VDM+: The Enhanced Vortex Message Dataset: Structure, Intensity, and Environmental Parameters from Tropical Cyclones (Version 1.100)

The Enhanced Vortex Data Message Dataset (VDM+) includes intensity, thermodynamic, and structure parameters derived from 6448 VDMs transmitted by aircraft from 298 TCs in the Atlantic, Eastern Pacific, and Central Pacific basins during the period 1989-2015. VDMs include several parameters that are difficult to characterize from other data sources, such as the location and velocity of the maximum flight level winds, the location and velocity of the maximum surface winds measured by the Stepped Frequency Microwave Radiometer (SFMR) instrument, the diameter and character of the eye (if present), the coverage of the eyewall (open, closed, partial), the minimum central pressure, and the maximum flight level temperatures in the eyewall and eye.

VDMs also contain information about many other structural aspects in the free-form remarks. The VDM+ Dataset aggregates nearly all of the data contained in the VDMs along with the full set of Best Track parameters contained in the Hurricane Dataset (HURDAT2). It supplements the Best Track parameters with the non-best-tracked radius of maximum wind (RMW) parameter from the Extended Best Track and Automated Tropical Cyclone Forecast System (ATCF) b-decks.