Recent innovations in satellite-based applications and their impacts on tropical cyclone analyses and forecasts
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Tropical cyclones (TCs) are a global extreme weather hazard well known for their occasional devastating impacts on life and property, as well as ecological systems. As human populations and infrastructure built along coastlines grow, they are increasingly prone to threats from landfalling TCs. These storms spend most of their lifecycle over oceanic basins, thus satellite-based reconnaissance is crucial for monitoring and analyzing key TC behavioral attributes critical to the forecast process. This article presents an overview of some of the recent advances in meteorological satellite capabilities to observe TCs, along with emerging techniques to analyze the data into TC-focused diagnostic products. We also devote a section on satellite applications to TC-like storms in the Mediterranean Sea, coined ‘Medicanes’. Finally, we present a peek at emerging geosynchronous equatorial orbit and low Earth orbiting satellites and sensors that have recently been deployed or will be in the near future by multiple nations and commercial entities that should further benefit TC (and Medicane) analysis and forecasting.
Institutions: University of Wisconsin–Madison, Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, Ifremer, Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate, National Research Council, Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, Bureau of Meteorology, Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, Colorado State University, World Meteorological Organization
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,030
Funders: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Institut Français de Recherche pour l'Exploitation de la Mer, Magee-Womens Research Institute, European Space Agency, Indian Space Research Organisation, European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Office of Naval Research
Awards: G2811385684, G3236491043, G8876996369
OpenAlex ID: W4408617982