Hurricane wind speed and rain rate measurements using the airborne Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD)

Microwave remote sensing of surface wind speed and rain rate in hurricanes is critical to predict their growth and movement as they develop and make landfall. The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) is an experimental airborne microwave radiometer developed by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSF...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sahawneh, Saleem, Farrar, Spencer, Johnson, James, Jones, Linwood
Format: Conference Proceeding
Language:English
Subjects:
hurricane observation
Hurricanes
Legged locomotion
Microwave radiometry
Rain
remote sensing
Sea measurements
SFMR
Storms
synthetic aperture imaging
Wind speed
Online Access:Request full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Microwave remote sensing of surface wind speed and rain rate in hurricanes is critical to predict their growth and movement as they develop and make landfall. The Hurricane Imaging Radiometer (HIRAD) is an experimental airborne microwave radiometer developed by NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) to provide ocean surface wind speed and rain rate measurements in hurricanes. It is intended to expand the current NOAA and US Air Force hurricane surveillance capability, particularly by extending the operational Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) measurement to a large swath. HIRAD also has potential for space applications. This paper will describe the HIRAD instrument and its flight history, to date, and present wind speed and rain rate retrievals from observed brightness temperatures (Tb's) in a flight over Hurricane Earl in 2010 as part of NASA's GRIP mission. A comparison between HIRAD and SFMR retrievals will be shown.
ISSN:1091-0050
1558-058X
DOI:10.1109/SECON.2013.6567433