Hurricane Outer Core Convective Initiation and the Importance of Cold Pools and Elevated Dry Air

Convection in mature hurricanes is affected by a variety of influences that are unique to the special environments within the vortex. We attempt to better quantify the initiation of convection outside the primary eyewall by examining the environments in which it forms in a numerically-simulated hurricane vortex. We find that a significant number of convective initiation environments in the outer band regions are influenced by low theta-e and dry air in the midlevels and/or cold pools from prior convection. By performing statistical analysis and appropriate back trajectories on these environments, we will focus on explaining both why these thermodynamical influences may be important to outer band convection and where these influences originated in the first place.