Hurricane Wind Field Model for Use in Hurricane Simulations

Abstract

A critical component in the simulation of hurricanes is a good representation of the hurricane wind field when given information of the storm intensity, size, and translation speed. In the investigation described here, the full nonlinear solution to the equations of motion of a hurricane are solved and then parameterized for use in fast-running simulations. The hurricane model described here takes into account the effects of changing sea surface roughness and the air-sea temperature difference on the estimated surface-level wind speeds. Comparisons between modeled and observed hurricane wind speed records are performed where one compares both the 10-min mean wind speeds and the peak gust wind speeds. The resulting wind field model represents the most physically based and validated model used in the estimate of hurricane wind speed exceedance probabilities.