The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement
Despite the dangers associated with tropical cyclones and their rainfall, the origins of storm moisture remains unclear. Existing studies have focused on the region 40-400 km from the cyclone center. It is known that the rainfall within this area cannot be explained by local processes alone but requ...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.1604.05119 2023-05-15T17:35:59+02:00 The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement Makarieva, Anastassia M. Gorshkov, Victor G. Nefiodov, Andrei V. Chikunov, Alexander V. Sheil, Douglas Nobre, Antonio D. Li, Bai-Lian 2016 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1604.05119 https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.05119 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2017.04.006 arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Fluid Dynamics physics.flu-dyn FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 2016 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1604.05119 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2017.04.006 2022-04-01T11:41:24Z Despite the dangers associated with tropical cyclones and their rainfall, the origins of storm moisture remains unclear. Existing studies have focused on the region 40-400 km from the cyclone center. It is known that the rainfall within this area cannot be explained by local processes alone but requires imported moisture. Nonetheless, the dynamics of this imported moisture appears unknown. Here, considering a region up to three thousand kilometers from storm center, we analyze precipitation, atmospheric moisture and movement velocities for North Atlantic hurricanes. Our findings indicate that even over such large areas a hurricane's rainfall cannot be accounted for by concurrent evaporation. We propose instead that a hurricane consumes pre-existing atmospheric water vapor as it moves. The propagation velocity of the cyclone, i.e. the difference between its movement velocity and the mean velocity of the surrounding air (steering flow), determines the water vapor budget. Water vapor available to the hurricane through its movement makes the hurricane self-sufficient at about 700 km from the hurricane center obviating the need to concentrate moisture from greater distances. Such hurricanes leave a dry wake, whereby rainfall is suppressed by up to 40 per cent compared to its long-term mean. The inner radius of this dry footprint approximately coincides with the radius of hurricane self-sufficiency with respect to water vapor. We discuss how Carnot efficiency considerations do not constrain the power of such open systems that deplete the pre-existing moisture. Our findings emphasize the incompletely understood role and importance of atmospheric moisture supplies, condensation and precipitation in hurricane dynamics. : 38 pages, 17 figures, 1 Table; extended analyses: available E/P ratios reviewed and explained (Table 1); rainfall and moisture distributions 3 days before and after hurricanes, propagation velocity and its relationship to radial velocity; efficiency for non-steady hurricanes; hurricane motion and rainfall asymmetries discussed Text North Atlantic DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
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topic |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Fluid Dynamics physics.flu-dyn FOS Physical sciences |
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Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Fluid Dynamics physics.flu-dyn FOS Physical sciences Makarieva, Anastassia M. Gorshkov, Victor G. Nefiodov, Andrei V. Chikunov, Alexander V. Sheil, Douglas Nobre, Antonio D. Li, Bai-Lian The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Fluid Dynamics physics.flu-dyn FOS Physical sciences |
description |
Despite the dangers associated with tropical cyclones and their rainfall, the origins of storm moisture remains unclear. Existing studies have focused on the region 40-400 km from the cyclone center. It is known that the rainfall within this area cannot be explained by local processes alone but requires imported moisture. Nonetheless, the dynamics of this imported moisture appears unknown. Here, considering a region up to three thousand kilometers from storm center, we analyze precipitation, atmospheric moisture and movement velocities for North Atlantic hurricanes. Our findings indicate that even over such large areas a hurricane's rainfall cannot be accounted for by concurrent evaporation. We propose instead that a hurricane consumes pre-existing atmospheric water vapor as it moves. The propagation velocity of the cyclone, i.e. the difference between its movement velocity and the mean velocity of the surrounding air (steering flow), determines the water vapor budget. Water vapor available to the hurricane through its movement makes the hurricane self-sufficient at about 700 km from the hurricane center obviating the need to concentrate moisture from greater distances. Such hurricanes leave a dry wake, whereby rainfall is suppressed by up to 40 per cent compared to its long-term mean. The inner radius of this dry footprint approximately coincides with the radius of hurricane self-sufficiency with respect to water vapor. We discuss how Carnot efficiency considerations do not constrain the power of such open systems that deplete the pre-existing moisture. Our findings emphasize the incompletely understood role and importance of atmospheric moisture supplies, condensation and precipitation in hurricane dynamics. : 38 pages, 17 figures, 1 Table; extended analyses: available E/P ratios reviewed and explained (Table 1); rainfall and moisture distributions 3 days before and after hurricanes, propagation velocity and its relationship to radial velocity; efficiency for non-steady hurricanes; hurricane motion and rainfall asymmetries discussed |
format |
Text |
author |
Makarieva, Anastassia M. Gorshkov, Victor G. Nefiodov, Andrei V. Chikunov, Alexander V. Sheil, Douglas Nobre, Antonio D. Li, Bai-Lian |
author_facet |
Makarieva, Anastassia M. Gorshkov, Victor G. Nefiodov, Andrei V. Chikunov, Alexander V. Sheil, Douglas Nobre, Antonio D. Li, Bai-Lian |
author_sort |
Makarieva, Anastassia M. |
title |
The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement |
title_short |
The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement |
title_full |
The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement |
title_fullStr |
The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement |
title_full_unstemmed |
The water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement |
title_sort |
water budget of a hurricane as dependent on its movement |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1604.05119 https://arxiv.org/abs/1604.05119 |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2017.04.006 |
op_rights |
arXiv.org perpetual, non-exclusive license http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.1604.05119 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2017.04.006 |
_version_ |
1766135323407941632 |