Reprocessing the “Top Ten” Most Intense Historical Tropical Cyclones in the Satellite Era Using the Advanced Dvorak Technique

In recent years, a number of extremely powerful tropical cyclones (TCs) have revived the community debate on estimating maximum intensity, and how they rank in the satellite era. In most cases, satellite estimates are relied on heavily by Regional Specialized Meteorological Centers tasked with conducting post-analyses of TC Best Tracks. The Dvorak Technique is the primary satellite tool for analyzing intensity, but the method has limitations and depends somewhat on analyst judgement (Velden et al. 2006). Dvorak also did not have the full range of satellite capabilities when developing his method, so there may also be inherent biases in the empirical method's estimates, particularly notable at the very strong end of the TC intensity spectrum (Knaff et al. 2010).

The Advanced Dvorak Technique (ADT