Dependence of Tropical Cyclone Intensification on the Coriolis Parameter

• Main Authors: Tim Li, Xuyang Ge, Melinda Peng, Wei Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KeAi Communications Co., Ltd. 2012-05-01
• Series: Tropical Cyclone Research and Review
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2225603218300353

ABSTRACT: The dependence of tropical cyclone (TC) intensification on the Coriolis parameter was investigated in an idealized hurricane model. By specifying an initial balanced vortex on an f-plane, we observed faster TC development under lower planetary vorticity environment than under higher planetary vorticity environment. The diagnosis of the model outputs indicates that the distinctive evolution characteristics arise from the extent to which the boundary layer imbalance is formed and maintained in the presence of surface friction. Under lower planetary vorticity environment, stronger and deeper subgradient inflow develops due to Ekman pumping effect, which leads to greater boundary layer moisture convergence and condensational heating. The strengthened heating further accelerates the inflow by lowing central pressure further. This positive feedback loop eventually leads to distinctive evolution characteristics.The outer size (represented by the radius of gale-force wind) and the eye of the final TC state also depend on the Coriolis parameter. The TC tends to have larger (smaller) outer size and eye under higher (lower) planetary vorticity environment. Whereas the radius of maximum wind or the eye size in the current setting is primarily determined by inertial stability, the TC outer size is mainly controlled by environmental absolute angular momentum. Keywords: tropical cyclone intensification, Coriolis parameter, boundary layer inflow