1.Key Laboratory of Meteorological Disaster of Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China 2.State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing 100081, China 3.Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences and Institute of Atmospheric Sciences, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China 4.Nanjing Joint Institute for Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing 210009, China Manuscript received: 2019-11-05 Manuscript revised: 2020-07-01 Manuscript accepted: 2020-07-17 Abstract:Previous numerical simulations have focused mainly on the mesoscale structure of the principal rainband in tropical cyclones with a relatively coarse model resolution. In this study, the principal rainband was simulated in a semi-idealized experiment at a horizontal grid spacing of 1/9 km and its convective-scale structure was examined by comparing the convective elements of the simulated principal rainband with previous observational studies. It is found that the convective scale structure of the simulated principal rainband is well comparable to the observation. The azimuthal variations of the convective scale structure were examined by dividing the simulated principal rainband into the upwind, middle and downwind portions. Some new features are found in the simulated principal rainband. First, the overturning updraft contains small-scale rolls aligned along the inward side of the outward-leaning reflectivity tower in the middle portion. Second, the inner-edge downdraft is combined with a branch of inflow from the upper levels in middle and downwind portions, carrying upper-level dry air to the region between the overturning updrafts and eyewall, and the intrusion of the upper-level dry air further limits the altitude of the overturning updrafts in the middle and downwind portions of the principal rainband. Third, from the middle to downwind portions, the strength of the secondary horizontal wind maximum is gradually replaced by a low-level maximum of the tangential wind collocated with the low-level downdraft. Keywords: azimuthal variations, principal rainband, tropical cyclone, WRF-LES simulation 摘要:目前公里尺度水平分辨率的热带气旋数值模拟主要关注热带气旋主雨带的中尺度结构。基于多重嵌套的最高水平分辨率为1/9 km的半理想数值模拟试验,本研究成功地模拟了与观测比较一致的主雨带对流尺度结构。本文分析了主雨带上、中、下游区域对流尺度结构在切向方向的变化特征,发现主雨带对流尺度结构的一些新特征。首先,主雨带中游反转上升气流中存在小尺度扰动环流,主要位于向外倾斜的高雷达回波内侧。第二,发现主雨带中、下游区域存在高层入流,携带干空气进入眼墙与反转上升气流之间,进一步限制主雨带的高度。第三,在中、下游区域次级水平风速大值逐渐被与低层下沉气流相联系的切向风急流所取代。 关键词:切向变化, 主雨带, 热带气旋, WRF-LES模拟
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4.1. Overturning updraft
Figures 6a-d show the composited cross sections of upward vertical motion and simulated radar reflectivity. Note that part of the TC eyewall is indicated by the strong vertical motion and enhanced radar reflectivity on the far-left side. In the upwind part (R1), the overturning updraft can be identified by the strong vertical motion below 6 km radially between ?5 km and 0 km, and lies in the inner edge of the reflectivity tower (Fig. 6a). The updraft and reflectivity tower lean radially outward slightly. In R2, however, there are three maxima in the upward motion, indicating three distinct updrafts. The tallest updraft is radially between ?5 km and 10 km, reaching the altitude of about 8 km with the strongest vertical motion at about 4 km. Compared to the updraft in R1, the tallest updraft in R2 further tilts in the vertical and is in the inner edge of the reflectivity tower (Fig. 6b). The other two maxima on the radially inward side of the strongest updraft are accompanied by the separate reflectivity towers. The altitudes of these two updrafts decrease radially inward. Figure6. (a?d) Composited radius?height cross section of upward vertical motion (shaded; units: m s?1) and radar reflectivity (contours; unit: dBZ) at 29 h, no less than 30 dBZ, at intervals of 5 dBZ. (e?h) As in (a?d) but for downward vertical motion (shaded; units: m s?1). Each cross section is centered at the fitting line extending 30 (10) km radially inward (outward).
