A 15-year Survey of Tropical Cyclones Using a Passive Microwave, GPM/DPR and Lightning Multiplatform Dataset

This study investigates tropical cyclones in all basins using a 15-year (2005 - 2019) multiplatform of passive microwave (37 to 183.3 GHz) data from various satellites, cloud-to-ground lightning from the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN), and Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) data from Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellite. The main goal is to evaluate how convection intensity, lightning rates, precipitation, and azimuthal symmetry (relative to vertical wind shear) characterize storm intensity and intensity change. Specifically, the spatial and temporal distributions of satellite microwave data and lightning are examined before, during, and after periods of intensification, weakening, and no intensity change. Microwave and lightning data are combined to identify tropical cyclone intensity change, although some of these individual properties, such as lightning rate in the inner core, are strongly related to the basin. Results show that tropical cyclones undergoing intensification have stronger convection, taller cloud pixels, and greater azimuthal symmetry than storms that are weakening or have stable intensity.