Estimation of near surface wind speeds in strongly rotating flows

Modeling studies consistently demonstrate that the most violent winds in tornadic vortices occur in the lowest tens of meters above the surface. These velocities are unobservable by radar platforms due to line of sight considerations. In this work, a methodology is developed which utilizes parametri...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inApplied mathematics and computation Vol. 235; pp. 201 - 211
Main Authors Crowell, Sean, White, Luther, Wicker, Louis
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 25.05.2014
Subjects
Axisymmetric
Axisymmetric dynamics
Doppler radar
Fluid flow
Fluid mechanics
Geophysical fluid dynamics
Hyperbolic equations
Mathematical models
Meters
Retrieval
Surface wind
Vortex dynamics
Vortex flows
Vortices
Vortex flows
Hyperbolic equations
Fluid mechanics
Vortex dynamics
Geophysical fluid dynamics
Axisymmetric dynamics
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Summary:Modeling studies consistently demonstrate that the most violent winds in tornadic vortices occur in the lowest tens of meters above the surface. These velocities are unobservable by radar platforms due to line of sight considerations. In this work, a methodology is developed which utilizes parametric tangential velocity models derived from Doppler radar measurements, together with a tangential momentum and mass continuity constraint, to estimate the radial and vertical velocities in a steady axisymmetric frame. The main result is that information from observations aloft can be extrapolated into the surface layer of the vortex. The impact of the amount of information available to the retrieval is demonstrated through some numerical tests with pseudo-data.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0096-3003
1873-5649
DOI:10.1016/j.amc.2014.01.010