Recent innovations in satellite-based applications and their impacts on tropical cyclone analyses and forecasts

Tropical cyclones (TCs) are a global extreme weather hazard well known for their occasional devastating impacts on life and property, as well as ecological systems. As human populations and infrastructure built along coastlines grow, they are increasingly prone to threats from landfalling TCs. These storms spend most of their lifecycle over oceanic basins, thus satellite-based reconnaissance is crucial for monitoring and analyzing key TC behavioral attributes critical to the forecast process. This article presents an overview of some of the recent advances in meteorological satellite capabilities to observe TCs, along with emerging techniques to analyze the data into TC-focused diagnostic products. We also devote a section on satellite applications to TC-like storms in the Mediterranean Sea, coined ‘Medicanes’. Finally, we present a peek at emerging geosynchronous equatorial orbit and low Earth orbiting satellites and sensors that have recently been deployed or will be in the near future by multiple nations and commercial entities that should further benefit TC (and Medicane) analysis and forecasting.