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August-September
NSF NOAA NRL NCAR UW UM
27th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Monterey, CA, 27 April 2006
Shuyi ChenR. Houze
Wen-Chau Lee Jim Moore
Katrina Ophelia Rita
Hurricanes investigated in RAINEX
Motivation for RAINEX
Understanding Rapid Intensity Changes
Cat 2
Cat 3
Cat 5
Cat 4
Day 1 2 43 5
Famous Rapidly Intensifing StormHurricane Opal (1995)
Pressure drop
How do interactions of eyewalls & rainbands in the mature storm…
…lead to intensity changes like these?
rain
ban
d
Intensity change problem:
RAINEX Flight CoordinationRAINEX Flight Coordination
ELDORA radar
Plan--target dropsondes and DopplerPlan--target dropsondes and DopplerPlan--target dropsondes and DopplerPlan--target dropsondes and Doppler
Plan--target dropsondes and DopplerPlan--target dropsondes and DopplerPlan--target dropsondes and DopplerPlan--target dropsondes and Doppler
KatrinaKatrina
Katrina-28 AugustKatrina-28 August
NRL
convectiveupwind
stratiformdownwind
Atlas et al. ‘63
Katrina-28 AugustKatrina-28 August
ELDORA data
Ref
VelBarnes et al. ‘83
NRL
Katrina-28 AugustKatrina-28 August
Confirms “Barnes” structure
RitaRita
RAINEX Flights in Hurricane RitaRAINEX Flights in Hurricane Rita
Rita-21 September Intensifying to Cat. 5Rita-21 September Intensifying to Cat. 5
0ºC
Rita-21 September Intensifying to Cat. 5Rita-21 September Intensifying to Cat. 5
DropsondesDropsondes
Eye Eyewall
Rita-21 September Intensifying to Cat. 5Rita-21 September Intensifying to Cat. 5
Rita-22 September-Concentric EyewallsRita-22 September-Concentric Eyewalls
ELDORA composite Kossin et al. 2000
vorticity
Rita-22 September-Concentric EyewallsRita-22 September-Concentric Eyewalls
Dropsonde in the “moat” region
1802 UTC 22 September ‘05
Rita-22 September-Concentric EyewallsRita-22 September-Concentric Eyewalls
Rita-23 September-ShearedRita-23 September-Sheared
ShearShear
Rogers et al. ‘03
OpheliaOphelia
A
B
Ophelia-9 September-Dry Midlevel InflowOphelia-9 September-Dry Midlevel Inflow
B A
Dry air
Ref
Vel
Data AvailabilityData Availability
CONCLUSIONS
RAINEX Notables:
• 3 hurricanes—Katrina, Ophelia, & Rita• Innovative satellite-based flight control• First use of ELDORA in a hurricane• Data available via NCAR Field Catalog
Katrina and Rita details:
• K & R’s spiral rainbands had Atlas & Barnes structures• R sampled in 3 stages: rapid int., 2nd eyewall, shear• Echo cores in eyewalls were linear & oblique• Moat region had eye-like sounding• Dry air entered in subsiding mesoscale midlevel inflows
Katrina Ophelia Rita
ThanksThanks
