The Resonant Excitation of Baroclinic Waves by the Divergent Circulation of Recurving Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

Abstract This paper explores the hypothesis that a tropical cyclone (TC) may produce baroclinic waves through the divergent circulation that arises from its low-level inflow and upper-level outflow. The model setting is a quasigeostrophic (QG) two-layer fluid in which the effect of the tropical cyclone is parameterized through a source term on the QG potential vorticity equation. Equations predicting the spectral subset of baroclinic waves that are excited through linear resonance are derived. The near-TC pattern of the baroclinic waves in the streamfunction field typically takes the form of a ridge–trough couplet whose phase with respect to the TC varies with the speed and direction of the TCs motion vector. The predictions from the linearized theory are verified in two ways: 1) fully nonlinear simulations are shown and 2) comparison is made to the observed upper-level ridge–trough couplets produced by recurving TCs in the Navy’s Operational Global Prediction System (NOGAPS). The implications of this work for the predictability of downstream impacts from recurving TCs are briefly described.