Internal dynamic control of hurricane intensity change: The dual nature of potential vorticity mixing

Using a 2D barotropic numerical model with spatially and temporally varying PV forcing, we will demonstrate an internal mechanism that interrupts the intensification process resulting from diabatic forcing in the hurricane eyewall. This internal control mechanism is due to PV mixing in the region of the eye and eyewall, and can manifest itself in a variety of (sometimes wholly antithetical) forms – e.g., as a transient “intensification brake” during symmetric diabatically-forced intensification, or as an enhancer of intensification through efficient transport of PV from the eyewall, where it is generated, to the eye.