As the principal rainband spirals close to the TC eyewall (R3 and R4), the stratiform precipitation increases, and the individual reflectivity towers merge into a single tower (Figs. 6c and d). There are multiple enhanced updrafts that are aligned along the inward side of the outward-leaning reflectivity tower. The strongest one is tallest and reaches about 6 km, lower than that in R2. Although the overturning updraft in the conceptual model is indicated by a strong updraft associated with a single convective cell (Hence and Houze, 2008; Didlake and Houze, 2009), we can see that the overturning updrafts actually consist of a series of small-scale structures that are aligned along the inward side of the outward-leaning reflectivity tower. In order to demonstrate the small-scale structures, we calculated the perturbation wind fields by removing the 3-km running average. Figure 7 shows the 3D structure of the perturbation wind field in R2. We can see three rolls embedded in the overturning updraft, indicated by the 3-km mean vertical motion on the background. Their vertical and radial scales are 1?2 km with downward drafts on the radially inward side. As shown in Fig. 6, the 3-km mean vertical velocity along the inward side of the outward-leaning reflectivity tower generally increases radially outward. We think that the horizontal rolls may be associated with the radial shear of the vertical motion and the vertical shear of the radial motion. Didlake and Houze (2009) found that the overturning updraft of the principal rainband of Hurricane Katrina (2005) reached a maximum speed of over 4 m s?1 between 3- and 5-km altitude. In our simulation, the maximum speed of the updrafts is about 3 m s?1 at similar altitude. Considering that the azimuthal average was removed in the current analysis, the simulated overturning updrafts are consistent in magnitude with the observation in Didlake and Houze (2009). Figure7. The 3D streamlines of the perturbation wind. The vertical cross section of the 3-km running mean of vertical motion is in the background. The warm and cold colors in the shading and streamlines indicate the upward and downward vertical motion, respectively. The x-axis and y-axis indicate the distance (km) from the TC center, and the z-axis indicates the altitude (km) from sea level.
The small-scale perturbation in the principal rainband can be further examined by calculating the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) at 29 h. The calculation of TKE was based on the perturbation wind fields by removing the 3-km running average. Following Lorsolo et al. 2010, it can be written as where $ {u}' $, $ {v}' $, and $ {w}' $ are the perturbation wind components. Figure 8a shows the horizontal distribution of TKE at 5-km height. While the large TKE in the eyewall is associated with extreme updrafts (Zheng et al., 2020), there is large TKE in the principal rainband, indicating the presence of small-scale structures. Figure 8b shows the vertical profile of the TKE averaged over the region in Fig. 7. The cross sections are averaged with 26 profiles at an interval of 0.2°. There are three TKE maxima corresponding to the small-scale structures in Fig. 7. Figure8. (a) The 5-km TKE (units: m2 s?2) at 29 h. (b) Radius?height cross section of TKE (units: m2 s?2) composited with intervals of 0.2° in the box in (a). The box covers the region in Fig. 7.
2 4.2. IED -->
4.2. IED
Hence and Houze (2008) were the first to detect the IED in Hurricanes Katrina (2005) and Rita (2005). The principal rainband was bounded by a strong downdraft that originated at upper levels. They suggested that the sharp inner-edge reflectivity gradient was due to the presence of the IED. Didlake and Houze (2009) further demonstrated that the IED originating between the altitudes of 6 and 8 km was forced aloft by pressure perturbations formed in response to the adjacent buoyant updrafts and the negative buoyancy associated with the evaporative cooling from the rainband precipitation. Figures 6e-h show the composited downward motion and radar reflectivity for R1?R4. The most intense downward motion in R1 lies radially between ?15 km and ?20 km, with the maximum at 4-km altitude (Fig. 6e). The downdraft is about 15 km away from the strongest updraft shown in Fig. 6a. From R1 to R4, the downdraft leaning radially outward extends in length and increases in strength, reaching its peak strength in R3 and R4. As indicated in Hence and Houze (2008) and Didlake and Houze (2009), the strong outward-leaning downdraft tops the overturning updrafts and limits their altitude. The IED can be further seen in the cross section of the vectors of radial and vertical motions (Fig. 9). Note that the symmetric components of the radial and vertical motions relative to the TC center have been removed. Due to the relatively weak downward motion, the contours of downward motion are also plotted in this figure. In the upwind part (R1), the strong IED below the outflow from the TC eyewall is associated with a circulation with the upward branch in the expanded eyewall convection. It is suggested that the downdraft is induced by the eyewall convection rather than the convection of the principal rainband. From R1 to R4, as the rainband gradually spirals close to the eye convection, the downdraft intensifies and extends from the surface to about 10 km. Figure9. (a?d) Composited radius?height cross section of downward motion (shaded; units: m s?1) and the field of asymmetric radial and vertical velocities (vectors; units: m s?1) at 29 h. Each cross section is centered at the fitting line extending 30 (10) km radially inward (outward).
In addition, the strong IED is combined with a branch of inflow from the upper levels in R3 and R4 (Figs. 9c and d). The cross section of relative humidity indicates that the inflow carries upper-level dry air to the region between the overturning updrafts and eyewall (figure not shown). The intrusion of upper-level dry air strengthens the downdraft in the downwind portion of the principal rainband. Based on numerical experiments, Li et al. (2015) suggested that the upper-level intrusion of relatively dry air may enhance the sublimation of ice particles in the upper-level outflow. While previous studies have suggested that the vertical tilt and extent of the overturning updraft are generally limited by the TC outflow (Hence and Houze, 2012; Didlake and Houze, 2013a; Zagrodnik and Jiang, 2014), as shown in Fig. 9, this study indicates that the intrusion of dry air associated with the upper-level inflow further limits the altitude of the overturning updraft in the downwind part of the principal rainband.
