Date of Award

1-1-2019

Language

English

Document Type

Master's Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

College/School/Department

Department of Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences

Content Description

1 online resource (xiii, 113 pages) : illustrations (chiefly color), maps (chiefly color)

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Kristen L Corbosiero

Committee Members

Brian Tang

Keywords

Hurricane Harvey, 2017, Hurricane Irma, 2017, Rain and rainfall, Fronts (Meteorology), Convection (Meteorology), Wind shear

Subject Categories

Atmospheric Sciences

Abstract

Tropical cyclones pose a significant threat to life and property, and exhibit many severe weather hazards as they make landfall, such as storm surge, strong winds, flooding rains, and tornadoes. Tropical cyclone rainbands are associated with nearly all of these hazards, which can extend hundreds of kilometers inland. Thus, understanding tropical cyclone rainband structure, and the individual convective cells of which rainbands are composed, is important to mitigating risk. Several previous studies have documented the overall structure of tropical cyclone rainbands, including the cells of which they are comprised and the environments in which they are embedded. These studies have documented the vertical structure of the principal and distant rainbands, and the thermodynamic environments in which they occur. Observational studies have noted that tropical cyclone convection tends to organize downshear and that rotating thunderstorms tend to occur in the downshear-right quadrant of the tropical cyclone. Modeling studies have shown that convective cells tend to form upshear right and mature as the traverse cyclonically around the tropical cyclone.

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