As Karl intensified into a major hurricane and passes just north of Mexico (visible outlined in black at the bottom of the images) NOAA P-3 missions continue to collect airborne Doppler radar data to use in understanding rapid intensification and for initializing and evaluating model guidance. Included here you will see images of the horizontal winds within the inner core of Hurricane Karl sampled from the tail Doppler radar on the P-3 late on 16 September 2010. Wind, temperature and relative humidity from GPS dropsondes dropped from the P-3 are also visible at 1 km altitude. These images are at three altitudes, 1 km, 5 km, and 10 km, using a composite of winds from all three legs oriented northeast-southwest, southeast-northwest, and west-east. Note the strongest winds on the northeast side of the storm at all altitudes up to 10 km. There is little tilt apparent in the center of the circulation from 1 km to 10 km altitude, suggesting that Karl is not encountering much vertical shear of the horizontal wind over the vortex, a favorable condition for continued intensification.
Published on: September 17, 2010