U.S. flag An official website of the United States government.
Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

i

Impact of Land Friction on Surface Wind Structure During Hurricane Landfall



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    NOS (National Ocean Service)
  • Description:
    This study employs a diagnostic three‐dimensional Hurricane Boundary Layer (HBL) wind model to understand the evolution of surface wind structure changes during hurricane landfall in an idealized setting. Our approach focuses on the role of dynamic boundary layer processes in governing the changes in surface wind structure. Model results show that offshore wind changes develop in the front‐left quadrant even when the hurricane center is relatively far (100–200 km) from the coastline. Notably, as the hurricane nears land, both its radial inflow and tangential wind speeds intensify over the ocean (by 80% and 13%, respectively) in the storm's front‐left and rear‐left quadrants. The storm's maximum surface wind speed is enhanced (by 14%) before landfall and shifts to the left of the storm track. Momentum budget analysis indicates that land‐induced friction reduces tangential wind speed over land, which is advected offshore, increasing the imbalance between the pressure gradient force and the combined Coriolis and centrifugal forces. This imbalance, along with radial and azimuthal advection, drives the development of offshore wind asymmetry. As the storm center moves closer to land, enhanced angular momentum advection due to enhanced radial inflow further strengthens the tangential speed in the rear‐left quadrant. Sensitivity experiments reveal that slower‐moving hurricanes develop offshore wind asymmetry earlier, while increased land roughness amplifies its effects, leading to stronger maximum radial, tangential, and total wind speeds at landfall. These findings enhance our understanding of hurricane wind evolution near landfall and underscore the need to consider multiple factors in forecasting and disaster preparedness.
  • Source:
    Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 131(7)
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    2169-897X ; 2169-8996
  • Format:
    pdf
  • Publisher:
    American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • License:
  • Rights Information:
    CC BY
  • Compliance:
    Submitted
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:43a3a30386513bc39d0d2f0211cbd066f1d6c82392f41039cc2b64b2497a27e2ec9f62b677abdbffc933c008ec5ecdf226bc02e8ee7777317e7bd16dcc41cec1
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 5.93 MB ]
PREVIOUS
ON THIS PAGE
Details
The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
BACK TO TOP