A QuikSCAT climatology of tropical cyclone size

The factors that modulate the size and radial structure of a tropical cyclone remain poorly understood with respect to both the predictability of a single storm and the nature of the global distribution observed in nature. This work seeks to improve our understanding of tropical cyclone size dynamics by creating a climatology of outer surface wind structure using data from the QuikSCAT satellite for the period 1999-2008, a period that includes 900 named storms. The storm-induced flow is estimated by the pure rotational component of the surface wind vectors. Statistical analysis is used to characterize the spatial and temporal distribution of storm size, defined by the radius of vanishing winds, as well as the nature of the global distribution itself. These results are then compared to the results of previous climatological storm structure studies. Finally, the structure of QuikSCAT-derived radial profiles are calculated and compared to predictions from both theory and models.