Observations of hurricane Ike (2008) from the Mobile Alabama X-band radar

Hurricane Ike made landfall in the US around 07 UTC on 13 September 2008 near Galveston Island, Texas. The University of Alabama in Huntsville's Mobile Alabama X-band dual polarization radar was deployed near the Anahuac Airport in Anahuac, TX, just to the northeast of Galveston Bay, for the duration of this hurricane landfall. For the Ike deployment, the MAX was located about 53 km from the Houston/Galveston National Weather Service NEXRAD 88D radar. This study will present the MAX radar observations of Ike's evolution leading up to, during, and immediately following landfall, focusing on the kinematic and microphysical features of mesoscale vortices observed in and near the eyewall. Several mesovortices were evident in Ike, and the MAX was deployed in an optimal location to observe their evolution and progression near the time of landfall in southeast Texas. The formation of the features as observed by the radar and their evolution as the storm made landfall are the primary focus of this work. Because of the MAX's proximity to the HGX radar, a dual-Doppler analysis of the mesovortices will also be presented. The combination of dual-polarimetric measurements and derived airflow will provide important details on the dynamical and microphysical structure of these mesovortices.