical cyclone wind structure and intensity has been presented. The method shows high accuracy and reliability compared to best-track estimates, providing effective measurements for wind radii and intensity parameters.