REAL-TIME GUIDANCE PROVIDED BY NOAAS HURRICANE RESEARCH DIVISION TO FORECASTERS DURING EMILY OF 1993

The Hurricane Research Division (HRD) is NOAA's primary component for research on tropical cyclones. In accomplishing research goals, many s taff members have developed analysis procedures and forecast models th at not only help improve the understanding of hurricane structure, mot ion, and intensity change, but also provide operational support for fo recasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC). During the 1993 hurr icane season, HRD demonstrated three important real-time capabilities for the first time. These achievements included the successful transmi ssion of a series of color radar reflectivity images from the NOAA res earch aircraft to NHC, the operational availability of objective mesos cale streamline and isotach analyses of a hurricane surface wind field , and the transition of the experimental dropwindsonde program on the periphery of hurricanes to a technology capable of supporting operatio nal requirements. Examples of these and other real-time capabilities a re presented for Hurricane Emily.