Tropical cyclone applications of next-generation operational satellite soundings

The next generation U.S. polar-orbiting (NPOESS) and geostationary (GOES-R) satellite systems will include hyperspectral infrared (IR) sounders with on the order of 1000 spectral bands. This represents a two order of magnitude increase in the number of bands relative to the current GOES sounder, and will provide vertical temperature and moisture profiles in relatively cloud free areas with much greater vertical resolution than the current sounders. NPOESS will also include an Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder (ATMS) that can be used in cloudy regions. In the future, the radiances from these new instruments will be assimilated into numerical forecast models to help improve tropical cyclone track, intensity and rainfall forecasts. Temperature and moisture retrievals from these advanced instruments also have a number of potential applications for tropical cyclone analysis and short term forecasting.

In this paper, three applications of next generation soundings to tropical cyclone analysis will be demonstrated using combined AIRS and AMSU retrievals from Hurricanes Lili (2002), Isabel (2003) and Fabian (2003). The accuracy of these soundings in tropical cyclone environments will be evaluated by comparison with co-located GPS dropsondes obtained from the NOAA Gulfstream Jet Surveillance missions. The ability to accurately estimate the thermodynamic structure in the near storm environment has application to short-term intensity prediction. The soundings in the storm eyes have potential for monitoring storm intensity. Eye soundings from these three storms will be integrated downward to obtain the surface pressure, which will be compared with the value measured by aircraft reconnaissance. Finally, wind retrievals from the AIRS/AMSU soundings based upon nonlinear balance equation and hydrostatic constraints will be compared with flight level winds from the reconnaissance aircraft.