Effects of Vertical Wind Shear on Inner-Core Thermodynamics of an Idealized Simulated Tropical Cyclone

Abstract

Abstract A suite of idealized simulations of tropical cyclones (TCs) with weak to strong vertical wind shear (VWS) imposed during the mature stage was employed to examine the effects of VWS on the inner-core thermodynamics and intensity change of TCs using a three-dimensional full-physics numerical model as well as a budget analysis of moist entropy. For sheared TCs with shear-induced convective asymmetries, VWS tends to reduce moist entropy within the midlevel eyewall and the boundary layer (BL) but supply moist entropy outside the eyewall above the BL. Such changes in moist entropy reduce the radial gradient of moist entropy across the eyewall, resulting in weakening of the TC. Budget analysis showed that the intense eddy fluxes are mainly responsible for the reduction and/or increase in entropy in the sheared TCs. The entropy reduction within the midlevel eyewall is a result of both the radial eddy flux and the vertical eddy flux. These eddy fluxes are effective at introducing low-entropy air into the midlevel eyewall. Accompanying the flushing of midlevel low-entropy air into the BL, there is an increase in moist entropy outside the eyewall above the BL due to the upward transport of moisture from the BL by shear-induced convection. This represents a new potential pathway to further restrain the radial gradient of moist entropy across the eyewall and hence TC intensity in the sheared environmental flow.