2 4.3. LLD -->
4.3. LLD
The LLD below the overturning updraft was revealed in previous studies (Barnes et al., 1983; Hence and Houze, 2008; Didlake and Houze, 2009). In conceptual models (Barnes et al., 1983; Hence and Houze, 2008), the LLD originates at 2?4 km within the heavy precipitation of the principal rainband and is driven by the precipitation drag. As shown in Figs. 6e-h, the main features of the simulated LLD are generally consistent with previous studies (Barnes et al., 1983; Hence and Houze, 2008; Didlake and Houze, 2009), although the maximum downward motion of 1.3 m s?1 in the LLD is weaker than that in Didlake and Houze (2009). The LLD can be clearly identified in the middle and downwind parts (R2?R4) of the principal rainband. The LLD originates at 2?4 km and descends to the boundary-layer inflow, entering the rainband on its radially outward side (Fig. 9). Previous studies have suggested that the LLD has the potential to lower the moist static energy of the flow in the boundary layer (Barnes et al., 1983; Powell, 1990a, b). Figure 10 shows the cross sections of equivalent potential temperature and asymmetric equivalent potential temperature from R1 to R4. While there is a large area of low equivalent potential temperature between the eyewall and the overturning updrafts where the IED lies, the LLD is also associated with the equivalent potential temperature less than 352 K. The equivalent potential temperature in the boundary inflow is generally above 352 K. It is indicated that the low equivalent potential temperature mixes with the boundary-layer inflow air. In addition, in Figs. 6e-h and Figs. 6a-d we can see small-scale features in the LLD and the boundary-layer inflow. As shown in Fig. 10, the environment is convectively unstable below the LLD. Since the LES technique was incorporated in the numerical experiment, it is suggested that the small-scale features can be simulated when the horizontal and vertical resolution are about 100 m. Figure10. (a?d) Composited radius?height cross section of asymmetric equivalent potential temperature (shaded; unit: K) and equivalent potential temperature (contours; unit: K) at 29 h, no less than 350 K, at intervals of 2 K. Each cross section is centered at the fitting line extending 30 (10) km radially inward (outward).
2 4.4. SHWM -->
4.4. SHWM
Previous observational studies have indicated that the principal rainband is associated with a mid-level wind maximum or the SHWM (Samsury and Zipser, 1995; Hence and Houze, 2008). Ryan et al. (1992) found that such an SHWM was associated with the rainband within a developing storm, and Barnes and Stossmeister (1986) indicated that the SHWM dissipated along with the convection within a decaying rainband. To illustrate the features of the tangential wind in the principal rainband of the simulated TC, we first removed the symmetric component of the tangential wind and then plotted the radial?height cross sections averaged over the four segments (Fig. 11). Figure11. (a?d) Composited radius?height cross section of asymmetric tangential wind (shaded; units: m s?1), asymmetric radial wind at intervals of 3 m s?1 (contours; units: m s?1), and radial velocity with dashed (solid) contours indicating inflow (outflow), at 29 h. Each cross section is centered at the fitting line extending 30 (10) km radially inward (outward).
As shown in Fig. 11, enhanced tangential wind at about 4 km can be found in all four segments, and it reaches a maximum of about 5 m s?1 in R2. Compared to Fig. 6, the enhanced tangential wind is generally collocated with the overturning updrafts. In agreement with the conceptual model in Hence and Houze (2008), careful examination indicates that the SHWM shifts radially outward slightly, relative to the most intense vertical motion in Fig. 6. In the downwind part (R3 and R4), however, the strength of the mid-level wind maximum decreases and the SHWM is replaced by a low-level maximum of the tangential wind. Although Didlake and Houze (2013a) also mentioned the difference of the mid-level tangential jet in the outer rainband and low-level tangential jet in the inner rainband, the altitude change in this study occurs azimuthally in the same rainband. The LLWM is collocated with the LLD, which was not found in previous studies. In our simulation, the LLWM associated with the IED, as suggested by Didlake and Houze (2009), is not found. Barnes et al. (1983) suggested that the low-level radial inflow slowed in the rainband and argued that the rainband may provide a barrier to the moist inflow to the storm. Although the azimuthal average has been removed, the radial inflow in the boundary can be found in Fig. 11. It reaches a peak in R2 as the overturning updrafts are strongest. The depth of the inflow layer is thicker in the upwind part than in the downwind part. As the depth of the inflow layer decreases, the speed of the inflow also decreases. It is suggested that the rainband can provide a barrier to the moist inflow to the eyewall of the simulated TC.