DROPSONDE OBSERVATIONS FOR TYPHOON SURVEILLANCE NEAR THE TAIWAN REGION (DOTSTAR): AN OVERVIEW

DOTSTAR (Dropwindsonde Observations for Typhoon Surveillance near the Taiwan Region) is an international research program conducted by meteorologists in Taiwan partnered with scientists at the Hurricane Research Division (HRD) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The experiment is based on successful surveillance missions conducted in the Atlantic with NOAA's Gulfstream-IV jet aircraft. During the experiment, GPS dropwindsondes are released from a jet aircraft flying above 42000 ft in and around tropical cyclones approaching Taiwan to collect critical meteorological data for improving the analysis and the prediction of typhoons. After one-year of training, development and installation of all the needed software and hardware in the aircraft, the DOTSTAR research team initiated typhoon surveillance in 2003. Two missions (in Typhoons Dujuan and Melor) were conducted successfully,and seven or eight missions are expected to be conducted annually during the 2004 and 2005 typhoon seasons. The current manuscript provides an overview of the scientific objectives of DOTSTAR including operational plans, organization, data management, and data archiving. Preliminary results of the two missions in the first season in 2003 are presented. The experiment marks the beginning of typhoon surveillance in the western North Pacific and is expected to yield impressive improvements in typhoon research, observations and forecasting. 1