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.

中文翻译：

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热带气旋全天辐射同化红外水汽亮度温度尺度分析

我们分析了热带气旋（TC）的卫星红外（IR）水汽（WV）亮温观测的尺度特征。这是为了表征TC数值天气预报的全天辐射同化中主导尺度的风暴信息。本文介绍了飓风帕特里夏 (2015) 的研究结果。我们的研究表明，IR WV 亮温能够观察到 TC 的多尺度结构，范围从覆盖整个风暴及其周边区域的 1,000 公里以上到解析嵌入 TC 中的单个对流云的尺度。台风发展的大气水分主要以覆盖风暴及周边地区的大尺度为代表，而风暴结构则基本具有全尺度特征。