Hurricane wake restratification rates of one-, two- and three-dimensional processes

The restratification of the cold wakes of Tropical Cyclones Fanapi, Frances, Igor and Katrina are examined based on derived scalings for processes that can restore the hurricane wake toward the precyclone conditions. The different restoration processes depend on the parameters of the wake: depth, wi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Haney, S., Bachman, S., Cooper, B., Kupper, S., McCaffrey, Katherine, Van Roekel, L., Stevenson, S., Fox-Kemper, Baylor, Ferrari, Raffaele
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Sears Foundation for Marine Research, Yale University 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/87709
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3736-1956
Description
Summary:The restratification of the cold wakes of Tropical Cyclones Fanapi, Frances, Igor and Katrina are examined based on derived scalings for processes that can restore the hurricane wake toward the precyclone conditions. The different restoration processes depend on the parameters of the wake: depth, width, buoyancy anomaly and wind stress. The parameters needed are derived for each wake from satellite and climatological data. The scalings are based on model results and existing parameterizations, including air-sea heat fluxes (one-dimensional) Ekman buoyancy fluxes (two-dimensional) and mixed layer eddies (three-dimensional). The dominant surface restoration occurs by a combination of surface fluxes and Ekman buoyancy fluxes, while the submesoscale mixed layer eddy bolus fluxes are the dominant subsurface effect.