Tropical Cyclone Eye Positioning Using Monostatic High-Frequency Surface Wave Radar

Accurately identifying the tropical cyclone’s (TC) eye position and tracking its movement path is crucial for TC monitoring and warning. High-frequency surface wave radar (HFSWR) offers wide-range, all-weather, real-time marine observation. The wind field inversion results from HFSWR can be used to identify the eye position. However, due to the complex and rapidly evolving wind fields of storms, monostatic HFSWR encounters issues with wind direction ambiguity, making it difficult to accurately identify the eye position. This letter explored the wind direction inversion of HFSWR under TC conditions, correcting the wind direction inversion results by incorporating the central angle with the eye position as the center of the circle. Based on this, a method integrating wind direction inversion and eye position estimation was proposed. This method identified the fit eye position by searching for the wind direction results that best match the TC model. The measured HFSWR data during Typhoon Muifa in 2022 was obtained, and the eye position was estimated using the method in this letter. The results were compared with the typhoon track results given by the China Meteorological Administration National Satellite Meteorological Center (NSMC). The comparison indicates that the average discrepancy in observed eye positions is 13.58 km. This method demonstrates a reliable eye position estimation capability, which can support TC track monitoring and forecasting applications.