The recent addition of the new series of GOES satellites with full resolution (1km) visible, rapid scan images with time intervals as short as 1 minute between images introduces an entire new area in the study of tropical storms. The shortened time interval and full resolution provides consistency in tracking mesoscale cloud features. The accurate determination of wind fields of the upper-level inner-core of tropical cyclones (a region with sparse observations previously) can be achieved by cloud tracking techniques. Few studies on tropical storms have been conducted using these recent data. The purpose of this study is to construct upper-level wind fields and examine the flow fields throughout the lifetime of a mature hurricane. This analysis uses data for Hurricane Marilyn and Hurricane Luis from the 1995 season obtained from the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) archives.
The upper-level wind fields are manually determined from images for both storms for multiple, consecutive days at a similar hour. Comparison of the wind fields gives useful information about the structure and intensification of each storm. These wind fields are used in calculations of convergence, divergence, vorticity, upper-level ventilation, and radius of zero tangential velocity. Comparisons with reconnaissance data provides information about vertical wind shear affecting the storm. Using the calculated winds, the average upper-level tangential wind for a given radius is determined. From initial wind analysis, the average tangential wind speed at 1 and 2 degrees radii is higher than expected from conservation of momentum calculations.