92nd American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting (January 22-26, 2012)

Tuesday, 24 January 2012: 4:00 PM
Radar-Observed Development of Three-Dimensional Structures of Tropical Cyclones At Landfall
Room 338 (New Orleans Convention Center )
Qingyun Zhao, NRL, Monterey, CA; and Y. Jin

WSR-88D (Weather Surveillance Radar - 1988 Doppler) radars along the coastlines of the Eastern US and Gulf of Mexico provide opportunities to observe three-dimensional structures of outer rainbands, eye and eyewalls before and during tropical cyclone (TC) landfall. Systems have been developed at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to monitor and study the evolution of landfalling TC structures using full-resolution, full-volume observations of Doppler radial velocity and radar reflectivity from multiple radars in landfall regions. In this study, we focus on the asymmetric structures of horizontal winds and moisture fields cause by TC landfall that usually result in destructive winds and severe flooding in certain areas of the landfall region. We will also examine the relationship between the hurricane eyewall tilt and the three-dimensional winds, especially the vertical wind shear and the variation of tangential wind speed with height. Detailed results and discussions will be presented at the conference.

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