由於海面上的氣象觀測站數目稀少，而海洋又是颱風生成發展的主要地區，因此目前在氣象單位的例行業務中，大多是利用可見光和紅外線的衛星雲圖，來對颱風進行分析研究和預報。但是由於可見光和紅外線的頻道，受到雲的影響很大，所以在分析上，的確存在著很多的不確定性。因為微波的可透雲性與近年來被動式微波輻射計解析度的提高，使得SSM/I衛星資料被廣泛地應用於颱風中心定位、降雨量反演、水汽含量反演以及海面風速的反演上，而且也都能得到很好的精確性。
本研究之所以將SSM/I的掃描資料應用在海面上，主要是因為海面特有的均勻、低微波輻射發射率等特性，使它具備成為定位颱風中心，與估算颱風降雨分布和風速分布的良好條件。在颱風的中心定位方面，是採用SSM/I中的85 GHz垂直極化頻道來進行分析，以彌補當可見光和紅外線衛星雲圖進行定位時，颱風眼無法清晰判斷出所造成的誤差。可是由於85 GHz的垂直極化頻道會受到雨滴散射的影響，所以若有強對流降水出現時，就會使SSM/I的中心定位產生較大誤差，所以必須利用GMS雲圖來輔助；即先將會影響SSM/I定位產生誤差的雲雨帶剔除，如此才能得到較準確的颱風中心定位。
在降雨的分析方面，是使用Chiu(1990)的式子來反演颱風的降雨量，所得到在不同方位角的平均降雨量分布，不但可與GMS雲圖的雲雨帶分布互相配合，而且也可以利用研究內環區強降水的移動，來了解颱風強度的變化。除此之外，利用一些降雨強度的參數與颱風中心最低氣壓值的相互比較，可以更進一步地了解颱風在發展過程中強度變化的趨勢。
在海面風速的估算方面，則是引用Hollinger(1989)的反演式和蔡文元(1996)所做的修正式，來反演颱風的風速，將所得到距離颱風中心150 公里範圍內的最大風速與中央氣象局所發佈的中心附近最大風速相比較，分析兩者的變化趨勢是否相同，並比較所反演出來的颱風最大風速，與颱風降雨強度參數的分布變化，以了解這兩者與颱風強度之間的相關性。此外在本研究中也發現由風速反演式所估算出來颱風平均風速的方位角分布，與颱風強度的變化間有不錯的相關性。

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