Improvements to the SHIPS Rapid Intensity Index by incorporation of inner-core information April 2011 Improved versions of the operational SHIPS Rapid Intensification Index (SHIPS-RII) that included added predictors derived from total perceptible water (TPW), principle components of GOES-IR imagery, and GFS boundary-layer thermodynamic data were developed for both the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins as part of a NOAA Joint Hurricane Testbed (JHT) funded project. These revised versions of the SHIPS-RII were adopted for operational implementation by the NHC in April 2011 after they were shown to be more skillful than the existing operational versions when verified for an independent sample of cases from the 2008-2011 Hurricane Seasons.