Wind Speed Retrievals from Multi-Sensor Satellite Data from Hurricanes and Tropical Cyclones

An retrieval algorithm is developed for wind speed inside hurricanes or typhoons from microwave radiometers, SSM/I and AMSR. We match use GEM numerical weather forecast model outputs for wind speed in comparisons with SSM/I and AMSR data. The algorithm using AMSR data is better than that for SSM/I, because AMSR has two low frequencies radiometers, 6 and 10 GHz, and they are more suitable than the high frequency radiometers to retrieve wind speeds in cases involving rain. The RMS for our algorithm is less than 2 m/s or 10%. The algorithm shows improvement over recent algorithms for retrieving wind speeds inside hurricanes or typhoons.