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The accuracy of tropical cyclone (tropical storm) track forecasting improved by nearly 50% for lead times of 24–72 h since 1990s. Over the same period forecasting of tropical cyclone intensity showed only limited improvement. Given the limited prediction skill of models of tropical cyclone intensity based on environmental properties, there have been a wealth of studies of the role of internal dynamical processes of tropical cyclones, which are largely linked to precipitation properties and convective processes. The release of latent heat by convection in the inner core of a tropical cyclone is considered crucial to tropical cyclone intensification. 16-year satellite-based precipitation, and clouds top infrared brightness temperature were used to explore the relationship between precipitation, convective cloud, and tropical cyclone intensity change. The 6-hourly TC centers were linearly interpolated to give the hourly and half hourly tropical cyclone center positions, to match the temporal resolution of the precipitation and clouds top infrared brightness temperature.

More precipitation is found as storms intensify, while tropical cyclone 24 h future intensity change is closely connected with very deep convective clouds with IR BT < 208 K. Intensifying tropical cyclones follow the occurrence of colder clouds with IR BT < 208 K with greater areal extents. As an indicator of very deep convective clouds, IR BT < 208 K is suggested to be a good predictor of tropical cyclone intensity change（Ruan&Wu，2018，GRL）. The properties of the satellite-based precipitation, and clouds top infrared brightness temperature are therefore suggested to be important measurements to study tropical cyclone intensity, intensity change and their underlying mechanisms. The high resolution of the satellite-based precipitation (3h), and cloud top infrared brightness temperature (half hour) datasets also makes them possible to be used to study tropical cyclone variability associated with diurnal cycle.

File naming and required software

The data is in NC format, and each tropical cyclone is a file. The tropical cyclones in each year are listed in order of occurrence, such as 2001_ 2. NC is the data related to the second tropical cyclone in the ocean basin in 2001. Each document includes the basic information of tropical cyclone, such as longitude and latitude, time, maximum sustained wind speed and name of tropical cyclone, spatial distribution of infrared cloud top brightness temperature and rainfall within 500km of tropical cyclone center, as well as longitude and latitude distribution of corresponding space.
In order to match the satellite data, the location of the track center is interpolated to every hour. The rainfall data corresponding to tropical cyclones is calculated based on TRMM satellite observation and cloud top brightness temperature data corresponding to tropical cyclones are calculated based on multi-source orbit determination infrared satellite.
It is divided into two folders according to the North Indian Ocean and the South Indian Ocean. Each variable is described in the following table.
Time resolution Description
lat Latitude of tropical cyclone center per hour Best path raw data time resolution is 6h, which is 0, 6, 12 and 18 h (UTC) respectively, and is linearly interpolated to every hour
lon Longitude of tropical cyclone center per hour The same as above
vmax maximum sustained wind speed per hour The same as above
time Tropical cyclone time per hour Best path time resolution is 6h, which is 0,6,12,18h (UTC) Julian day
data00 Infrared brightness temperature per hour The spatial distribution within 500km of the tropical cyclone center at the hour (UTC)
data30 Infrared brightness temperature per hour The spatial distribution within 500km of the tropical cyclone center at the half hour (UTC)
lonm_bt The longitude distribution of infrared brightness temperature per hour The corresponding longitude distribution of data00 and data30
latm_bt The Latitudinal distribution of infrared brightness temperature per hour The corresponding latitude distribution of data00 and data30
precip Precipitation every 3 hours Spatial distribution of precipitation within 500km of tropical cyclone center
lonm_pre Longitude distribution of precipitation every 3 hours Longitude distribution of precip
latm_pre Latitude distribution of precipitation every 3 hours Latitude distribution of precip
name tropical cyclone name

Data Citations Data citation guideline What's data citation?

Wu, Q. (2020). Indian Ocean Tropical cyclone best track and satellite-based precipitation and convection datasets（1978-2019；2000-2019）. A Big Earth Data Platform for Three Poles, DOI: 10.11888/Meteoro.tpdc.271030. CSTR: 18406.11.Meteoro.tpdc.271030. (Download the reference： RIS | Bibtex )

1. Ruan, Z.X. and Wu*, Q.Y. (2018). Precipitation, convective clouds and their connections with tropical cyclone intensity and intensity change. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(2), 1098-1105, DOI: 10.1002/2017GL076611.( View Details | Download | Bibtex)

Using this data, the data citation is required to be referenced and the related literatures are suggested to be cited.

Support Program

Pan-Third Pole Environment Study for a Green Silk Road-A CAS Strategic Priority A Program (No:XDA20000000)

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License： This work is licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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