Research Summaries

Back Quantifying the Effects of Vortical Hot Towers and Vortex Rossby Waves on Tropical Cyclone Intensification

Fiscal Year 2009
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Meteorology
Investigator(s) Montgomery, Michael T.
Sponsor Naval Research Laboratory (Navy)
Summary Factors that control the structure and intensity of tropical cyclones fall into two categories­ environmental effects and internal effects. Environmental impacts on hurricane intensity have been investigated for decades and certain key parameters have been identified as important for the intensification and maintenance of intense storms. For example, weak or no environmental shear and high sea-surface temperature are well-known favorable conditions for intensifying tropical storms. Much less is understood, however, about the internal dynamical and thermo­ dynamical processes that govern the upscale growth and development of tropical storms. This is vividly illustrated in the recent literature where apparent contradictory results and interpretations stand unresolved on whether inner-core convective asymmetries are beneficial, detrimental or simply incidental to the intensification process (Moller and Montgomery 1999, Moller and Montgomery 2000, Moller and Shapiro 2005, Nolan and Grasso 2003, Yang et a1. 2007, Nguyen et a1. 2008).
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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