Scale Analysis of Infrared Water Vapor Brightness Temperatures for Tropical Cyclone All-Sky Radiance Assimilation

We analyzed the scale features of satellite infrared (IR) water vapor (WV) brightness temperature observations of tropical cyclones (TCs). This is to characterize the storm information at dominate scales in all-sky radiance assimilation for TC numerical weather prediction. This paper presents the results from the study of Hurricane Patricia (2015). Our study shows that IR WV brightness temperatures have the ability to observe multiscale structures of TCs, ranging from a size of above 1,000 km that covers the entire storm and its surrounding areas to a scale resolving individual convective clouds embedded in the TC. The atmospheric moisture for TC development is mainly represented by large scales covering the storm and surrounding areas while the storm structures are characterized basically by all scales. The large-scale moisture and small-scale convection demonstrate strong correlation and are closely related to the TC development, suggesting the need for all-sky radiance assimilation at multiple scales.