Updates

Recon follows the flight you pick. On the Recon tab’s Live Flight map, VDMs, dropsondes and tail Doppler radar analyses now follow the selected sortie, not just its aircraft. Live VDMs arrive from the NWS bulletin feed within minutes, with center-fix markers on the map; draped radar analyses show the vortex tilt; and SEAR peak estimates are flagged when the radar data sample the peak only thinly.

Ventilation index in context. The storm card now ranks each storm’s ventilation index against 1991–2025 tropical and subtropical cyclones in the same basin, and shows what storms with similar ventilation did over the next 24 hours: the median intensity change, its 10–90% range, and how often they rapidly intensified. Links shared on social media also get a refreshed preview card.

DeepMind landfall and wind risk. DeepMind landfall statistics now place each landfall on the coast and no longer blend overland decay into the landfall intensity, and wind-risk footprints keep over-water wind radii up to the coastline. Run-to-run genesis trends match clusters in time as well as space, and storms that cross the dateline stay on JTWC’s track.

GHOST: why this number. The GHOST intensity estimates on the Real-Time Monitor’s Experimental tab gained a “Why this number” breakdown of each published estimate, and a verification table that scores the current system head-to-head against D-PRINT, ADT and SATCON on matched frames.

A cleaner Layers panel. The Global Map’s Layers panel uses one-tap segmented controls for Model, Wind risk, Ensemble and Method, with a single FNV3 / WN3 switch for every DeepMind layer. Raw ensemble members gained a density view, and on phones the map tools move into a “…” menu.

Colder cloud tops and full-resolution sondes. The Claude IR colormap gained an ice-blue tail so cloud tops colder than −83 °C no longer saturate. Dropsondes now arrive at full 1-second resolution from the NWS BUFR feed, shown on a redesigned dropsonde card, and the Recon tab’s radar view gained 3D view presets and a max-wind readout.

Tail Doppler radar on the map. Real-time radar analyses on the Recon tab are draped on the satellite map, as in TC-RADAR’s case view, and both pages now share one set of radar views, including multi-variable cross-sections and the VP-favorability scatter.

Recon archive. A new Archive view on the Recon tab replays every 2026 reconnaissance flight in time, with SEAR 10-m wind estimates re-scored by the current model; “Peak SEAR” jumps to each storm’s strongest estimate. SEAR estimates (experimental) also appear in the Global Archive’s recon view and as a 10-m wind layer in TC-RADAR.

IR Vigor, Combo and new microwave sensors. The storm card gained IR Vigor (cloud tops relative to the coldest the storm has recently sustained) and the Combo view, which lays IR-colored cold tops over visible cloud texture. Microwave passes now include AMSR3 (GOSAT-GW) and WSF-M MWI; AMSR2 was retired after JAXA ended its near-real-time delivery.

Global IR Archive. The new Global IR Archive replays whole seasons of geostationary infrared imagery from MergIR (1998–present) and GridSat-B1, with sharper 4 km storm sectors as you zoom in. It opens on Irma, Jose and Katia in September 2017. Both datasets are credited in full in the data acknowledgements.

TC-RADAR on the map. TC-RADAR’s case view drapes the radar field on IR imagery over a Blue Marble basemap, renders a 3D volume on the map with a cutaway plane, and draws flight-level data and dropsondes alongside; click a sonde to open its skew-T.

SEAR surface-wind estimates. Experimental SEAR estimates of the 10-m wind from flight-level reconnaissance appear on the Recon tab’s Live Flight view and on the storm card, with a range based on the radius of maximum wind while the storm center is still preliminary.

DeepMind ensemble tools and WeatherNext 3. A tabbed DeepMind Ensemble panel adds wind-speed probabilities, arrival times, track ellipses, landfall statistics, survival and RI odds, with NHC’s official forecast as the reference line and a persistent “not an official forecast” label. WeatherNext 3 joins FNV3 as a model option, and DeepMind wind risk can be drawn on the Global Map.

Measure tool. Drag on the Real-Time Monitor’s Global Map to measure distances, and surface observations now refresh with the map’s 10-minute update.

Genesis clusters & wave families. The DeepMind ensemble markers are now labeled genesis clusters — automated clusters of member genesis events, not observed disturbances — and clusters that are scenarios of the same physical wave are linked into families on the Real-Time Monitor map (translucent violet ribbon + marker rings) with a combined, deduplicated probability that counts each ensemble member once. The clustering and linking method is documented in a new Methods description on the monitor itself.

Real-Time Monitor forecast focus: a new “Off” option on the IR/Vis/WV switch hides the satellite layer so the DeepMind ensemble and environmental overlays read unobscured. DeepMind FNV3 cyclogenesis probabilities are now labeled explicitly as the model odds of a disturbance reaching tropical-storm strength (≥34 kt), and the 1000-member raw-ensemble spaghetti renders instantly.

Objective eye-fix & storm favorability. The monitor snaps the storm pin to an objective IR eye center with an eye / cold-top brightness-temperature readout and a follow-storm mode. Each storm card gained a favorability dashboard — a realtime ventilation index (Tang & Emanuel) alongside ocean SST, SST anomaly, and ocean heat content (TCHP) — and the storm-detail imagery now carries frame-aligned GFS environmental overlays with init-cycle captions and hover readouts.

Ground radar on the map. Storm-page and global-map NEXRAD reflectivity now stream as GL tiles (IEM N0Q) at no added compute, and TC-RADAR gained a two-panel view with the airborne Doppler field draped directly on the IR map.

DeepMind FNV3 ensemble tools. The 1000-member cyclogenesis ensemble gained a Structure modal (RMW, size, wind-rose, and wind-area vs. IBTrACS climatology), an Intensity-Change / RI trends panel with median LMI and intensity IQR, an ACE distribution, and Vmax ↔ MSLP toggles on every intensity chart. Members are clustered into labeled disturbances on the global map.

TC-ATLAS global satellite mosaic. The monitor now renders its own worldwide geostationary mosaic in IR, Visible, and Water Vapor, served from our CDN as GPU-recolored single-channel tiles — full-brightness, multiple colormaps, seamless across the dateline, with animated-GIF export.

New map engine & 3D convection. The Real-Time Monitor and Global Archive moved to a MapLibre GL rendering engine (smoother zoom, GPU overlays). A one-click 3D pill extrudes cold IR cloud tops into relief with Tilt/Height sliders, drag-to-orbit, and branded 3D-orbit GIF export, and the Environmental Analysis menu added SST anomaly and relative-SST layers.

TC-ATLAS moved to its own domain, tcatlas.org, and gained dynamic social-preview cards that render the current active-storm state when the site is shared.

Near-real-time microwave & aircraft recon. Added NRT microwave overpasses (AMSR2, GMI, SSMIS — 89 GHz PCT + 37 GHz color) with satellite pass prediction, an aircraft recon overlay (HDOB wind barbs, dropsondes, VDM), and a Recon tab with real-time tail Doppler radar analyses and a live wind-center solver.

New Seasonal tab on the Real-Time Monitor — panels spanning a live SST-anomaly map, regional environment evolution (shear, MPI, RH, TCWV…), pre-season SST × annual ACE, OISST correlation and analog-season maps, and a climate-index dashboard (ENSO, AMO, MJO, BSISO…).

New Subseasonal tab — MJO and BSISO phase clocks plus 60-day Wheeler–Kiladis-filtered OLR Hovmöllers (MJO, Kelvin, ER, MRG, TD-type) with active TCs projected on as longitude traces and a GEFS 10-day forecast extension.