Tropical cyclone wind field asymmetry—Development and evaluation of a new parametric model

A new parametric model is developed to describe the wind field asymmetry commonly observed in tropical cyclones or hurricanes in a reference frame fixed at its center. Observations from 21 hurricanes from the North Atlantic basin and TC Roger (1993) in the Coral Sea are analyzed to determine the azi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of geophysical research. Oceans 2017-01, Vol.122 (1), p.458-469
Main Authors: Olfateh, Mohammad, Callaghan, David P., Nielsen, Peter, Baldock, Tom E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asymmetry
Axisymmetric
Azimuth
Blocking anticyclones
Boundary layers
Corals
Cyclones
Evaluation
Fields
Friction
Geophysics
Hurricanes
Marine
Mathematical models
Maximum winds
Mesoscale systems
Modelling
Parameters
parametric model
Parametric statistics
Statistical models
Tropical climate
tropical cyclone
Tropical cyclones
Wind
wind field
Wind fields
Wind speed
Winds
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Summary:A new parametric model is developed to describe the wind field asymmetry commonly observed in tropical cyclones or hurricanes in a reference frame fixed at its center. Observations from 21 hurricanes from the North Atlantic basin and TC Roger (1993) in the Coral Sea are analyzed to determine the azimuthal and radial asymmetry typical in these mesoscale systems after removing the forward speed. On the basis of the observations, a new asymmetric directional wind model is proposed which adjusts the widely used Holland (1980) axisymmetric wind model to account for the action of blocking high‐pressure systems, boundary layer friction, and forward speed. The model is tested against the observations and demonstrated to capture the physical features of asymmetric cyclones and provides a better fit to observed winds than the Holland model. Optimum values and distributions of the model parameters are derived for use in statistical modeling. Finally, the model is used to investigate the asymmetric character of TC systems, including the azimuth of the maximum wind speed, the degree of asymmetry, and the relationship between asymmetry and forward speed. Key Points A new parametric model for tropical cyclone wind fields is proposed to enable the modeling of wind field asymmetries The new asymmetric model improves estimations of tropical cyclone wind fields compared to the conventional Holland (1980) symmetric model Asymmetric features of historical tropical cyclones are quantitatively investigated using the new model parameters of asymmetry
ISSN:2169-9275
2169-9291
DOI:10.1002/2016JC012237