Relationship between Tropical Cyclone Intensity and Physical Parameters Derived from TRMM TMI Data Sets

TRMM TMI data were used to investigate a relationship between physical parameters from microwave sensor and typhoon intensities from June to September, 2004. Several data such as 85GHz brightness temperature (TB), polarization corrected temperature (PCT), precipitable water, ice content, rain rate, and latent heat release retrieved from the TMI observation were correlated to the maximum wind speeds in the best-track database by RSMC-Tokyo. Correlation coefficient between TB and typhoon intensity was-0.2--0.4 with a maximum value in the 2.5 degree radius circle from the center of tropical cyclone. The value of correlation between in precipitable water, rain, latent heat, and typhoon intensity is in the range of 0.2-0.4. Correlation analysis with respect to storm intensity showed that maximum correlation is observed at 1.0-1.5 degree radius circle from the center of tropical cyclone in the initial stage of tropical cyclone, while maximum correlation is shown in 0.5 degree radius in typhoon stage. Correlation coefficient was used to produce regressed intensities and adopted for typhoon Rusa (2002) and Maemi (2003). Multiple regression with 85GHz TB and precipitable water was found to provide an improved typhoon intensity when taking into account the storm size. The results indicate that it may be possible to use TB and precipitable water from satellite observation as a predictor to estimate the intensity of a tropical cyclone.