Realtime Hurricane Wind Analysis: H*Wind

Mark Powell
Hurricane Research Division, AOML

H*Wind is a JAVA interface to hurricane wind observations contained in a modern object-relational database. Forecasters can graphically interact with the observations to quality control and conduct objective analysis of the surface wind field to determine the extent of damaging winds. Analyses are immediately available to the forecasters and are available to the public as experimental products after a lag time of 24 hours. The analyses have been used to support numerous applications which will be showcased in our presentation including: Hurricane forecasting, damage assessment, training forecasters from developing countries, training NWS Scientific Operations Officers, providing initial fields for wave and storm surge forecasts and hindcasts, and providing natural hazard information for emergency response and recovery.