Ocean Temperature Observations in Atlantic Tropical Cyclones (2011-2018): Analysis and Comparison of AXBT Observations to Ocean Climatologies

More than 750 upper ocean temperature observations were collected from Airborne eXpendable BathyThermographs (AXBTs) deployed by the USAF 53^rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron in 22 named Atlantic tropical cyclones (TCs) between 2011-2018. These real-time quality-controlled (QC’d) observations have been routinely assimilated in ocean and coupled TC models and have been shown to consistently improve forecasts in both the HYCOM and COAMPS-TC models. Here, these observations are re-processed using an automated procedure, and the results of the objective and subjective QC procedures are compared.

Since TCs can significantly alter the upper ocean thermal structure near the storm track, the accuracy of research and forecasts that rely on a climatological ocean can be reduced near these tropical systems. To better understand the extent to which observations differ from climatology in the vicinity of TCs, profiles from both AXBT data sets are compared to climatological ocean temperatures in the Caribbean, western Atlantic Ocean, and Gulf of Mexico. Observations are then stratified by TC-relative position, TC intensity, and TC translation speed and are compared to AXBT observations collected during training flights in quiescent conditions within each region.