The Boundary Layer of Tropical Cyclone Kerry (1979)

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Abstract
The boundary layer structure of Tropical Cyclone Kerry (1979) is investigated using composite analysis of research aircraft, surface ship, and automatic weather station observations. The boundary layer was moist, convective, and strongly confluent to the east of the tropical cyclone center but was dry, subsident, and diffluent to the west. The vertical momentum transport in the eastern convective sector of Kerry was around two to three times the surface frictional dissipation. In contrast, the stable boundary layer in the western sector consisted of a shallow mixed layer capped by an equivalent potential temperature minimum and a low-level jet, which underwent a marked diurnal oscillation. Three mechanisms appear to have contributed to the observed asymmetry: 1) a general, zonal distortion arose from cyclonic rotation across a gradient of earth vorticity; 2) a westerly environmental vertical shear produced forced ascent on the east side of the storm and subsidence on the west side throughout the ... Abstract The boundary layer structure of Tropical Cyclone Kerry (1979) is investigated using composite analysis of research aircraft, surface ship, and automatic weather station observations. The boundary layer was moist, convective, and strongly confluent to the east of the tropical cyclone center but was dry, subsident, and diffluent to the west. The vertical momentum transport in the eastern convective sector of Kerry was around two to three times the surface frictional dissipation. In contrast, the stable boundary layer in the western sector consisted of a shallow mixed layer capped by an equivalent potential temperature minimum and a low-level jet, which underwent a marked diurnal oscillation. Three mechanisms appear to have contributed to the observed asymmetry: 1) a general, zonal distortion arose from cyclonic rotation across a gradient of earth vorticity; 2) a westerly environmental vertical shear produced forced ascent on the east side of the storm and subsidence on the west side throughout the ...

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