This paper describes results from a near-real-time objective technique for estimating the intensity of tropical cyclones from satellite infrared imagery in the North Atlantic Ocean basin. The technique quantifies the level of organization or axisymmetry of the infrared cloud signature of a tropical cyclone as an indirect measurement of its maximum wind speed. The final maximum wind speed calcul...

Knowledge about natural hazard management has increased significantly since Gilbert White’s seminal research in 1945, yet people are still badly affected by natural hazards. A key question remains in natural hazards research: why, when all the conditions for effective disaster risk reduction are in place, do some people not take action to reduce their risk of harm? Through a questionnaire-based...

Recent work has developed a new framework for the impact of vertical wind shear on the intensity evolution of tropical cyclones. A focus of this framework is on the frustration of the tropical cyclone’s power machine by shearinduced, persistent downdrafts that flush relatively cool and dry (lower equivalent potential temperature, θe) air into the storm’s inflow layer. These previous results hav...

[1] New evidence based on recent satellite data is presented to provide a rare opportunity in quantifying the long-speculated contribution of tropical cyclones to enhance ocean primary production. In July 2000, moderate cyclone Kai-Tak passed over the South China Sea (SCS). During its short 3-day stay, Kai-Tak triggered an average 30-fold increase in surface chlorophyll-a concentration. The est...

The Weather Research and Forecast model at 1/38 resolution is used to simulate the statistics of tropical cyclone (TC) activity in the present climate of the South Pacific. In addition to the large-scale conditions, the model is shown to reproduce a wide range of mesoscale convective systems. Tropical cyclones grow from the most intense of these systems formed along the South Pacific convergenc...

The CloudSat 94-GHz Cloud Profiling Radar was designed to provide global information on the vertical structure of clouds. It was launched in April 2006, joining the A-Train of earth science satellites. Although primarily focused on clouds and climate, the CloudSat radar also provides a unique view of the vertical structure of clouds in tropical cyclones. The authors use data from CloudSat and o...

The National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System (GFS) is a global spectral model used for aviation weather forecast. It produces forecasts of wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity and precipitation out to 192 hr every 6 hours over the entire globe. The horizontal resolution in operational version of the GFS is about 25 km. Much longer integration of sim...

[1] The quality of the retrieved temperature and moisture profiles acquired from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) aboard the NASA Aqua spacecraft was evaluated by comparing the data with dropsonde observations obtained from NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA 2006) and international THORPEX Pacific Asian Regional Campaign (T‐PARC 2008) field programs. Results indicate ...

Synoptic extra-tropical cyclone and anticyclone trajectories have been constructed from mean daily sea level pressure (SLP) data using a new automated scheme. Frequency, intensity and trajectory characteristics of these transients have been summarized to form indices describing wintertime cyclonic and anticyclonic activity over the North-Eastern Pacific (east of 170 W) during 1950–2001. During ...

We examined the number of tropical cyclones and cyclone days as well as tropical cyclone intensity over the past 35 years, in an environment of increasing sea surface temperature. A large increase was seen in the number and proportion of hurricanes reaching categories 4 and 5. The largest increase occurred in the North Pacific, Indian, and Southwest Pacific Oceans, and the smallest percentage i...