Ming et al. (2025) Environmental and Boundary Layer Characteristics Associated With Intensity Change of Tropical Cyclones Under High Fullness

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-08
• Authors: Jie Ming, Ming‐Jai Su, Robert F. Rogers, Jun A. Zhang
• DOI: 10.1029/2025jd044142

Research Groups

Not explicitly mentioned in the abstract.

Short Summary

This study investigates why high-fullness tropical cyclones (TCs) sometimes weaken, comparing the structural and environmental conditions of intensifying and weakening TCs using GPS dropsonde data to improve intensity change prediction.

Objective

• To explore the structural characteristics and environmental conditions of weakening tropical cyclones (TCs) under high fullness to identify situations helpful for improved prediction of TC intensity change.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Tropical cyclone scale, focusing on the vortex skirt region, outer wind field, boundary layer, and friction layer (mesoscale to synoptic scale).
• Temporal Scale: Conditions associated with the state of intensifying versus weakening tropical cyclones.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not explicitly mentioned; the study is observational/analytical.
• Data sources: 5,218 GPS dropsondes collected from 36 tropical cyclones.

Main Results

• Weakening TCs under high fullness are characterized by strong southerly vertical wind shear, dry air, and less ocean heat content, indicating that adverse environmental conditions can counteract the favorable effects of high fullness.
• Structurally, weakening TCs exhibit a warmer, moister boundary layer but weaker surface fluxes compared to intensifying TCs.
• Weakening TCs show stronger inward advection of absolute angular momentum within the friction layer.
• Above the frictional inflow layer, weakening TCs display weak outflow, whereas intensifying TCs exhibit weak inflow.

Contributions

• Identifies specific structural and environmental factors that lead to the weakening of high-fullness tropical cyclones, providing insights into conditions that offset the typically favorable effects of high fullness.
• Contributes to improving the prediction of tropical cyclone intensity change by distinguishing between intensifying and weakening high-fullness TCs.
• Discusses implications for recent hypotheses regarding boundary layer ventilation and TC intensification.

Funding

Not explicitly mentioned in the abstract.

Citation

@article{Ming2025Environmental,
  author = {Ming, Jie and Su, Ming‐Jai and Rogers, Robert F. and Zhang, Jun A.},
  title = {Environmental and Boundary Layer Characteristics Associated With Intensity Change of Tropical Cyclones Under High Fullness},
  journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1029/2025jd044142},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1029/2025jd044142}
}