UNDERSTANDING HURRICANE INNER-CORE ASYMMETRIES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO CONVECTIVE BURSTS AND STORM INTENSIFICATION USING A SUITE OF NASA DATA

THIS PROPOSAL WILL FOCUS ON UTILIZING NASA AIRBORNE OBSERVATIONS IN AN EFFORT TO ADVANCE THE KNOWLEDGE AND PREDICTION OF TROPICAL CYCLONES. OBSERVATIONS COLLECTED BY A VARIETY OF INSTRUMENTS FROM SEVERAL PAST NASA FIELD CAMPAIGNS WILL BE UTILIZED WITH PARTICULAR FOCUS ON THE NASA AIRBORNE RADARS HIWRAP AND EXRAD. BOTH HIWRAP AND EXRAD EMPLOYED A UNIQUE SCANNING GEOMETRY WHICH REQUIRES SPECIALLY DEVELOPED DATA PROCESSING ALGORITHMS. THE PROPOSED WORK WILL EMPLOY THESE ALGORITHMS FOR QUALITY CONTROL AND WIND RETRIEVALS. DATA FROM SELECT CASE STUDIES WILL THEN BE ANALYZED TO CHARACTERIZE THE KINEMATIC AND PRECIPITATION STRUCTURES OF TROPICAL CYCLONE INNER CORE FEATURES. WE WILL FOCUS ON CHARACTERIZING THE CONVECTIVE AND STRATIFORM PRECIPITATION PROCESSES WITH THE INNER CORE. WE WILL THEN ASSESS THE DYNAMICAL ROLE OF THESE FEATURES IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE TROPICAL CYCLONE S INTENSITY AND SIZE. RESULTS FROM THIS RESEARCH WILL BE PROVIDED TO NASA PRESENTED AT SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES AND PUBLISHED IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL ARTICLES.