Estimating Winds and Waves from SAR under Typhoon Conditions

Abstract

The long-term goal of this program is to be able to utilize Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery to improve predictions of storm tracks and storm strength at landfall (we use storms as a stand-in for hurricanes, typhoons, etc.). This will be done with a system that uses SAR imagery of the storm at sea to estimate wind and wave conditions within the storm, then utilizes these estimates to reset the storm model parameters so that the predicted winds/waves at the time of the SAR imagery match the actual winds/waves. The goal is that the model's predictions derived with the reset parameters will be an improvement over those that do not have the SAR estimates. There are three objectives in this project: (1) Modify the existing General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems (GDAIS) wind vector tool to handle the higher wind states in storms and generate accurate maps of wind vectors within the storm, (2) Modify the existing GDAIS wave spectra tool to handle the higher wind/wave states of storms and generate accurate maps of wave height statistics within the storm, and (3) Work with storm modelers to determine the best approach to incorporating the SAR-derived wind and wave information into the model's predictions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA527079

Entities

People

  • Christopher Wackerman

Organizations

  • General Dynamics

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Bragg Scattering
  • C Band
  • Frequency
  • Hurricanes
  • Information Systems
  • Models
  • Observation
  • Scale Models
  • Scattering
  • Spectra
  • Statistics
  • Storms
  • Synthetic Aperture Radar
  • Transfer Functions
  • Waves
  • Wind
  • Wind Direction

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science/Meteorology
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers