Effectiveness Of QuikSCAT´s Ultra-High Resolution Images in Determining Tropical Cyclone Eye Location

Author

Saïd, Faozi ; Long, David G.

Author_Institution

Microwave Earth Remote Sensing Lab., Brigham Young Univ., Provo, UT

Volume

1

fYear

2008

fDate

7-11 July 2008

Abstract

The 25 km resolution standard wind products (L2B) are available operationally in near-real time from SeaWinds on QuikSCAT. This relatively low resolution can be enhanced to yield a 2.5 km ultra-high resolution (UHR) product that can be used to identify hurricane eye centers more accurately. A comparison is made between the analyst´s choice of eye location based on UHR images and interpolated best-track position. In this analysis, the UHR images are divided into two categories based on the analyst´s confidence level of finding the eye center location. In each category, statistical error quantities are computed. UHR images within the high-confidence category can provide, for a given year and basin, mean error distance as small as 15 km with a 9 km standard deviation. The use of these categories may facilitate the realization of QuikSCAT´s effectiveness in helping to identify and track hurricane eye centers.

Keywords

remote sensing; storms; weather forecasting; wind; AD 1999 07; JTWC; Joint Typhoon Warning Center; NESDIS; NHC; National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service; National Hurricane Center; QuikSCAT effectiveness; SeaWind satellite; UHR image; hurricane eye center; image rendering; mesoscale feature; ocean surface; pencil-beam scatterometer; rain contamination; tropical cyclone determination; ultra-high resolution; weather forecasting; wind; Earth; Hurricanes; Image analysis; Image resolution; Laboratories; Remote sensing; Rendering (computer graphics); Storms; Tropical cyclones; Wind speed; Remote sensing; resolution enhancement; storms; weather forecasting; wind;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, 2008. IGARSS 2008. IEEE International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-2807-6

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-2808-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IGARSS.2008.4778866

Filename

4778866