Mesovortices, Polygonal Flow Patterns, and Rapid Pressure Falls in Hurricane-Like Vortices

The present work considers the two-dimensional barotropic evolution of thin annular rings of enhanced vorticity embedded in nearly irrotational flow. Such initial conditions imitate the observed flows in intensifying hurricanes. Using a pseudospectral numerical model, it is found that these highly unstable annuli rapidly break down into a number of mesovortices. The mesovortices undergo merger processes with their neighbors and, depending on initial conditions, they can relax to a monopole or an asymmetric quasi-steady state. In the latter case, the mesovortices form a lattice rotating approximately as a solid body. The flows associated with such vorticity configurations consist of straight line segments that form a variety of persistent polygonal shapes.