Strong Relationship between Eye Radius and Radius of Maximum Wind of Tropical Cyclones

Abstract Estimation of the radius maximum wind (RMW) tropical cyclone (TC) is helpful for disaster prevention and mitigation. If RMWs are estimated from infrared (IR) imagery taken by geostationary meteorological satellites, their estimation available densely in time, regardless ocean basin. Kossin et al. showed that when TCs have clear eyes, eye radii IR images a high correlation with RMW aircraft reconnaissance. The regression former onto latter was shown to mean absolute error (MAE) 4.7 km. We revisit IR-based using C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sea surface estimates. criteria selecting clear-eye cases simplified. MAE method found be smaller than previously suggested: 3.1 km proposed relation used 2.7 revised SAR-measured RMWs. further propose an improvement estimate radii. resultant 1.7 km, which indicates more accurate has been suggested. A strong between eyewall slope size confirmed. also investigated cloud features may closely related structure around RMW. Potential applications highly discussed. Significance Statement important factor TC intensity prevention. previous study suggested eyes can satellite at Here we improved method, reducing one-half. Since does not require or low Earth orbit, it helps monitoring frequency. improve initialization models predict hazards our physical understanding climatology structures near centers TCs.