Typhoon structural variability

This paper describes the varying structure of the tropical cyclone wind profile in terms of its core intensity, outer strength, and size where core intensity is defined by the tropical cyclone's minimum central sea-level pressure, outer strength is an average tangential wind speed from 60 to 150 b nu (111-278 km), and size measures the radial extent of 30-kt and 50-kt surface winds. Analysis was performed on 700 mb aircraft data from over 500 reconnaissance mission into 66 Tropical cyclones of the northwestern pacific. All these cyclones were of typhoon intensity sometime during their lifecycle. This data set is uniquely suited to fill the dual needs of: 1) providing inner wind profile information out to 4 deg radius, thus allowing the cyclone's strength to be measured, and 2) being able to sample the entire life cycle of the tropical cyclone from depression through supertyphoon stages. The focus of this study is on the outer strength region.