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Advanced Numerical Modeling and Data Assimilation Techniques for Tropical Cyclone Prediction pp 589–626Cite as

The Hurricane Boundary Layer

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Abstract

The planetary boundary layer (PBL) within the troposphere of the atmosphere regulates the transfer of heat, moisture, and momentum between the atmosphere and the surface through drag effects, turbulent diffusion, and mixing processes (Stull, 1988; Garrat, 1994). The PBL is the layer of the atmosphere closest to the Earth and is therefore directly influenced by effects of the surface (friction, heating, cooling, evapotranspiration, etc.). Therefore, almost all the weather generation processes originate in the PBL. It is variously defined as a continental PBL or marine boundary layer (MBL) according to its location and secondly, as stable, neutral, or unstable, depending upon the degree of turbulence. The Hurricane Boundary Layer (HBL) is a special class of the MBL that refers to the bottom layer of the atmosphere in tropical cyclones (TCs). However, there are features unique to the HBL that has made modelling and understanding it one of the largest challenges facing the tropical cyclone forecasting community. Until recently, the risks to humans and scientific equipment associated with the extreme conditions in the HBL prevented the collection of high-quality observations in the HBL. Secondly, numerical models did not possess adequate resolution to model the HBL processes. Also there is a lack of understanding on the connection between the HBL structure and tropical cyclone intensity changes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    We will postpone the precise definition on the height of the HBL to section 4. Until then we refer to the lowest 2 km as the HBL in this text.

  2. 2.

    Depth of the inflow layer (hinfl or δ) is generally adopted to be the height of the hurricane boundary layer. However, significant turbulence and mixing may occur above this layer, especially in the eyewall region.

  3. 3.

    In advanced numerical models, the exchange coefficients are a function of stability and the roughness lengths for momentum, heat and moisture.

  4. 4.

    The depth of the inflow in this study was taken to be the height where the radial wind velocity is reduced to about 3 ms-1. Significant inflow above the boundary layer is not uncommon (e.g., Willoughby 1979).

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding from NOAA’s Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project that supported this work. The author acknowledges the support provided by Indo-US Science and Technology Forum, NOAA’s Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project and various national and international collaborators who have helped improving the operational HWRF model. Thanks are due to Ms. Lisa Bucci for offering editorial support and to Drs. J-W.Bao, Jun Zhang, Hua Chen, Frank Marks and Mr. Joshua Alland for providing the internal review for this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. NOAA/Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory/Hurricane Research Division, Miami, FL, USA

    Sundararaman G. Gopalakrishnan

  2. Radiological Safety and Environmental Group, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, India

    C. Venkata Srinivas

  3. Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami, Florida, USA

    Kieran T. Bhatia

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  1. Sundararaman G. Gopalakrishnan
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth, Ocean and Climate Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, 110016, Hauz Khas, Delhi, India

    U. C. Mohanty

  2. Hurricane Research Division, Atlantic Oceanographic Meteorological Laboratory, NOAA, Rickenbacker Causeway, 4301, 33149, Miami, FL, USA

    Sundararaman G. Gopalakrishnan

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Gopalakrishnan, S.G., Srinivas, C.V., Bhatia, K.T. (2016). The Hurricane Boundary Layer. In: Mohanty, U.C., Gopalakrishnan, S.G. (eds) Advanced Numerical Modeling and Data Assimilation Techniques for Tropical Cyclone Prediction. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-94-024-0896-6_23

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