Tropical Cyclone Composite Studies - A Gray Area

The presentation will provide a historical overview of novel (at the time) methods and insightful contributions made by Dr. William M. Gray and his numerous graduate students to our collective understanding of tropical cyclones (TCs) through the compositing of rawindsonde and aircraft flight-level observations. Such studies have spanned spatiotemporal scales (synoptic, mesoscale, and convective), regions within the TC circulation (eye, eyewall, inner core, and outer core), stages in the TC lifecycle (genesis, intensification, and maintenance), and forecast challenges (track and intensity change). To date, many of these seminal studies remain relevant and continue to motivate composites of new data sources and/or new compositing techniques.