Horizontal Vortex Tubes near a Simulated Tornado: Three-Dimensional Structure and Kinematics

Oliveira, Mauricio I.; Xue, Ming; Roberts, Brett J.; Wicker, Louis J.; Yussouf, Nusrat

doi:10.3390/atmos10110716

i

Horizontal Vortex Tubes near a Simulated Tornado: Three-Dimensional Structure and Kinematics

2019
By Oliveira, Mauricio I. ; Xue, Ming ; Roberts, Brett J. ; ...

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Journal Title:

Atmosphere
Personal Author:

Oliveira, Mauricio I. ; Xue, Ming ; Roberts, Brett J. ; Wicker, Louis J. ; Yussouf, Nusrat
NOAA Program & Office:

OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; WPO (Weather Program Office) ; NSSL (National Severe Storms Laboratory) ; NWS (National Weather Service) ; SPC (Storm Prediction Center) ; CIMMS (Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies)
Description:

Supercell thunderstorms can produce a wide spectrum of vortical structures, ranging from midlevel mesocyclones to small-scale suction vortices within tornadoes. A less documented class of vortices are horizontally-oriented vortex tubes near and/or wrapping about tornadoes, that are observed either visually or in high-resolution Doppler radar data. In this study, an idealized numerical simulation of a tornadic supercell at 100 m grid spacing is used to analyze the three-dimensional (3D) structure and kinematics of horizontal vortices (HVs) that interact with a simulated tornado. Visualizations based on direct volume rendering aided by visual observations of HVs in a real tornado reveal the existence of a complex distribution of 3D vortex tubes surrounding the tornadic flow throughout the simulation. A distinct class of HVs originates in two key regions at the surface: around the base of the tornado and in the rear-flank downdraft (RFD) outflow and are believed to have been generated via surface friction in regions of strong horizontal near-surface wind. HVs around the tornado are produced in the tornado outer circulation and rise abruptly in its periphery, assuming a variety of complex shapes, while HVs to the south-southeast of the tornado, within the RFD outflow, ascend gradually in the updraft.
Keywords:

Numerical Weather Forecasting Radar Thunderstorms Numerical Weather Forecasting
Source:

Atmosphere 2019, 10(11), 716.
DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10110716
Document Type:

Journal Article
Funding:

Grant no. NA17OAR4590188
Rights Information:

CC BY
Compliance:

Submitted
Main Document Checksum:

urn:sha-512:eaefdfdbc81c8b18d890142d937261c914f4a33dbd77f6c2e8dd924e447cef30b5d99a953ca79d5b58f465668a1db32fe1703254ceb279cf47028f4d87919cdd
Download URL:

https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/26149/noaa_26149_DS1.pdf
File Type:

[PDF - 6.49 MB ]

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