Estimating Central Pressures of Oceanic Midlatitude Cyclones

Abstract

A method of determining surface pressures in oceanic storm systems using ERS-1 scatterometer data is employed to determine the lowest pressures in 25 storms. This method uses the surface winds as a lower boundary condition on a planetary boundary layer model to determine gradient winds and, thereby, pressure gradients. An optimization scheme referenced to a pressure outside the storm provides a pressure field and an estimate of the low pressure. The values are compared to ECMWF analyses in each case; there is good agreement, with some expected differences.