Analysis of model derived 150 mb tropical cyclone core climatology for NOAA Gulfstream G-IV TDR missions

The recent development and installation of a Tail Doppler Radar on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Gulfstream IV-SP (G-IV) provided an enhanced capability for the collection of detailed radar data in and around tropical cyclones from as high as 13.7 kilometers. The Hurricane Research Division (HRD) at NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) developed experiments to utilize this capability and in certain circumstances, may require the aircraft to fly directly through the core of a tropical cyclone, which is not routinely accomplished by the G-IV.

In an effort to maximize the safety of flight of the G-IV in these weather conditions, this research compares climatological values of a critical group of observed and derived aviation meteorological elements between 200 and 150 millibars with the corresponding meteorological values produced by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) and Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting (HWRF) models. A comparison of the results will be used to help predict how these weather conditions might affect the flight characteristics of the G-IV.