Evaluation of a reduced model for investigating hurricane formation from turbulence

Schecter, David A.

doi:10.1002/qj.729

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 93 publications

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“…The findings from sections 5 and 6 are believed to be significant because they offer new insights on the role of surface friction in fostering convective organization in the vortex development process and they offer also new insight on the mechanism of vortex spin‐up without surface friction. Previous studies by Schecter (2011) and Bryan (2012) have considered, inter alia , the influence of surface friction on vortex development and the relation of these studies to the present one will be discussed here.…”

Section: Relation To Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…The early experiments of this type were based on axisymmetric numerical models, using either parametrized convection (Ooyama, 1969; Rosenthal, 1971; Emanuel, 1989, 1995), or relatively coarse, convection‐permitting, configurations (Craig and Gray, 1996). Later studies employed higher‐resolution axisymmetric representations of moist convection phenomenology (Bryan and Rotunno, 2009) and three‐dimensional convection‐permitting configurations (Montgomery et al , 2010; Schecter, 2011; Bryan, 2012; Persing et al , 2013; Smith et al , 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The role of boundary‐layer friction on tropical cyclogenesis and subsequent intensification

Kilroy

Montgomery

Smith

2017

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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A recent idealized, high‐resolution, numerical model simulation of tropical cyclogenesis is compared with a simulation in which the surface drag is set to zero. It is shown that, while spin‐up occurs in both simulations, the vortex in the one without surface drag takes over twice as long to reach its intensification begin time. When surface friction is not included, the inner core size of the simulated vortex is considerably larger and the subsequent vortex intensity is significantly weaker than in the case with friction. In the absence of surface drag, the convection eventually develops without any systematic organization and lies often outside the radius of azimuthally averaged maximum tangential winds. The results underscore the crucial role of friction in organizing deep convection in the inner core of the nascent vortex and raise the possibility that the timing of tropical cyclogenesis in numerical models may have an important dependence on the boundary‐layer parametrization scheme used in the model.

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Section: Relation To Previous Workmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of boundary‐layer friction on tropical cyclogenesis and subsequent intensification

Kilroy

Montgomery

Smith

2017

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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“…Such cyclone/anticyclone asymmetry was highlighted in the analysis of the influence of moisture on turbulent baroclinic eddies in a quasigeostrophic model (Lapeyre and Held 2004). This influence was also studied in hurricane formation from turbulence (Schecter and Dunkerton 2009;Schecter 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moist versus Dry Baroclinic Instability in a Simplified Two-Layer Atmospheric Model with Condensation and Latent Heat Release

Lambaerts

Lapeyre

Zeitlin

2012

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

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The authors undertake a detailed analysis of the influence of water vapor condensation and latent heat release upon the evolution of the baroclinic instability. The framework consists in a two-layer rotating shallow-water model with moisture coupled to dynamics through mass exchange between the layers due to condensation/precipitation. The model gives all known in literature models of this kind as specific limits. It is fully nonlinear and ageostrophic. The reference state is a baroclinic Bickley jet. The authors first study its ''dry'' linear instability and then use the most unstable mode to initialize high-resolution numerical simulations of the life cycle of the instability in nonprecipitating (moisture being a passive tracer) and precipitating cases. A new-generation well-balanced finite-volume scheme is used in these simulations.The evolution in the nonprecipitating case follows the standard cyclonic wave-breaking life cycle of the baroclinic instability, which is reproduced with a high fidelity. In the precipitating case, the onset of condensation significantly increases the growth rate of the baroclinic instability at the initial stages due to production of available potential energy by the latent heat release. Condensation occurs in frontal regions and wraps up around the cyclone, which is consistent with the moist cyclogenesis theory and observations. Condensation induces a clear-cut cyclone-anticyclone asymmetry. The authors explain the underlying mechanism and show how it modifies the equilibration of the flow at the late stages of the saturation of the instability. In spite of significant differences in the evolution, only weak differences in various norms of the perturbations remain between precipitating and nonprecipitating cases at the end of the saturation process.

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“…The role of these rotating deep convective clouds and their aggregation in the amplification of the larger-scale vortex has been the subject of recent numerical and theoretical investigations (Hendricks et al, 2004;Montgomery et al, 2006;Nguyen et al, 2008;Shin and Smith, 2008;Fang and Zhang, 2010;Braun et al, 2010;Gopalakrishnan et al, 2011;Schecter, 2011) and is reviewed briefly below.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Asymmetric and axisymmetric dynamics of tropical cyclones

et al. 2013

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Abstract. We present the results of idealized numerical experiments to examine the difference between tropical cyclone evolution in three-dimensional (3-D) and axisymmetric (AX) model configurations. We focus on the prototype problem for intensification, which considers the evolution of an initially unsaturated AX vortex in gradient-wind balance on an f plane. Consistent with findings of previous work, the mature intensity in the 3-D model is reduced relative to that in the AX model. In contrast with previous interpretations invoking barotropic instability and related horizontal mixing processes as a mechanism detrimental to the spin-up process, the results indicate that 3-D eddy processes associated with vortical plume structures can assist the intensification process by contributing to a radial contraction of the maximum tangential velocity and to a vertical extension of tangential winds through the depth of the troposphere. These plumes contribute significantly also to the azimuthally averaged heating rate and the corresponding azimuthal-mean overturning circulation.The comparisons show that the resolved 3-D eddy momentum fluxes above the boundary layer exhibit counter-gradient characteristics during a key spin-up period, and more generally are not solely diffusive. The effects of these eddies are thus not properly represented by the subgrid-scale parameterizations in the AX configuration. The resolved eddy fluxes act to support the contraction and intensification of the maximum tangential winds. The comparisons indicate fundamental differences between convective organization in the 3-D and AX configurations for meteorologically relevant forecast timescales. While the radial and vertical gradients of the system-scale angular rotation provide a hostile environment for deep convection in the 3-D model, with a corresponding tendency to strain the convective elements in the tangential direction, deep convection in the AX model does not suffer this tendency. Also, since during the 3-D intensification process the convection has not yet organized into annular rings, the azimuthally averaged heating rate and radial gradient thereof is considerably less than that in the AX model. This lack of organization results broadly in a slower intensification rate in the 3-D model and leads ultimately to a weaker mature vortex after 12 days of model integration. While azimuthal mean heating rates in the 3-D model are weaker than those in the AX model, local heating rates in the 3-D model exceed those in the AX model and at times the vortex in the 3-D model intensifies more rapidly than AX. Analyses of the 3-D model output do not support a recent hypothesis concerning the key role of small-scale vertical mixing processes in the upper-tropospheric outflow in controlling the intensification process.In the 3-D model, surface drag plays a particularly important role in the intensification process for the prototype intensification problem on meteorologically relevant timescales by helping foster the organization of convection in azimu...

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Evaluation of a reduced model for investigating hurricane formation from turbulence

Cited by 22 publications

References 93 publications

The role of boundary‐layer friction on tropical cyclogenesis and subsequent intensification

The role of boundary‐layer friction on tropical cyclogenesis and subsequent intensification

Moist versus Dry Baroclinic Instability in a Simplified Two-Layer Atmospheric Model with Condensation and Latent Heat Release

Asymmetric and axisymmetric dynamics of tropical cyclones

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