Tropical cyclone dynamics revealed by satellite ocean surface wind speeds observations : the key contribution of the near-core surface wind structure

Overview & Synopsis

Despite advances in predicting the tropical cyclones (TCs) trajectory and outer-core wind speeds, the numerical representation of the strongest winds associated with the most intense events is still an open issue, essentially because of the small radial extent of the TC core and the difficulty in understanding and resolving turbulent air-sea exchanges. Observational limitations have for a long time hindered accurate measurements of the ocean surface near the core region in extreme wind conditions, while geostationary satellites help characterizing the cloud patterns but lack direct information on the air-sea interface. Recently, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) has emerged as a promising satellite technology capable of producing high-resolution two dimensional measurements of the ocean surface wind speeds, thanks to new acquisition modes and algorithmic developments. Given these new observational opportunities, we investigate the contribution of near-core structural features, exclusively discernible through high-resolution instruments, to the TC dynamics. Using a simple theoretical framework and examining its consistency with SAR measurements, we demonstrate that the near-core surface winds modulate the evolution of the TC wind structure. The developed framework allows to illustrate how future measurements of ocean-atmosphere boundary layer characteristics could benefit the short- and long-term monitoring of TCs.