Tropical Cyclone

very useful instrument is meteorological radar, and one hasjust been mounted on a satellite as part of the TropicalRainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM). This transmitspulses of microwave radiation that is then backscattered byprecipitation in the atmosphere, yielding estimates of thedistribution of precipitation in three dimensions. Since thefall speed of precipitation is a function of the size of thedrops, and the reflectivity is sensitive to the size, an estimateof the precipitation rate can also be made. The very firstimage transmitted back to earth from the TRMM satellitecaptured a South Pacific tropical cyclone, as shown in Figure1.10. The cross-section shows the radar reflectivity, ameasure of the precipitation content.http://wind.mit.edu/~emanuel/geosys/node1.html29