New ocean winds satellite mission to probe hurricanes and tropical convection

The Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) is a constellation of eight small satellites designed to measure ocean surface wind speed with high temporal resolution, 25-km spatial resolution, and extensive spatial coverage, under all precipitating conditions and over the full dynamic range of wind speeds experienced in a tropical cyclone (TC). The CYGNSS mission uses a bistatic radar method for measuring winds, as opposed to the monostatic method used by traditional scatterometers. The use of satellite navigation signals as the transmitter. The baseline wind speed retrieval algorithm planned for CYGNSS uses an empirically derived geophysical model function to estimate the 10-m referenced wind speed from the measured DDM within a 25 ? 25 km² region centered on the specular reflection point. There also exists the possibility of directing some under flights of CYGNSS in hurricanes with the NOAA P-3 aircraft for some additional direct comparison datasets at high wind speeds and in limiting environmental conditions. It is hoped and expected that this unique dataset will contribute to significant improvements in our understanding of TC inner-core processes and in our ability to model and forecast their development.