The Response of Tropical Cyclones to Diurnal Heating As Seen in a Linear Dynamical Model

The diurnal cycle of the cirrus canopy of tropical cyclones (TCs) is a continuing area of research. It has been shown through observations that this diurnal cycle may be fundamental for changing storm intensity and structure as heat anomalies propagate outwards overnight (Dunion et al., 2014). Recent work on this subject has used high resolution 3D models to explore this outward propagating wave-like diurnal signal at cloud top height (O’Neill et al., 2017). Navarro et al. (2017) have used a method analogous with the periodic Sawyer-Eliassen equations to simulate the dynamics by which the diurnal response is achieved. In the work presented here, we use more realistic (non-harmonic) diurnal forcings in a non-hydrostatic, linear model with arbitrary time dependence, known as 3DVPAS. We explore the transition between balanced and radiating responses, and compare the results to the harmonic cases from Navarro et al. (2017). This study will test the forcing on axisymmetric TCs of different sizes and strengths and with different stratifications.