Hurricane Elena 1985

My Ph.D. research focused on the structure and evolution of Hurricane Elena (1985).  Elena is a unique case for study as the storm made a slow, two-day anticyclonic loop in the Gulf of Mexico while strengthening into a category 3 hurricane.  It was during this time that one of the most complete radar and aircraft reconnaissance data sets of a single tropical cyclone was recorded with 1,142 ground-based radar scans, 86 radial flight legs and 47 vertical incidence scans collected aboard NOAA P3 aircraft and processed by Michael Black at the Hurricane Research Division of NOAA.

With this wealth of data available, my thesis research focused on a number of different aspects of Elena.  These topics included exploring the evolution of the symmetric component of the vortex, investigating the relationship between vortex asymmetries and environmental vertical wind shear, and examination of the inner sprial rainbands for evidence of vortex Rossby waves.

Ground Based Radar
Description of the data set (including data processing and sample images)
Time series of the coverage of deep convection
Full reflectivity animation 1800-2055 UTC

Symmetric Intensification
Radius-time Hovmollers of azimuthally averaged flight level quantities
Line graphs of the changes in symmetric radial structure with inetnsoty change
Composite vertical incidence profiles

Reflectivity Hovmollers and vortex Rossby waves
Review of vortex Rossby wave theory and literature
Hovmollers of azimuthal wavenumber components (please see Corbosiero et al. 2006)