Tropical Cyclone Winds and Inflow Angle Asymmetry From SAR Imagery Geophysical Research Letters

This study developed a morphological model for Tropical Cyclone (TC) wind and inflow angle asymmetry based on sea surface wind fields derived from spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images. The model extracts the standard TC morphological information (center, intensity, and radius of the maximum wind) and decomposes the SAR-derived winds into vortex rotation winds and motion vector, making the reconstruction of the entire TC structure reliable, even in areas not mapped by SAR. The derived wind speeds and inflow angles are verified with aircraft measurements by stepped-frequency microwave radiometer and dropsondes, obtaining root-mean-square errors of 4.32 m/s and 16.04°, respectively. A systematic analysis of 130 SAR TCs images, collected by RADARSAT-2 and SENTINEL-1, reveals that the model can capture the main asymmetrical TC structure. Both TC asymmetry and eye size decrease as TC intensity increases.