Automatic Estimation of Tropical Cyclone Centers from Wide-Swath Synthetic-Aperture Radar Images of Miniaturized Satellites

Abstract

Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) has emerged as an important tool for monitoring tropical cyclones (TCs) due to its high spatial resolution and cloud-penetrating capability. Recent advancements in SAR technology have led to smaller and lighter satellites, yet few studies have evaluated their effectiveness in TC monitoring. This paper employs an algorithm for automatic TC center location, involving three stages: coarse estimation from a whole SAR image; precise estimation from a sub-SAR image; and final identification of the center using the lowest Normalized Radar Cross-Section (NRCS) value within a smaller sub-SAR image. Using three wide-swath miniaturized SAR images of TC Noru (2022), and TCs Doksuri and Koinu (2023), the algorithm’s accuracy was validated by comparing estimated TC center positions with visually located data. For TC Noru, the distances for the three stages were 21.42 km, 14.39 km, and 8.19 km; for TC Doksuri—14.36 km, 20.48 km, and 17.10 km; and for TC Koinu—47.82 km, 31.59 km, and 5.42 km. The results demonstrate the potential of miniaturized SAR in TC monitoring.