Tropical Cyclones Remote Sensing and Data Assimilation

Dear Colleagues,

Tropical cyclones (TC) are the most severe storm systems in the tropics and among the most destructive natural hazards in the world. Remote sensing systems, such as radiometers and scatterometers, have already proven their worth for observing and forecasting TC. These measurements are critical for short-term forecasting, but also offer the means to better examine the role of extreme conditions for the state of the ocean, at local and global scales. Satellite, airborne, in situ, and numerical weather prediction of high and extreme wind estimates have their own strengths and limitations, as well as different spatial representativeness. A particularly challenging topic is how to define a suitable wind reference under such extreme weather conditions.

In recent years, new EO systems, such as, SMOS, SMAP, Sentinel-1/2, FengYun-3, Suomi-NPP, GOES-R, FengYun-4, etc., have been launched. Frequent observations of surface wind and atmospheric water content near the TC inner core are now possible and are revealing the spatial storm structure with impressive detail. This promotes the improvement of mesoscale and synoptic modeling and data assimilation of the remotely sensed observations in TC forecasting. In addition to new sensors, new techniques for utilizing sensors with long term temporal extent such as, QuikSCAT, ASCAT, WindSAT, SSM/I and GOES, are enabling us to better understand climatological trends in tropical cyclone frequency, intensity, and spatial extent and the impact of these storms on the global air/sea energy balance.

This Special Issue will focus on the newly-developed methods for TC monitoring using state-of-the-art remote sensing techniques. The topics of this Special Issue include, without being limited to, the following subjects: 

• Remote sensing of wind under TC conditions
• Tropical cyclone intensity estimation
• Tropical cyclone integrated kinetic energy estimation
• Monitoring of cyclone structures
• Convection and precipitation observations
• Observations of air–sea interaction and intensity changes
• Damage assessment using satellite observations
• Satellite data assimilation and applications in TC forecasts

Authors are requested to check and follow the specific Instructions to Authors, see:

http://www.mdpi.com/journal/remotesensing/instructions

We look forward to receiving your submissions in this interesting area of specialization.

Dr. Xiaofeng Yang
Dr. Bryan Stiles
Dr. Marcos Portabella
Dr. Gang Zheng
Guest Editors

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