Terminal Doppler Weather Radar Observation of Atmospheric Flow over Complex Terrain during Tropical Cyclone Passages

A Terminal Doppler Weather Radar (TDWR) started operation in Hong Kong, China, in 1997 for monitoring wind shear associated with thunderstorms affecting the Hong Kong International Airport. The airport was built on land reclaimed from the sea and lies to the immediate north of the mountainous Lantau Island, which has hills rising to nearly 1000 m. Since 1997, the airport experienced a number of tropical cyclone passages, some bringing strong southerly winds across these hills. Under these conditions the TDWR captured interesting but complex flow patterns in the lower atmosphere. The TDWR Doppler velocity datasets reveal features not previously observed with conventional instruments. These include shear lines, reverse flow, small-scale vortices, streaks of low-speed flow set against a high-speed background, as well as gap-related downslope high-speed flow. Hovmöller diagrams constructed from the Doppler velocity data bring out in considerable detail periodic shedding of vortices and transient wind patterns in the wake of the hills.