This manuscript is a summary of the recent advancements in aircraft and in situ (those taken at the location of the instrument) observations of tropical cyclones around the world over the past four years. It was prepared for the tenth International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones (IWTC-10). Data collection is discussed along with improvements to observing techniques, new instruments to observe both the atmosphere and the ocean, and the use and impact of the observations in numerical weather prediction models.
Observations of tropical cyclones (TC) from aircraft and in situ instruments provide critical information for analyzing and forecasting TC intensity, structure, track, and their associated hazards. This report, prepared for the tenth World Meteorological Organization International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones (IWTC-10) in 2022, discusses the data collected around the world in TCs during the past four years since the IWTC-9 held in 2018, improvements to observing techniques, new instruments designed to achieve long-term and targeted atmospheric and oceanic observations, and select research results related to these observations.
In the Atlantic and Eastern and Central Pacific, changes to aircraft reconnaissance are discussed along with several of the research campaigns that have taken place recently. Changes in the use and impact of these aircraft observations in computer forecast models are also provided along with updates on some experimental instruments. Highlights from three field campaigns in the Western Pacific are also discussed. Examples of in-situ data collected within recent TCs such as Hurricane Ian (2022), also demonstrate that new, emerging technologies and observation strategies reviewed in this report have the potential to further improve ocean-atmosphere coupled intensity forecasts.
■ Important Conclusions:
- Data collection in the North Atlantic and East Pacific continues to evolve as research provides new information on the most beneficial strategies to sample TCs. These updates have led to improvements to forecasts from National and Central Pacific Hurricane Centers as well as from computer forecast models.
- Aircraft and in-situ sampling of TCs in the Western Pacific also continues to advance with the testing of several uncrewed aerial vehicles and aircraft systems.
- New experimental instrumentation (small Uncrewed Aerial Systems, ocean instruments deployed from aircraft, gliders) and emerging technologies (saildrones, instruments attached to balloons, data collection by animal-mounted instruments known as biologging) have shown promising results in coupled weather models that have the ocean and atmosphere interacting and will advance our understanding and sampling of TCs.
For more information, contact aoml.communications@noaa.gov. The paper can be accessed athttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.tcrr.2023.06.001.