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Welcome to the JPL Tropical Cyclone Information System
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The JPL Tropical Cyclone Information System (TCIS) was developed to support hurricane research. It has two components: a 12-year global archive of multi-satellite hurricane observations and, what was a near real-time portal, that supported the 2010 NASA Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) hurricane field campaign. Together, data and visualizations from the near-real time system and data archive can be used to study hurricane process, validate and improve models, and assist in developing new algorithms and data assimilation techniques.

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Supertyphoon Pongsona struck the U.S. Island of Guam on Sunday, December 8, 2002. The composite image (left) of the supertyphoon was made by overlaying data from the infrared, microwave, and visible/near-infrared sensors that make up the AIRS sounding system. This storm can also be seen with the standard AIRS Vis/NIR (right).

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Tropical Cyclone Data Archive


The long-term goal for the TCIS data archive is to create a comprehensive tropical cyclone database of satellite observations, in-situ measurements, and models. The first phase of the TCIS archival database, released in May 2012, contains the satellite depictions of hurricanes over the globe during the period 1999-2010. It offers both data and imagery, making it a unique source to support hurricane research.

GRIP Data Portal


The near real-time (NRT) web portal, developed to facilitate the GRIP field campaign, integrates model forecasts with satellite observations from a variety of instruments and platforms. The unique features of the portal allow users to interrogate a large number of atmospheric and ocean variables to better understand the large-scale and storm-scale processes associated with hurricane genesis, track and intensity changes. By including a diverse set of satellite observations and model forecasts, it provides a good spatial and temporal context for the high-resolution, but limited in space and time, airborne observations. Such knowledge is essential for the experiment design, providing critical input for the flight planning and serving as a very rich source of information in the analysis stage of the airborne experiment.

Acknowledgments: The development JPL Tropical Cyclone Information System was sponsored by NASA's Hurricane Science Research Program managed by Dr. Ramesh Kakar, Weather Focus Area Leader within the Earth Science Division, NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The inclusion of specific products was also supported by several other projects (CloudSAT, QuikSCAT, MLS, AIRS, HURSAT). The NRT GRIP portal was developed with contributions from the Marshall Space Flight Center, NRL, NPS and the science teams of the PREDICT (NSF) and IFEX (NOAA) field experiments which had similar to GRIP's goals and ran highly coordinated missions.
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