A study coupling hurricane wind speed and radar observations

Since 1998, several institutions, including Texas Tech University (TTU), have sent teams into the field to collect high-resolution meteorological data from landfalling hurricanes using mobile instrumented towers. These efforts have yielded a significant database of information from which inferences about the near surface wind flow characteristics within weak to moderate hurricanes can be made. Information has been gleaned from the dataset by studying individual storms and by assimilating data from multiple storms. This research effort differs from the previous studies as it focuses on coupling the wind speed measurements acquired using the mobile towers with available weather service radar data. Near surface wind flow characteristics during periods of high winds are thought to be governed largely by local terrain conditions and roughness through mechanical potential links between storm structure and low friction in neutral stability conditions, but this study aims to examine -level wind flow characteristics.