Tim Vasquez
EF5
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2003
- Messages
- 3,411
This morning when I was waking up I was thinking about the wind distribution in Ike, so I sat down and made these composite maps of the 0.5 deg radar reflectivity with the NOAA/AOML "max 1 min sustained wind product" this link at the time of landfall (0730 UTC).
I'm not sure if there's much to be gained from the base velocity image since it's hard to tell what the orientation of the wind field is with respect to the radar.
As far as reflectivity, I expected the highest winds to be on the inner edge of the eyewall (for example, near that yellow fragment about to come ashore near Crystal Beach) since the fastest movement of reflectivity elements seemed to be there. However AOML's analysis suggests the highest winds are embedded in the middle of the eyewall.
Also AOML's analysis of max wind does not follow the eyewall shape at all offshore and on the western aside. Should we be taking AOML's analysis as the most accurate guess? Smoothing error? Anything we can learn about figuring the radius of max wind?
Tim
![ike-bref.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.weathergraphics.com%2Ftim%2Fike-bref.jpg&hash=74e8727922df94bfe98a64d042024e79)
![ike-vel.jpg](/proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.weathergraphics.com%2Ftim%2Fike-vel.jpg&hash=76493578b8a652be532fbf71b1058a1d)
I'm not sure if there's much to be gained from the base velocity image since it's hard to tell what the orientation of the wind field is with respect to the radar.
As far as reflectivity, I expected the highest winds to be on the inner edge of the eyewall (for example, near that yellow fragment about to come ashore near Crystal Beach) since the fastest movement of reflectivity elements seemed to be there. However AOML's analysis suggests the highest winds are embedded in the middle of the eyewall.
Also AOML's analysis of max wind does not follow the eyewall shape at all offshore and on the western aside. Should we be taking AOML's analysis as the most accurate guess? Smoothing error? Anything we can learn about figuring the radius of max wind?
Tim