Observed vorticity evolution in Hurricane Rita (2005)

Hurricane Rita was observed during the RAINEX field project over a period of five days from 19 - 24 September, 2005. High resolution airborne Doppler radar observations during this time period from the NCAR/ELDORA and NOAA-P3 tail radars captured the evolution of the precipitation and kinematic fields at spatial resolutions down to 300 m. This paper will present preliminary observations of both the coarse and fine-scale vorticity field as it evolved throughout Rita's lifecycle. This evolution will be related to theoretical work which suggests that changes in tropical cyclone intensity can be driven by heat and momentum fluxes associated with perturbation vorticity anomalies.