On the Dynamics of Two-Dimensional Hurricane-like Concentric Rings Vortex Formation

Abstract

Abstract Despite the fact that asymmetries in hurricanes (e.g., spiral rainbands, polygonal eyewalls, and mesovortices) have long been observed in radar and satellite imagery, many aspects of their dynamics remain unsolved, particularly in the formation of the secondary eyewall. The underlying associated dynamical processes need to be better understood to advance the science of hurricane intensity forecasting. To fill this gap, a simple 2D barotropic “dry” model is used to simulate a hurricane-like concentric rings vortex. The empirical normal mode (ENM) technique, together with Eliassen–Palm (EP) flux calculations, are used to isolate wave modes from the model datasets to investigate their impact on the changes in the structure and intensity of the simulated hurricane-like vortex. From the ENM diagnostics, it is shown that asymmetric disturbances outside a strong vortex ring with a large vorticity skirt may relax to form concentric rings of enhanced vorticity that contain a secondary wind maximum. The fact that the critical radius for some of the leading modes is close to the location where the secondary ring of enhanced vorticity develops suggests that a wave–mean flow interaction mechanism based on vortex Rossby wave (VRW) dynamics may explain important dynamical aspects of concentric eyewall genesis (CEG).