Enhanced Tropical Cyclone Monitoring with MODIS and OLS

As systems tied intimately to the poorly sampled oceanic environment, tropical cyclones pose unique characterization, tracking, and forecasting challenges. Here, perhaps more so than with any other environmental phenomenon, satellite remote sensing offers the fundamental information bearing direct and immediate relevance to life and property. This paper details the recent additions to the NRL Monterey Tropical Cyclone Web Page (TC Webpage; www.nrlmry.navy.mil/tc_pages/tc_home.html) of high spatial resolution imagery (including 250 m true color) from the Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensors on board NASA Terra and Aqua, and nighttime visible imagery (based on measurement of clouds reflecting moonlight) from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Operational Linescan System (OLS). These products, which are rendered in the same fashion as other telemetries found on the TC Webpage (i.e., in terms of centering on the latest storm fix) are hosted in near real-time. High spatial resolution MODIS provides superior characterization of convective bursts within the eyewall and observes mesoscale circulation patterns within the eye (barring central-dense-overcast conditions) as they relate to current storm intensity and short-term trends. The nighttime capability from OLS provides a viable means to resolving low-level circulation (e.g., by revealing low cloud patterns otherwise poorly resolved at night via conventional infrared imagery) in developing/dissipating systems. Used in concert with the full suite of TC Webpage passive optical/microwave and scatterometer tools, these new additions improve our ability to monitor and prepare for one of nature's most powerful forces.