How is the intensity change of tropical cyclones related to the location of deep convection and rainfall with respect to the radius of maximum winds?

Despite operational advances in tropical cyclone track forecasts, progress towards improving forecasts of intensity change, particularly rapid intensification (RI), has been more limited. Although numerical modeling experiments are convenient for examining hypotheses regarding the RI process, these results often go unverified due to the lack of detailed observational studies of the structural evolution. Observational studies over the past 50 years typically have used data from in-situ, satellite, or radar platforms individually to determine differences between steady state and intensifying storms; however, few studies have synthesized information from multiple platforms to examine RI. Using a comprehensive dataset of aircraft reconnaissance data from Atlantic Basin tropical cyclones (2005-2012), we quantify the properties of rapidly intensifying storms, in particular the temporal and spatial evolution of the RMW with respect to intensity change. In conjunction with the aircraft in-situ dataset, an expansive collection of passive microwave satellite data (includes TRMM, AMSR-E, and SSM-I[S]) is used to investigate whether convection during RI is unique compared to the steady state and weakening stages. As previous studies have emphasized the importance of the location of convection relative to the RMW, our analysis uses brightness temperature and derived rain rate information from the PMW satellite dataset to examine the location, intensity, and fractional area of both deep convection and rainfall with respect to the RMW.