As AL92 passed just south of Jamaica (visible outlined in black at the top of the images) a NOAA P-3 mission collected airborne Doppler radar data to use in improving our understanding of tropical cyclogenesis, as well as for initializing and evaluating model guidance. Included here you will see images of the horizontal winds within about 150 km of the center of the disturbance sampled from the tail Doppler radar on the P-3 early on 13 September 2010. These images are at three altitudes, 1 km, 3 km, and 6 km, using a composite of winds from all three legs oriented north-south, southeast-northwest, and southwest-northeast. Wind, temperature and relative humidity from GPS dropsondes dropped from the P-3 are also visible at 1 and 3 km altitudes. Compared to the previous mission the wind field is more widespread. At 3 and 6 km altitude there appears to be a weak closed circulation evident in the southern portion of the wind field, however none is evident at 1 km altitude. The presence of a weak closed circulation at 3 and 6 km altitude suggest AL92 is getting better organized, however the lack of a closed circulation at 1 km suggests that cyclogenesis is still proceeding slowly.
Published on: September 14, 2010