Optical properties of a hurricane

This paper is devoted to study of the distribution of the reflection function, spherical albedo, and optical thickness for a hurricane Erin, located in the western Atlantic (39.3°N, 60.4°W) on September 13th, 2001(16:21 UTC). The limitations and possibilities of using SeaWiFS imagery for remote sensing of hurricanes are discussed. In particular, it is found that the mode of the hurricane spherical albedo spatial distribution is equal to 0.86 and the transport optical thickness is in the range 4–10 on average for the central core of a hurricane. A simple analytical method to derive the hurricane optical thickness distribution is proposed.