Identification

Title

Diagnosing radial ventilation in dropsonde observations of Hurricane Sam (2021)

Abstract

This study presents a method to diagnose radial ventilation, the horizontal flux of relatively low-9e 9 e air into tropical cyclones, from dropsonde observations. We used this method to investigate ventilation changes over three consecutive sampling periods in Hurricane Sam (2021), which underwent substantial intensity changes over 3 days. During the first and last periods, coinciding with intensification, the ventilation was relatively small due to a lack of spatial correlation between radial flow and 9e e azimuthal asymmetries. During the second period, coinciding with weakening, the ventilation was relatively large. The increased ventilation was caused by greater shear associated with an upper-level trough, tilting the vortex, along with dry, low-9e 9 e air wrapping in upshear. The spatial correlation of the radial inflow flow and anomalously low-9e 9 e air resulted in large ventilation at mid- to upper levels. Additionally, at low to midlevels, there was evidence of mesoscale inflow fl ow of low-9e 9 e air in the stationary band complex. The location of these radial ventilation pathways and their effects on Sam's intensity are consistent with previous idealized and real-case modeling studies. More generally, this method offers a way to monitor ventilation changes in tropical cyclones, particularly when there is full-troposphere sampling around and within a tropical cyclone's core.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7bg2t7w

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2024-08-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright 2024 American Meteorological Society (AMS).

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata date

2025-07-10T19:59:50.965791

Metadata language

eng; USA