Inner-core characteristics of Ophelia (2005) and Noel (2007) as revealed by Aerosonde data

The Aerosonde is an unmanned aerial vehicle designed for tropical cyclone (TC) observation at altitudes inaccessible by manned aircraft. It has recently been deployed into two TCs: Ophelia (2005) and Noel (2007). Ophelia was a strong tropical storm that was soon to undergo extratropical transition (ET), while Noel was a hurricane prior to its rapid ET at the time of observation.

In this study, we document the role of the Aerosonde observations in defining the inner-core dynamic and thermodynamic structure of both storms, as analyzed using concurrent data from the NOAA P-3 aircraft, GPS dropwindsondes and AMSU. Preliminary results from the Ophelia mission illustrate that the Aerosonde data identified a more pronounced asymmetry in the NE quadrant with a wind maximum of 74 kt. For Noel, which possessed a warm core during the period of observation, the contribution of 12 hours of continuous Aerosonde data (including soundings) to the understanding of the ET process will be presented.