A new pathway to polygonal eyewalls and asymmetric eyewall contraction

It has been previously demonstrated that barotropic instability across the hurricane eyewall results in polygonal features along the eye/eyewall interface and an asymmetric contraction of the eyewall. Using a 2D barotropic numerical model, we will demonstrate a new pathway to these phenomena in the absence of barotropic instability. Relevance to observations in hurricanes will be discussed.