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Hurricanes at Landfall

Principal Investigator Peter Dodge

Collaborating Scientists

Goals :

One of HRD's goals is to "Enahance the ability to diagnose and predict the impact of tropical cyclones (TC) on life and property through wind, rain, waves, and storm surge". The prime impact will be felt at landfall. The TC decays as it moves inland, but this aspect of intensity change (another HRD goal) is not well understood. An accurate description of the tropical cyclone windfield near and after landfall, derived from airborne and surface observations, is essential for documenting intensity change, as well as damage to life and property. Data trnsmitted to the Tropical Pediction Center (TPC) in real time can be used in warning, preparedness and recovery.

Objective :

Collect and analyze data to observe intensity change at and after landfall. Transmit Flight-level, remotely-sensed (Tail Doppler radar, SFMR and C-SCAT/IWRAP winds) and near-surface observations (GPS sondes) to TPC for inclusion in H*Wind analyses. Coordinate deployment of mobile platforms to best capture intensity and intensity change at landfall. Generate windfields synthesized from the observations and use them to diagnose intensity change processes at landfall.

Method :

When a hurricane is forecast to make landfall in the continental US, the collaborating sceientists are contacted to plan for coordinated deployment of mobile observing platforms along the coast and inland. At the same time flight patterns are designed to enable the collection of fine-scale radar, sonde and surface data along the coast. Modules are also planned for inalnd flights to measure inland decay, safety permitting. These plans are continually updated and refined as the storm approaches land.

During the landfall one or two WP-3D aircraft fly patterns designed to collect data near the mobile sites in both onsore and offshore flow regimes. After the experiment each group is resposnsible for data collection, calibration and verification.

John Gamache's radar wind synthesis algorithms will be applied to Doppler radar data from all available platforms to generate landfall windfields. Then these analyses will be combined with data from GPS sondes and surface platforms to generate boundary layer profiles in onshore and offshore flow regimes.

Milestones :

  • Publish results from Doppler radar data analyzed for the initial landfall of Hurricane Danny.
  • Publish Hurricane Bonnie mesovortex paper.
  • Complete and publish Hurricane Floyd data analysis.

Accomplishments :

Several data sets have been collected in landfalling hurricanes, the last being in Hurricane Lili as it crossed the Louisiana coast on 3 October, 2003. Missions descriptions of the landfall flights can be found in the storm data section of the HRD web page; these documents include maps with flight tracks and mobile platform locations as well as lists of sondes deployed and sample radar images.

References ;

Powell, M. D., P. Dodge, and Michael L. Black, 1991: The landfall of Hurricane Hugo in the Carolinas: Surface wind distribution. Wea. Forecast., 6, 379-399.

Dodge, P.P., S.H. Houston, W.-C. Lee, J.F. Gamache, and F.D. Marks, 1999. Windfields in Hurricane Danny (1997) at landfall from combined WSR-88D and airborne Doppler radar data. Preprints, 23rd Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Dallas, TX, American Meteorological Society, Boston, 61-62

Dodge, P.P., J.F. Gamache, S.H. Houston, and F.D. Marks, Jr. 1999. Windfields in Landfalling Hurricanes from Multiple Doppler Radar Data: the 1998 Hurricane Season. Preprints, 29th International Conference on Radar Meteorology, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. American Meteorological Society, Boston, 273 -275

Dodge, P.P., S.M. Spratt, F.D. Marks, D.W. Sharp, and J.F. Gamache, 2000. Dual-Doppler analyses of mesovortices in a hurricane rainband. Preprints, 24th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, American Meteorological Society, Boston, 302-303

Dodge, P.P., S.T. Murillo, F.D. Marks, W.-C. Lee, P. Harasti, and C. MacAdie, 2001. Comparison of winds derived from single-radar GBVTD and dual-Doppler analyses in Hurricane Bret (1999) at landfall. Minutes, 55th Interdepartmental Hurricane Conference, Orlando, FL, Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research, Washington, D.C., BP27-BP28

Marks, F.D., P.P. Dodge, and C. Sandin, 1999. WSR-88D observations of hurricane atmospheric boundary layer structure at landfall. Preprints, 23rd Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, Dallas, TX, American Meteorological Society, Boston, 1051-1054

Mayrinck, C.E., P.P. Dodge, F.D. Marks, S.H. Houston, and J.F. Gamache, 2002. Evolution of the coastal windfield during the landfall of Hurricane Floyd (1999). Preprints, 25th Conference on Hurricanes and Tropical Meteorology, San Diego, CA, American Meteorological Society, Boston, 337-338

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Last modified: 5/16/2003
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