3-D hurricane boundary layer wind retrieval algorithm for airborne Doppler radar measurements

This paper presents a 3-D boundary layer wind retrieval algorithm for airborne Doppler radar measurements of precipitation inside hurricanes. The data was collected inside Hurricane Lili during NOAA's 2002 Atlantic Hurricane Ocean Winds Field Experiment with University of Massachusetts's newly developed Imaging Wind and Rain Airborne Profiler. Two forms of Kalman filters for 3-D wind retrieval are analyzed for accuracy using simulations. Preliminary results of the actual 3-D wind estimates using the chosen algorithm were obtained and compared with simultaneous and independent wind vector measurements by GPS dropwindsondes, surface wind speed measurements by a microwave radiometer and flight level wind vector measurements.