Wind fields from hurricane Isabel

IWRAP, the imaging wind and rain airborne profiler, is the first high-resolution dual-hand airborne Doppler radar designed for studying the inner core of tropical cyclones (TCs). The system is designed to provide high-resolution, dual-polarized C and Ku-Band reflectivity and Doppler profiles of precipitation volume backscatter and ocean surface backscatter within the inner core precipitation bands of tropical cyclones (TCs). SFMR is a C-band nadir viewing radiometer used operationally to provide continuous estimates of the surface wind speed and title column average rain rate. Both IWRAP and SFMR arc operated from a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) WP-3D aircraft during missions through TCs and severe ocean storms. In this paper, we present wind and reflectivity profiles of the atmospheric boundary layer within the inner-core of hurricane Isabel (2003) from IWRAP measurements. These profiles are the highest resolution measurements of the ABL winds of a hurricane ever obtained. The profiles are compared to coincident surface wind speed measurements provided by SFMR, flight level wind measurements and GPS dropsonde winds