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Entrainment of Upper Level Dry Air Into Hurricane EarlHurricane Earl formed in the Gulf of Mexico in September 1998. It quickly was upgraded from a tropical disturbance to tropical storm status and then to a hurricane. Earl possessed hybrid (tropical and extratropical) characteristics throughout its lifetime. The system maintained and erratic track, which led to wide variability in the operational track forecasts. It eventually made landfall on the Florida panhandle on 2 September and raced northeastward. During August and September 1998, NASA conducted the third Convection and Moisture Experiment (CAMEX-3). The experiment was focused on studying hurricanes with an emphasis toward developing a better understanding of their intensification and motion. Earl provides a unique opportunity to utilize high spatial and temporal resolution data collected from the DC-8 and high altitude ER-2 NASA platforms, which flew over Earl as it made landfall. These data can also be put into broader view provided by other instruments from the Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES) and the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellites. Hurricane Earl was affected by entrainment of dry air from the northwest. Hurricane Isis was intensifying and approaching the Mexican Pacific coast with its associated outflow potentially affecting the inflow into Earl as the storm neared Florida. In addition, a longwave synoptic trough circulation was present over the eastern U.S. Either or both of these could be responsible for the dry air into the system. This paper will focus on identifying the source of the dry by using upper-level wind and moisture fields derived from the GOES 6.7 um water vapor imagery. We will attempt to relate the large-scale observations to those from the NASA aircraft. An infrared instrument onboard the ER-2 also has a similar wavelength and may be able to confirm some of the GOES findings. In addition, a microwave radiometer with 4 channels focused on measuring precipitation and its associated ice scattering was also aboard the ER-2. The microwave observations will allow the authors to relate the entrainment to precipitation changes near the flight path of the aircraft.
Document ID
20000019588
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Guillory, Anthony R.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Jedlovec, Gary J.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Hood, Robbie E.
(NASA Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville, AL United States)
Atkinson, Robert J.
(Lockheed Martin Corp. Huntsville, AL United States)
LaFontaine, Frank J.
(Raytheon Co. Huntsville, AL United States)
Date Acquired
August 19, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 1999
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Meeting Information
Meeting: Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Country: United States
Start Date: May 29, 2000
End Date: June 2, 2000
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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