Journal
MONTHLY WEATHER REVIEW
Volume 141, Issue 9, Pages 2949-2969Publisher
AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1175/MWR-D-12-00334.1
Keywords
Hurricanes; Hurricanes; typhoons; Tropical cyclones; Aircraft observations; Radars; Radar observations
Categories
Funding
- NOAA base funds through the NOAA Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP)
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Following a recent demonstration of multicase compositing of axisymmetric tropical cyclone (TC) structure derived from airborne Doppler radar measurements, the authors extend the analysis to the asymmetric structure using an unprecedented database from 75 TC flights. In particular, they examine the precipitation and kinematic asymmetry forced by the TC's motion and interaction with vertical wind shear. For the first time they quantify the average magnitude and phase of the three-dimensional shear-relative kinematic asymmetry of observed TCs through a composite approach. The composite analysis confirms principal features of the shear-relative TC asymmetry documented in prior numerical and observational studies (e.g., downshear tilt, downshear-right convective initiation, and a downshear-left precipitation maximum). The statistical significance of the composite shear-relative structure is demonstrated through a stratification of cases by shear magnitude. The impact of storm motion on eyewall convective asymmetry appears to be secondary to the much greater constraint placed by vertical wind shear on the organization of convection, in agreement with prior studies using lightning and precipitation data.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available