Data Archive of Past Tropical Cyclones

Ocean surface wind speeds and directions at 10-meter height are derived from scatterometer or polarimetric radiometer observations of returned microwave pulses (for scatterometers) or from microwave measured brightness temperatures (for polarimetric radiometers). QuikScat operated from 1999 to 2009, and a second scatterometer, SeaWinds, operated from April to October 2003. WindSat, the polarimetric radiometer, has operated since 2003 with some significant data gaps. Typically, radiometers are unable to get wind speeds in the presence of rain; however, we use a special all-weather algorithm to extract a wind-in-rain product. These wind speeds and directions are not perfect, but an improvement from what is typically observed by radiometers. Satellite overpasses of tropical cyclones typically occur once or twice daily for each satellite. Plots of eight degree latitude/longitude regions are produced for each satellite overpass and stored in this archive. The display environment contains additional plots of rain and SSTs to assist with interpreting the data. The plot at the top of the display contains wind speeds, SSTs, and surface pressures at the 6 hourly reported storm locations.

Click on storm names before to access the archive environment. The same type of plots are available in "near-real-time" for currently active storms on our Active Storms page.

Note that 1999 is a partial year, from July forward.

Last updated: February 21, 2013