Representative and composite passive microwave satellite images of tropical cyclones as they lie on an eye size-intensity phase space

Tropical cyclones (TCs) exist through a broad spectrum of intensity and eyewall configurations. Piech and Hart (2008) demonstrated the extent of such an intensity-eye size phase space through data from operationally-derived aircraft vortex data messages (VDMs). Furthermore, Cossuth and Hart (2014) showed that structural information found in VDMs can be mimicked using objective analysis of passive microwave satellite imagery, allowing a similar inner core phase space analysis to be performed globally. This study provides a frame of reference for the previous work by visualizing TC satellite imagery as it lies on an inner core phase diagram. The broad range of TCs is conveyed as resolved by passive microwave sensors, from pinhole eyes through multiple eyewall configurations. Further, the more intense and compact storms are found to have deeper and more axisymmetric brightness temperatures.