Signature of Large Aspect Ratio Roll Vortices in Synthetic Aperture Radar Images of Tropical Cyclones

Synthetic aperture radar images of tropical cyclones have been processed into high-resolution surface wind vector fields. Examination of the surface wind divergence and wind stress curl show that wind-aligned,O(10 km) wavelength, banded features are present throughout the images. These signatures ar...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Oceanography (Washington, D.C.) D.C.), 2013-06, Vol.26 (2), p.58-67
Main Author: FOSTER, RALPH
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aspect ratio
Atmospherics
Boundary layers
Curl
Cyclones
Hurricanes
Marine
roll vortices
SAR
Signatures
SPECIAL ISSUE ON OCEAN REMOTE SENSING WITH SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR
synthetic aperture radar
tropical cyclones
Turbulence
Wavelengths
Wind direction
wind vectors
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Synthetic aperture radar images of tropical cyclones have been processed into high-resolution surface wind vector fields. Examination of the surface wind divergence and wind stress curl show that wind-aligned,O(10 km) wavelength, banded features are present throughout the images. These signatures are consistent with what would be expected from boundary layer roll vortices, except that their wavelengths are much too large. This paper argues that large aspect ratio roll vortices are responsible for these surface wind signatures and proposes a mechanism by which they are likely formed.
ISSN:1042-8275
2377-617X
DOI:10.5670/oceanog.2013.31