A Method for Automatic Estimation of Typhoon Center Using GMS IR Images

Abstract

It is indispensable to know the position and the intensity of the typhoon for the safety navigation of ships. This paper presents a new method for automatically estimating the position of the typhoon center using only GMS IR images. The method is based on the fact that the center position of the typhoon is to be a focus of the ridge lines of cloud bands which curves like as a spiral. First, we assume the center position and find the most reliable focus of these ridge lines using tangent lines whose distance from that point is all the same. Next, we regard the reliable focus as assumed center positioin and repeat above operation. We get the center position of typhoon because the assumed center moves toward the true center. Experimental results using GMS IR images show that the method estimates the typhoon center with the accuracy reported in SAREP.