The heat potential of the upper ocean relative to 26°C represents the integrated thermal and the density structure (i.e. salinity effects). Based on recent storms in the Western Atlantic Ocean (i.e. Caribbean Sea, Gulf of Mexico) and the Eastern Pacific Ocean Basins, rapid intensity changes have occurred over the warm ocean mixed layers with both weak and strong stratification. Within this context, objectively analyzed surface height anomalies from blended radar altimetry measurements form TOPEX/Poseidon and ERS-2 are used to estimate the hurricane heat potential estimates within the context of a two-layer model and a monthly climatology. These satellite inferred estimates are directly compared to the integrated vertical structure variations from in situ measurements from Lagrangian floats and Airborne expendable Current profilers (AXCPs), Airborne eXependable Conductivity Temperature and Depth profilers (AXCTDs) and Airborne expendable BathyThermographs (AXBTs) from recent sets of field observations in the hurricane field program (1999,2000) and the Eastern Pacific Investigation of Climate (EPIC) (2001). Regression analyses between satellite and observed fields have been found to range between 0.78 to 0.85 with a bias of less than 10 KJ cm-2 in warm frontal regimes.

This observational approach is directly relevant to improving our understanding of rapidly developing storms such as category 4 hurricanes Juliette, Keith and Michelle. Central to this approach is to estimate the isopycnal displacements, upwelling velocities and air-sea fluxes. These parameters are important in strongly forced 3-dimensional ocean mixed layers within the context of storm intensity change.