Research Summaries

Back Secondary eyewall formation in hurricane vortices: Application of the rotating convective paradigm in a controlled numerical experiment framework

Fiscal Year 2020
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Meteorology
Investigator(s) Montgomery, Michael T.
Sponsor Office of Naval Research (Navy)
Summary Secondary eyewalls, the formation of an approximately circular band of convection outside of the primary eyewall surrounding the eye, are known to be important modulators of the intensity of a major hurricane and typhoons. This project aims to understand the organization of cumulus convection outside of the eyewall in a highly idealized atmospheric modeling framework. The idealized framework provides a degree of experimental control not available in other secondary eyewall studies that focus on real-case simulations.
Our analysis will begin with a focus on the nonlinear dynamics of the vortex boundary layer and its role in organizing scattered convective elements into an organized, nearly concentric, band. We envision next a systematic study with varied parametric settings to identify the most sensitive parameters governing the transition between formation/non-formation of secondary eyewalls in the idealized environment.
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Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal