Observation and Tracking of Tropical Cyclones Using Resolution Enhanced Scatterometry

The QuikSCAT scatterometer provides global daily coverage of oceanic near-surface vector winds. Recently, algorithms have been developed to enhance the spatial resolution of QuikSCAT winds from 25~km to 2.5~km posting. These ultra-high resolution winds are used, in comparison with standard L2B data product winds, to observe and track tropical cyclones. Resolution enhanced winds are found to provide additional storm structure such as inner core size and structure and the presence of multiple eyewalls compared with standard resolution winds. The 2.5~km winds are also able to observe storms nearer to the shore than 25~km winds. An analysis of circulation center locatability with each resolution wind field is performed. Center fixes with enhanced resolution winds are nearer the National Hurricane Center best-track positions than are standard resolution center fixes. A data and image set of every tropical cyclone worldwide observed by Seawinds on QuikSCAT or SeaWinds on ADEOS II from 1999 through 2005 is generated and made available to the scientific community at http://scp.byu.edu.

Name thesis:degree_name

MS

Grantor dc:publisher

Brigham Young University - Provo

Author dc:creator

• Halterman, Richard Ryan

• scatterometry
• ocean vector winds
• resolution enhancement
• QuikSCAT
• SeaWinds
• tropical cyclones
• hurricanes
• Electrical and Computer Engineering

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1062

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarsarchive.byu.edu:etd-2061