Regional and Mesoscale Meteorology Branch

Updates to the Hurricane Intensity and Structure Algorithm (HISA) delivered to NESDIS/STAR ASSISTT

An updated version of the HISA algorithm was delivered to STAR/ASSISTT on December 15, 2023. HISA estimates tropical cyclone intensity and wind structure for all global tropical cyclones from microwave sounder data (ATMS and AMSU) from NOAA and EUMETSAT Low-Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites. HISA upgrades include a new data pre-processing system, enhanced metadata, added capabilities to process MetOp-C and NOAA-21 data, and a new bias correction method for tropical cyclone intensity, minimum sea level pressure (MSLP), and wind radii for 34-, 50-, and 64-kt threshold winds. The next step is for STAR/ASSISTT to work with NCCF to make the new version of HISA operational in 2024.

(POCs: Galina Chirokova, Galina.Chirokova@rams.colostate.edu; Mark DeMaria, Mark.DeMaria@colostate.edu; Robert DeMaria, Robert.DeMaria@rams.colostate.edu;  CIRA;  and John Knaff, John.Knaff@noaa.gov,  NOAA/STAR) Funding: JPSS and DACS.

Figure. Example of HISA output for NOAA-21. Left: ATMS MiRS temperature at 250 hPa, re-gridded to the HISA evenly spaced lat/lon grid. Right: example of HISA output of balanced winds and geopotential height at 850 hPa. Both images are from 2023 eastern Pacific Hurricane Jova at 2122 UTC on 07 September 2023.