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- Title
Simulating Dropsondes to Assess Moist Static Energy Variability in Tropical Cyclones.
- Authors
Carstens, Jacob D.; Wing, Allison A.
- Abstract
Interactions between clouds, water vapor, radiation, and circulation influence tropical cyclone (TC) development. Many of these interactions can be quantified by understanding tendencies of the spatial variance of moist static energy (MSE). Dropsondes from aircraft reconnaissance sample profiles needed to compute MSE at fine vertical resolution, and may be useful in analyzing these feedbacks on TCs in situ. However, dropsondes are spatially sparse, and sample limited column depths depending on the type of reconnaissance mission. We use idealized convection‐permitting simulations to examine how MSE variability, and the feedbacks that influence it, are resolved using selected patterns of grid points meant to resemble dropsonde launch points in reconnaissance flight patterns. We first examine the column depth necessary to capture the MSE variability of the full atmosphere. We then study how these simulated flight patterns depict MSE variance and its relevant diabatic feedbacks in TCs of varying structure and intensity. Plain Language Summary: Interactions between clouds, water vapor, radiation, and circulation influence tropical cyclones (TCs). These interactions can be quantified by understanding how moisture, or moist static energy (MSE), varies spatially. Hurricane Hunter aircraft missions use dropsondes, instruments that collect the necessary data to compute MSE as they descend. This offers an observational tool to study cloud‐water vapor‐radiation‐circulation interactions in TCs. However, only 20–40 dropsondes are released per mission, and they only sample the atmosphere below the aircraft's flight level. We examine several simulations of TCs, where patterns of grid points are chosen to resemble dropsonde release points. We calculate how MSE varies spatially and the mechanisms that influence it. With these simulations, we reveal the depth of the atmosphere needed for effective sampling, and how sensitive calculations are to the density and spatial distribution of data. Key Points: Sampling the full troposphere is necessary to sufficiently capture the moist static energy variability of the full atmospheric columnCalculations of this variability and the feedbacks that influence it are impacted by radial coverage and spatial distribution of dataFull resolution of tropical cyclone moist static energy requires inner‐core sampling not regularly conducted by upper‐air reconnaissance
- Subjects
TROPICAL cyclones; RECONNAISSANCE aircraft; WATER vapor; COLUMNS; DATA distribution; TROPOSPHERE
- Publication
Geophysical Research Letters, 2022, Vol 49, Issue 15, p1
- ISSN
0094-8276
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1029/2022GL099101