Do inner rainbands propagate like vortex-Rossby waves?

Previous studies hypothesized that inner spiral rainbands, which are spirally banded structures of convection that form close to the eyewall of tropical cyclones, are the manifestation of vortex-Rossby waves whose restoring mechanism is the radial gradient of tropical cyclone-induced vorticity. This study uses high-resolution numerical simulations of tropical cyclones to examine whether the propagation of inner rainbands is consistent with vortex-Rossby waves. Comparison indicates that inner rainbands and vortex-Rossby waves are not consistently collocated. An alternative hypothesis is offered, which argues that these inner rainbands could simply be convective clouds that are advected around by the tropical cyclone wind field.