Relationships Between The Multi-Layered Wind Field And The Intensity Of Hurricane Floyd

New procedures for requesting super rapid scan operations (SRSO) or one minute imagery from the NOAA geostationary operational environmental satellites in 1999 allowed for requests for data on consecutive days. This produced a very detailed and unprecedented satellite dataset of Hurricane Floyd. Eight days consecutive of two hours or more of SRSO data were collected for Floyd, covering its development from tropical storm to intense hurricane (8 September - 15 September). Using the cloud motions captured on these time scales very detailed wind fields can be produced using a modified version of the high-density wind code at the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS). The CIMSS wind code is unique in that it can not only track cloud motions, but assign pressure levels to these motions. These data will be combined with aircraft flight level data to create a multi -layered wind analysis.

Using these detailed wind fields over this eight day period we will explore the relationship between wind structure change and intensity change. Specifically, we want to answer the following questions. Do wind field changes lead intensity change? How does convection relate to upper level wind accelerations? How are wind field changes related to other structural changes (temperature, deep convection, rain rate, and precipitable water) as seen by SSMI and AMSU?