Part A: Hurricane Katrina

Objective

To describe ring-banded convective structure in a rotating tropical cyclone using standard morphological processing. The aim is to isolate eyewall banding, secondary ring shells, and radial spacing patterns.

Data and Method

Figures in this section are derived from geostationary satellite imagery of Hurricane Katrina. The processing steps include grayscale normalization, the morphological gradient to emphasize front boundaries, opening to separate cellular elements, and closing to merge fragmented bands into broader shells. Azimuthal averaging is used to quantify radial structure.

Findings

The morphological gradient emphasizes coherent band boundaries. Opening separates smaller cell components. Closing merges fragmented regions into continuous annular shells. The azimuthal mean profile shows distinct radial peaks corresponding to visible ring structures. The alignment analysis compares these observed radii against smoothly varying radial modes.

Figures

Summary

The cyclone exhibits ring-banded organization that can be systematically revealed using the standard morphological operator sequence. Radial spacing and azimuthal alignment are consistent across processed images and are visually distinct.