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Origins of UTLS Turbulence: Insights from the RRJ-ClimCORE Mesoscale Reanalysis - The ACCLIP Flight Over the Super Typhoon Hinnamnor (2022)
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  • Shingo Watanabe,
  • Rei Ueyama,
  • Masatomo Fujiwara,
  • Masashi Kohma,
  • Yoshio Kawatani,
  • Rachel Atlas,
  • Kenichi Kuma,
  • Takafumi Miyasaka,
  • Hisashi Nakamura
Shingo Watanabe
Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Rei Ueyama
NASA Ames Research Center
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Masatomo Fujiwara
Hokkaido University
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Masashi Kohma
Tokyo Daigaku
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Yoshio Kawatani
Hokkaido University
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Rachel Atlas
University of Washington
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Kenichi Kuma
University of Tokyo
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Takafumi Miyasaka
University of Tokyo
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Hisashi Nakamura
University of Tokyo
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Abstract

During the Asian Summer Monsoon Chemical and Climate Impact Project (ACCLIP), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) WB-57 high altitude research aircraft observed strong turbulence at an altitude of 15 to 18 km near the outflow of the Super Typhoon Hinnamnor in the Northwest Pacific. Our analyses based on the trial version of the “RRJ-ClimCORE” mesoscale reanalysis have revealed that a thin layer of strong vertical wind shear (VWS) extending just below the tropopause along the upper surface of the outflow from the typhoon eyewall provides favorable conditions for shear instability. Further analyses of the mesoscale background conditions based on RRJ-ClimCORE as well as the geostationary satellite Himawari-8 cloud imagery suggest that the convolution of such small-scale processes as convectively generated concentric gravity waves and shallow convection appearing as radially-banded cirrus clouds may have further increased the potential for turbulence generation. Absolute vorticity analysis suggests the occurrence of inertial instability to the north of the typhoon, which explains the development of radially-banded cirrus clouds as well as the layer of strong VWS around the flight altitudes. The present study thus demonstrates the advantages of the hourly output of RRJ-ClimCORE over 3-hourly output operational mesoscale analysis for investigating source mechanisms of turbulence in the upper-troposphere and lower-stratosphere.
13 Nov 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
14 Nov 2024Published in ESS Open Archive