Environmental influences on hurricane intensification

Abstract

Winds measured by satellite cloud tracking, commercial aircraft, and rawinsondes are composited using a rotated coordinate system designed to preserve the asymmetries in the upper-tropospheric environment. Composites of upper-tropospheric environmental flows for intensifying and nonintensifying hurricanes for a five-year period are compared. Nonintensifying composites indicate stronger mean environmental flow relative to the hurricane motion, unidirectional flow over and near the hurricane center, and slightly weaker radial outflow and/or more prounounced anticyclonic flow surrounding the center in the upper troposphere. -from Author