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Observations of Hurricane Hortense with two over‐the‐horizon radars
Author(s) -
Harlan J. A.,
Georges T. M.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/97gl03275
Subject(s) - storm , geology , radar , meteorology , wind wave , wake , geodesy , oceanography , geography , physics , telecommunications , computer science , thermodynamics
Hurricane Hortense was observed in the Atlantic Ocean on 12 September 1996 by two high‐frequency over‐the‐horizon radars in Texas and Virginia, looking at backscatter from the ocean surface. Dual radar coverage permits construction of an unambiguous surface‐wind‐direction field and a vector surface‐current field with about 15‐km resolution in the storm's vicinity. The known location of a storm band coincides with a region of surface convergence indicated by the radar. The surface‐current field lags the wind field by about 3 h and shows the strongest ocean response to the right of the storm track, with near‐inertial rotation in the storm's wake. Analysis of surface‐wave directionality shows that it depends on the recent wind‐direction history at each point.