3D Reconstruction of Typhoon and Thunderstorm Cloud Top Using Airborne Camera

The Asia-Pacific region's extreme weather comprises mostly of typhoons and tropical cyclones which cause deaths and damaged properties to several countries. Consequently, it is important to analyze these meteorological phenomena to allow researchers to understand their behavior, and properly mitigate the hazards that go with them. Some studies show that the typhoon's intensity is related to its cloud top altitude [1][2]. In this research, we visualize Typhoon Trami's structure by reconstructing the three-dimensional model inside its eye and integrating the information of its cloud top altitude. An experiment was conducted under the SATREPS/ULAT project (SATREPS: Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development, ULAT: Understanding Lightning and Thunderstorm) where images of Typhoon Trami were taken from an aircraft last September 26, 2018. Aircraft images were used to reconstruct the 3D model inside the typhoon eye because they provide closer views of the typhoon than that of geostationary satellite images making it easier to reconstruct a 3D model. The 3D reconstruction generated covers 43 km region of the typhoon eye at 20.2 m/pixel spatial resolution. Dropsonde data was also acquired in the experiment where the cloud top height around the typhoon eye can be estimated. The resulting altitude was validated with the cloud-top altitude estimated by mapping the brightness temperature of the Himawari Thermal Infrared Band 13 with cloud-top height as measured by NOAA sonde data. This study shows that a three-dimensional model could be a good mode of typhoon visualization as it shows a more detailed typhoon structure and information about the cloud top altitude.