Response of convection to hurricane-like horizontal and vertical shears

We examine here the response of deep, moist convection to systematic variations in hurricane-like horizontal and vertical wind shears using a cloud-resolving numerical model. An exploration of different shear regimes uncovers when rapid cumulonimbus filamentation is likely and when shear can lead to changes in storm longevity and organization. Additional sensitivity experiments are examined to determine how different, but representative vertical temperature and humidity profiles affect sheared convection.

This idealized study offers broad implications for hurricane research. For concentric eyewall formation, an important harbinger of sudden intensity change, the results suggest favored radii for sustained convection outside a hurricane's inner-core. Important to both the problem of tropical cyclone genesis and intensity change, analysis of the potential vorticity evolution following convective development illustrates the impact on the mean flow of the vortex.