26th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology

Wednesday, 5 May 2004
Strong Updraft Feature Associated with Hurricane Earl During Landfall
Richelieu Room (Deauville Beach Resort)
Barry C. Roberts, NASA/MSFC, Huntsville, AL; and K. R. Knupp
Poster PDF (754.0 kB)
In September 1998 hurricane Earl made landfall along the Gulf coast east of Panama City, FL. The University of Alabama in Huntsville Mobile Integrated Profiling System, which was located in Tallahassee, FL obtained measurements of Earl with a 915 MHz Doppler wind profiler as the system moved across the Florida panhandle. A particularly strong updraft feature, having a magnitude of ~ 15 m s-1 within the lowest 3.0 km above ground level, was associated with one of Earl’s primary rain bands. An analysis of the updraft’s depth, intensity, duration and wind fields as measured by the 915 MHz Doppler wind profiler is presented. Perturbations in flow as measured by the WSR-88D radar, variations in the cloud top height derived from Geostationary Earth Orbiting Satellite data and surface thermodynamic and pressure measurements are also included in the analysis.

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