Near-surface temperature and moisture observations from tropical cyclones between 1975-2007: Axisymmetric and asymmetric structural analysis

Building upon the existing 1975-1998 air-sea analyses derived from Cione et. al (2000), this new study incorporates additional buoy observations from Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico tropical cyclones between 1999-2007. These additional storms (and observations from buoy platforms deployed after 1998) have resulted in a tropical cyclone-buoy database that is now approximately five times larger than the original database developed and first utilized in 2000. This study will investigate how the Cione et. al analysis of tropical cyclone mean air-sea structure may have changed with the addition of 1000's of new observations. This research will also investigate and attempt to quantify the impact storm-relative asymmetric near-surface thermodynamic structure may have on mature tropical cyclones. In addition, initial results from this study suggest that storm intensity may also be an important factor impacting near-surface air temperature and moisture fields. Analyses and implications of these and other related findings will be explored and presented in detail.