Azimuthally averaged structure of Hurricane Edouard (2014) just after peak intensity

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Authors
Smith, Roger K.
Montgomery, Michael T.
Braun, Scott A.
Subjects
hurricane
observed structure and behaviour
tropical cyclone
Advisors
Date of Issue
2019-01-15
Date
Publisher
Royal Meteorological Society
Language
Abstract
Analyses of dropsonde data collected in Hurricane Edouard (2014) just after its mature stage are presented. These data have unprecedentedly high spatial resolution, based on 87 dropsondes released by the unmanned NASA Global Hawk from an altitude of 18 km during the Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel (HS3) field campaign. Attempts are made to relate the analyses of the data to theories of tropical cyclone structure and behaviour. The tangential wind and thermal fields show the classical structure of a warm‐core vortex, in this case with a secondary eyewall feature. Additionally, the equivalent potential temperature field (θe) shows the expected structure with a mid‐tropospheric minimum at outer radii and contours of θe flaring upwards and outwards at inner radii. With some imagination, these contours are roughly congruent to the surfaces of absolute angular momentum. However, details of the analysed radial velocity field are quite sensitive to the way in which the sonde data are partitioned to produce an azimuthal average. This sensitivity is compounded by an apparent limitation of the assumed steadiness of the storm over the period of data collection.
Type
Article
Description
The article of record as published may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/qj.3423
Series/Report No
Department
Meteorology
Organization
Naval Postgraduate School (U.S.)
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Office of Naval Research Global; N62909-15-1-N021
NSF; AGS-1313948
NOAA HFIP; N0017315WR00048
NASA (HS3); NNG11PK021
ONR; N0001417WX00336
Format
6 p.
Citation
Smith, Roger K., Michael T. Montgomery, and Scott A. Braun. "Azimuthally averaged structure of Hurricane Edouard (2014) just after peak intensity." Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 145.718 (2019): 211-216.
Distribution Statement
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.
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