Effective Fetch and Duration of Tropical Cyclone Wind Fields Estimated from Simultaneous Wind and Wave Measurements: Surface Wave and Air–Sea Exchange Computation

Simultaneous wind and wave measurements have been obtained inside tropical cyclones in several hurricane hunter missions. Analyses of these datasets show that the surface wave development inside hurricanes follows essentially the same duration- and fetch-limited growth functions established in steady wind forcing conditions. This paper explores the application of several parameterization functions of wind-wave systems to quantify the energy and momentum exchanges inside hurricanes from an initially limited input of the environmental parameters, such as the wind field alone. A critical prerequisite to applying the wind-wave growth functions is the knowledge of fetch and duration for the hurricane wind field. Four sets of simultaneous wind and wave measurements from hurricane hunter missions are analyzed to derive a fetch and duration scaling model. Time series of 2D hurricane wind fields can then be used to investigate the detailed spatial distribution and temporal evolution of the sea state parameters and the associated air–sea energy and momentum exchanges following the hurricane development.