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Dependence of tropical‐cyclone intensification on the boundary‐layer representation in a numerical model
Author(s) -
Smith Roger K.,
Thomsen Gerald L.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.687
Subject(s) - tropical cyclone , climatology , boundary layer , representation (politics) , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , meteorology , geology , geography , mechanics , physics , politics , political science , law
We present idealized numerical model experiments to investigate the dependence of tropical‐cyclone intensification and, in particular, the kinematic structure of the tropical‐cyclone boundary layer on the boundary‐layer parametrization in the model. The study is motivated by recent findings highlighting the important dynamical role of the boundary layer in tropical‐cyclone intensification. The calculations are carried out using the Pennsylvania State University– National Center for Atmospheric Research fifth‐generation mesoscale model (MM5). Predictions using one of five available schemes are compared, not only between themselves, but where possible with recent observational analyses of boundary‐layer structure. At this stage the study falls short of being able to advocate the use of a particular scheme, although certain shortcomings of individual schemes are identified. The current inability to determine ‘the optimum scheme’ has implications for the predictability of tropical‐cyclone intensification. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society