Potential Vorticity Analysis of Tropical Cyclone Intensification

The interaction of marginal Tropical Storm Danny (1985) with an upper-tropospheric positive potential vorticity anomaly was examined. The intensification mechanism proposed earlier for mature Hurricane Elena appears to be valid for Danny as well, despite significant differences in the synoptic-scale environment and in the stage of the tropical cyclone prior to the interaction. Both storms experienced rapid pressure falls as a relatively small-scale positive upper potential vorticity anomaly began to superpose with the low-level tropical cyclone center. The interaction is described in terms of a complex interplay between vertical wind shear, diabatic heating, and mutual advection among vortices at and below the level of the outflow anticyclone. Despite this complexity, the superposition principle appears to be conceptually useful to describe the intensification of tropical cyclones during such interactions.