Factors that impact air-sea structure in hurricanes

The importance of the air-sea interface on tropical cyclone formation, maintenance and intensity change is well known. It is at this interface where critical ocean-atmosphere exchanges of heat, moisture and momentum occur. Largely due to safety concerns and complicating factors such as platform unavailability and survivability, little in the way of detailed structure is known about this important part of the storm. While individual case studies have documented air-sea and bulk surface flux conditions in high wind tropical cyclone environments, only a few studies have used multi-storm analyses to describe mean conditions within the storm inner core. This study will extend the current body of knowledge by utilizing over 10,000 observations from over 100 Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean hurricanes since 1975. Both mean and asymmetric structure will be analyzed and air-sea environment sensitivities to factors such as large scale shear, storm speed, storm intensity and intensity change will be presented.