64
K.B. Katsaros
ADEOS. The SEAWINDS was of a new design developed for use on the ADEOS 2.
The SEAWINDS is also at Ku-band, but observes in a 1,800 m wide conical swath.
It has survived more than 10 years and become well used for hurricane research.
In the early days of these wind retrievals, the author and several colleagues had a
chance to look at the data for their usefulness in observing TCs, or as we choose
to do, looking for early signs of surface wind circulations as tropical depressions
developed off the African coast.
In our case we could look for the origin and early stages of known hurricanes
(Katsaros et al., 2001). Later, direct calculation of vorticity using SEAWINDS vectors was reported by Sharp et al. (2002). Figure 4.3 shows hurricane Floyd in its
early stages in the eastern Atlantic (Liu, 2001).
Scatterometry is now used regularly for tropical cyclone forecasting needs
and the data are assimilated from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), on the
European Meteorological Operational satellite (METOP) at the European Centre
for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). It follows the ERS pattern of Cband and stick-radar, but this one has swaths on both side of the satellite nadir, so it
can cover about 1,000 km of sea surface as it advances in its polar orbit. Developing
methods for assimilation of these vector data into models and eliminating areas of
too much precipitation have taken much effort over the past three decades.
Currently, active and passive wind data are merged and used in many contexts. In France, the Institut Francais de Recherche et de l’Exploitation de la Mer
(IFREMER) and its Centre d’Archivage et de Traitement (CERSAT) distribute data
and research has been performed there on the methods of merging data obtained at
Fig. 4.3 Identification of circulation in the surface wind field of tropical depressions that would
become hurricane Floyd (from Liu, 2001)
K.B. Katsaros
ADEOS. The SEAWINDS was of a new design developed for use on the ADEOS 2.
The SEAWINDS is also at Ku-band, but observes in a 1,800 m wide conical swath.
It has survived more than 10 years and become well used for hurricane research.
In the early days of these wind retrievals, the author and several colleagues had a
chance to look at the data for their usefulness in observing TCs, or as we choose
to do, looking for early signs of surface wind circulations as tropical depressions
developed off the African coast.
In our case we could look for the origin and early stages of known hurricanes
(Katsaros et al., 2001). Later, direct calculation of vorticity using SEAWINDS vectors was reported by Sharp et al. (2002). Figure 4.3 shows hurricane Floyd in its
early stages in the eastern Atlantic (Liu, 2001).
Scatterometry is now used regularly for tropical cyclone forecasting needs
and the data are assimilated from the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT), on the
European Meteorological Operational satellite (METOP) at the European Centre
for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). It follows the ERS pattern of Cband and stick-radar, but this one has swaths on both side of the satellite nadir, so it
can cover about 1,000 km of sea surface as it advances in its polar orbit. Developing
methods for assimilation of these vector data into models and eliminating areas of
too much precipitation have taken much effort over the past three decades.
Currently, active and passive wind data are merged and used in many contexts. In France, the Institut Francais de Recherche et de l’Exploitation de la Mer
(IFREMER) and its Centre d’Archivage et de Traitement (CERSAT) distribute data
and research has been performed there on the methods of merging data obtained at
Fig. 4.3 Identification of circulation in the surface wind field of tropical depressions that would
become hurricane Floyd (from Liu, 2001)