Abstract
Roll vortices are frequent features of a hurricane’s boundary layer, with kilometer or sub-kilometer horizontal scale. In this study, we found that large roll vortices with O (10 km) horizontal wavelength occurred over land in Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy (2012) during landfall on New Jersey. Various characteristics of roll vortices were corroborated by analyses of Doppler radar observations, a 500 m resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulation, and an idealized roll vortex model. The roll vortices were always linear-shaped, and their wavelengths of 5–14 km were generally larger than any previously published for a tropical cyclone over land. Based on surface wind observations and simulated WRF surface wind fields, we found that roll vortices significantly increased the probability of hazardous winds and likely caused the observed patchiness of treefall during Sandy’s landfall.
Highlights
Hurricanes are the costliest natural disasters to affect coastal communities around the globe, causing substantial property and human life losses each year
Boundary layer rolls act as an important mechanism in transporting high momentum air downward and causing localized elongated damage swaths
Characterizing rolls and mechanisms that drive them is important for improving hurricane intensity forecasts because hurricane intensification is impacted by roll vortices’ transport of momentum and enthalpy vertically through the hurricane boundary
Summary
Hurricanes are the costliest natural disasters to affect coastal communities around the globe, causing substantial property and human life losses each year Roll vortices (rolls hereafter) in the hurricane boundary layer are suspected to be responsible for the patchy damage patterns [2]. These organized features consist of vertically overturning circulations, and they are elongated approximately in the hurricane’s tangential wind direction. Total wind is enhanced in their downdraft regions and reduced in their updraft regions, providing a mechanism for the patchy wind damage under hurricanes. The particular novelty of our work is that large rolls were observed over land in the the boundary layer of a landfalling storm, Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy, and the observaboundary layer of a landfalling storm, Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy, and the observations tions were corroborated with two independent types of numerical simulations.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
