Extended Abstract (40K)16C.3
A season-long study of the tropical cyclone lifecycles in the Atlantic basin (2001)
Ron McTaggart-Cowan, University at Albany/SUNY, Albany, NY; and L. F. Bosart
Research investigating tropical cyclones tends to be focused on a single stage of the vortex's lifecycle. Tropical cyclogenesis, tropical cyclone (TC) deepening mechanisms, hurricane-stage vortex motion, vortex spin-down, extratropical transition, and a multitude of other problems have been studied extensively in both diagnostic and modelling frameworks. Climatological studies have provided a wealth of information about environmental patterns and common structures involved in the generation, maintenance, and decay of TCs. Case studies have highlighted important mechanisms associated with the dynamics and physics of tropical systems and their interactions with the environmental flow. Building upon the findings of these studies, this work documents an investigation of the complete lifecycles of Atlantic TCs over the 2001 hurricane season.
The 2001 Atlantic hurricane season provides a broad spectrum of TC lifecycles including Cape Verde storms (Chantal, Erin, Felix), central Atlantic baroclinic developments (Lorenzo, Noel, Olga), and Gulf of Mexico hurricanes (Allison, Barry, Gabrielle). Five 2001 systems made landfall in North America, and several (including the damaging Michelle) impacted CentralAmerica and the Carribean. Six of the TCs transitioned to extratropical systems, including Karen, which had previously undergone a tropical transition. Salient features of each of the TCs' lifecycles will be identified, and the storms classified and diagnosed according to the structures and mechanisms present at different stages of their evolutions.
Common features will be used as a baseline for a set of simulations designed to develop a coherent, high resolution dataset for each of the 2001 Atlantic TCs. In conjunction with global analyses, these simulations will allow for an investigation of the systems' lifecycles over a broad range of scales. Employing the diagnostic approaches and conceptual models of recent TC studies, such a description of 2001 Atlantic storms will provide insight into the lifecycles of these severe weather events.
Session 16C, tropical cyclone best track and climatology I
Friday, 7 May 2004, 8:00 AM-9:45 AM, Napoleon II Room
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