Effects of Ambient Rotation on Dust Devils

Abstract

A previous Doppler-lidar observation near a sea-breeze front revealed that small-scale vertical vortices, similar to dust devils, have a preferred direction of rotation, which suggests that their rotation was affected by meso-scale vertical vorticity associated with the front. In contrast, planetary vorticity is believed to have a negligible effect on dust devils. This paper investigates the effects of ambient rotation on dust devils by means of a large eddy simulation, which yielded the following findings: when the ambient rotation is as small as the earth's rotation, only a tiny asymmetry is found in the occurrences of vertical vortices of different signs; as the ambient rotation is increased, it significantly affects the rotational direction of the vortices, and the magnitude of their vertical vorticity attains a maximum for an ambient vorticity of about 10-3 s-1; a further increase in the ambient rotation changes the structure of convection in the convective mixed layer and suppresses horizontal convergence, so that vertical vorticity of the vortices is reduced.