Transcript 130509NASA-Ames_HS3v08_Houze.ppt

Conceptual Models of Tropical Cyclone
Structures
R. A. Houze
University of Washington
(with A. Didlake and D. Hence)
HS3 Science Team Meeting, Moffett Field, California, 9 May, 2013
The over-storm GH raises the question:
Can HS3 verify conceptual models that have
been published?
OK…then which one?
Here are a few that have been published!
We need to see how some of these conceptual
models combine to tell a coherent story
Let’s look at the inner core features
Eyewalls and
Rainbands
Freely adapted from
Willoughby 1988
Hence and Houze 2012
Rainband composite from TRMM PR
Stratified by environment shear
Inner
Outer
Imported
Local
Reflectivity CFADs
Hence and Houze 2012
Reflectivity Kurtosis
Inner region
Outer region
Hence and Houze 2012
Upwind end of a Principal Rainband
Didlake and Houze 2009
Middle Section of a Principal Rainband
Barnes et al. 1983
Powell 1990
Hence and Houze 2008
Didlake and Houze 2009
Updrafts
w
Downdrafts
Downdrafts
Middle Section of a Principal Rainband
>0
Didlake and Houze 2013a
Downwind Section of a Principal Rainband
Enhanced stratiform
>0
Didlake and Houze 2013b
How can HS3 flights confirm or reject
conceptua models based on TRMM
radar and airborne Doppler
observations?
• Locate major rainbands in GH data
• Determine if their structures conform to the
patterns seen in TRMM data
• Locate downwind stratiform zones
• Look for the cross-band mesoscale over turning
in HIWRAP & other remote sensor data
• Use dropsondes to determine the rainband
momentum budgets
• Do the results look like the conceptual model?
Question for discussion?
• Can AV-1 flight patterns achieve the objective of
understanding rainband dynamics?
End
This research is supported by NASA grant NNX12AJ82G and NSF grant ATM-0743180