Inner Core Radar Structures in Hurricane Patricia 2015

During 21-23 October 2015 one of NOAA's WP-3D research aircraft flew three missions into Hurricane Patricia to collect airborne Doppler radar observations from the vertically scanning tail (TA) radar in support of forecasting by EMC and the NHC. These flights also were the first to collect Doppler velocity observations from the horizontally scanning lower fuselage (LF) radar in a intense tropical cyclone. More exciting is that these data cover the time when Hurricane Patricia rapidly intensified, developed a secondary eyewall, and then began to weaken prior to landfall. TA and LF Doppler analyses will be presented describing the kinematic structure of Hurricane Patricia as the storm evolved, and we will contrast that structure with previous analyses of storms with secondary eyewalls at peak intensity, such as Hurricane Gilbert (1988).