Technique estimates intensity of tropical storms

New technology may help improve estimates of a hurricane’s strength. This method could improve disaster preparedness and recovery efforts.

The technique uses NASA satellite data, including simultaneous, accurate measurements of cloud-top temperatures from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Aqua satellite, and cloud-top height and cloud profiling information from NASA’s CloudSat satellite. This new technique was developed by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., Colorado State University in Fort Collins and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge.

The new method couples measurements of temperatures and cloud-top heights from a storm’s eyewall out to its outer regions with an estimated difference in temperature between the sea surface and the storm’s cloud tops.

The latest results show the value of being able to look inside storms to reveal their inner structure, said CloudSat principal investigator and study co-author Graeme Stephens of Colorado State University.

“Current hurricane intensity estimating techniques are generally effective but have higher wind speed errors than scientists would like,” he said. “This new technique may reduce those error rates.”

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For more: Graeme Stephens, Colorado State University, (970) 491-8541; stephens@atmos.colostate.edu.