On the Desirability and Feasibility of a Global Reanalysis of Tropical Cyclones Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Historical observations of tropical cyclones have proven to be of great value to scientific research, to forecasting, and to many industries, such as insurance and reinsurance. But in almost all cases, the observations were made in support of immediate forecasting needs and were not quality controlled with an eye toward the uniformity and consistency that we demand of climatological datasets. Yet the increasing use of such data for risk assessment and in the detection of trends and variability warrants both a careful reanalysis of existing data and the application of uniform standards to future observations.