Hurricane tangential wind profile from synthetic aperture radar observations

Over the last several years, considerable efforts have been devoted to investigate hurricane surface winds using SAR observations [1]-[6]. Compared to optical satellite sensors, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has advantages for observation of ocean surface winds, with high resolution and large spatial coverage, in almost all-weather conditions. Measurements of the inner-core intensities and tangential wind profiles are generally provided by NOAA aircraft flying though the hurricanes [7]. However, aircraft only can provide single point observations along the flight track. Thus, there can be some variance in the aircraft-measured tangential wind profiles, particularly for those hurricanes with asymmetric wind structures. For example, for a non-symmetric hurricane with an elliptic eye, we can assume that the true maximum wind speed exists somewhere on the major axis direction. Therefore, if the aircraft flies along the minor axis of this hurricane, instead of the major axis, the maximum wind and the radius of maximum wind (RMW) observations are probably not accurate. In this study, we determine the hurricane eye center and its extent, and propose a model to estimate hurricane intensity and structure parameters. A specific objective is to describe the tangential wind profile corresponding to the reintensification phase in the hurricane eyewall replacement cycle (ERC).