The evolution of a hurricane-trough interaction from a satellite perspective

Abstract

A case study is presented that describes the interaction of Hurricane Bertha (1996) with an extratropical upper-tropospheric trough shortly before the hurricane's landfall in North Carolina. This case study illustrates the evolution of the interaction as seen in water vapor satellite imagery. The similarity of the features in the satellite images to those in gridded analyses of potential vorticity in the upper troposphere suggests that some types of trough interactions may be identifiable from satellite imagery.