Airborne Doppler Wind Lidar investigations of western Pacific typhoon genesis and evolution

The first ever extensive study of tropical cyclones using Doppler Wind Lidars (DWL) was conducted in 2008 within the THORPEX Pacific Asian Regional Campaign. More than 100 hours of DWL profiles were obtained with an average spacing of 3 km. These wind profiles along with dropsonde temperature, moisture and wind profiles are being used to study the genesis and evolution of tropical cyclones. Initial investigations are focused upon the impact the DWL profiles have on numerical weather prediction.