Congratulations! to Dr. Michael Fischer, IDSC Earth Systems Science Core Faculty Member and Assistant Professor in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the Rosenstiel School. His NOAA Weather Program Office project Application of Machine Learning Techniques to Generate Three-Dimensional Tropical Cyclone Wind Analyses, Including Surface Wind Estimates has been awarded over $700,000 over a period of three years (Notice of Award #NA26OARX459C0001-T1-01).

This project will leverage the growing amount of observational data collected over recent decades to refine machine-learning (ML) models that are capable of estimating the three-dimensional wind field, including estimates of the surface wind throughout the tropical cyclone (TC) core region, using satellite-derived and operational environmental analyses as inputs.

Because tail Doppler radar (TDR) cannot resolve the surface wind field, and analyses are available only during NOAA reconnaissance missions, forecasters must supplement these gaps with potentially less reliable surface wind estimate techniques. Therefore, this project will train novel ML models to estimate three-dimensional TC winds, including the surface wind. Two novel ML models developed by the proposal team will be refined, and TC wind field estimates will be evaluated relative to existing observational datasets as well high-resolution numerical model analyses.

Past Story: Michael S. Fischer Tackles Predicting Rapid Intensification in Hurricanes