The Entropy Budget of Several 2010 Atlantic Hurricanes

GPS dropwindsonde data from several hurricanes and few tropical depressions were analyzed and moist entropy associated with these storms was calculated. The storms of interest occurred in the Atlantic basin in 2010. Data were provided by NOAA's Hurricane Research Division. Raw, GPS dropwindsonde data collected during missions of NOAA's G-IV high altitude jet was processed using Aspen software to obtain quality controlled data. Thermodynamic and dynamic analyses were done and various variables were calculated on a regular grid, including the wind velocity components and the moist entropy. From those two variable fields, it is possible to analyze the moist entropy budget, including the tendency of average moist entropy due to flow in and out of the system. In most storms included in this analysis, that tendency was negative, indicating the decrease in the moist entropy over time. There are few exceptions, in which the entropy increases. The majority of cases exhibiting decreasing moist entropy had larger absolute values than ones that were increasing. These changes in the moist entropy budget, and the corresponding situations will be discussed.