Hurricane analysis with microwave sounder observations

Analysis of data from recent hurricane field campaigns has shown that there is a very high correlation between microwave sounder observations and radar observations of deep convective systems. The correlation is so strong that it is possible to develop a model function that can be used to transform the radiometric brightness temperatures into vertical profiles of equivalent radar reflectivity. This new method makes it possible to use current and future satellite sounders to generate proxy precipitation and cloud radar data. This in turn will enable a wide range of analyses of convective systems and processes using algorithms and methodologies developed for the radar systems. We show some preliminary results.