Dynamic Characteristics of TC Boundary Layer from Doppler Wind Lidar Observations

While meteorological observations have improved in both quality and density, there remain important data-sparse regions in the tropical cyclone (TC). One of these regions is in the boundary layer, particularly in the lowest 1 km. This study investigates the observed boundary layer kinematic structures using wind profiles collected by an airborne Doppler Wind Lidar (DWL) flown on NOAA’s P-3 Orion Hurricane Hunters. The DWL is able to collect wind measurements as low as 100 m with horizontal and vertical resolutions of 3 km and 50 m, respectively. In the 2016-2017 hurricane seasons, the DWL collected over 2000 boundary layer wind profiles in three tropical cyclones: Hurricane Earl (2016), Tropical Storm Javier (2016), and Hurricane Maria (2017). Preliminary work compares dynamic features, such as the height of the maximum wind speed and the inflow layer depth and strength, calculated from DWL observations to previous composite studies and numerical model representations.