Vertical Motions in Intense Hurricanes

Hurricane vertical motion properties are studied using aircraft-measured 1 Hz time series of vertical velocity obtained during radial penetrations of four mature hurricanes. A total of 115 penetrations from nine flight sorties at altitudes from 0.5 to 6.1 km are included in the data set. Convective vertical motion events are classified as updrafts (or downdrafts) if the vertical velocity was continuously positive (or negative) for at least 500 m and exceed an absolute value of 0.5 m s−1. Over 3000 updrafts and nearly 2000 downdrafts are included in the data set. A second criteria was used to define stronger events, called cores. This criteria required that upward (or downward) vertical velocity be continuously greater than an absolute value of 1 m s−1 for at least 500 m. The draft and core properties are summarized as distributions of average and maximum vertical velocity, diameter, and vertical mass transport in two regions: eyewall and rainband. In both regions updrafts dominated over downdrafts, both in number and mass transport. In the eyewall region, the draft and core strength distributions were similar to data collected by aircraft in GATE cumulonimbus clouds. Unlike GATE clouds, however, the largest updraft cores (larger than 90% of the distribution) were over twice as large and transported twice as much mass as did the corresponding GATE updraft cores. Eyewall ascent was highly organized in a channel several kilometers wide located a few kilometers radically inward from the radius of maximum tangential wind. As in GATE, the strongest hurricane updraft cores were weak in comparison with the strongest updrafts observed in typical midlatitude thunderstorms. Mean eyewall profiles of radar reflectivity and cloud water content are discussed to illustrate the microphysical implications of the low updraft rates.