On the Development of Double Warm-Core Structures in Intense Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines the formation of a double warm-core (DWC) structure in intense tropical cyclones (TCs) that was captured in almost all supertyphoon cases during the 2012–14 real-time typhoon forecasts in the northwestern Pacific basin with the Hurricane Weather Research and Forecasting Model (HWRF). By using an idealized configuration of HWRF to focus on the intrinsic mechanism of the DWC formation, it is shown that the development of DWC in intense TCs is accompanied by a thin inflow layer above the typical upper outflow layer. The development of this thin inflow layer in the lower stratosphere (~100–75 hPa), which is associated with an inward pressure gradient force induced by cooling at the cloud top, signifies intricate interaction of TCs with the lower stratosphere as TCs become sufficiently intense, which has not been examined previously. Specifically, it is demonstrated that a higher-level inflow can advect potentially warm air from the lower stratosphere toward the inner-core region, thus forming an upper-level warm core that is separated from a midlevel one of tropospheric air. Such formation of the upper-level warm anomaly in intense TCs is linked to an episode of intensification at the later stage of TC development. While these results are produced by HWRF, the persistent DWC and UIL features in all HWRF simulations of intense TCs suggest that the lower stratosphere may have significant impacts on the inner-core structures of intense TCs beyond the current framework of TCs with a single warm core.