Imperial College London
Alternate

ProfessorRalfToumi

Faculty of Natural Sciences, The Grantham Institute for Climate Change

Co-Director, Grantham Institute - Climate Change&Environment
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 7668r.toumi Website CV

 
 
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Location

 

713Huxley BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{wang:2019:10.1175/jas-d-18-0302.1,
author = {wang, S and Toumi, R},
doi = {10.1175/jas-d-18-0302.1},
journal = {Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences},
pages = {1809--1826},
title = {Impact of dry midlevel air on the tropical cyclone outer circulation},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-18-0302.1},
volume = {76},
year = {2019}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The impact of dry midlevel air on the outer circulation of tropical cyclones is investigated in idealized simulations with and without a moist envelope protecting the inner core. It is found that a dry midlevel layer away from the cyclone center can broaden the outer primary circulation and thus the overall destructive potential at both developing and mature stages. The midlevel outer drying enhances the horizontal gradient of latent heating in the rainbands and drives the expansion of the outer circulation. The moist convection at large radii is suppressed rapidly after the midlevel air is dried in the outer rainbands. An enhanced horizontal gradient of latent heating initiates a radial-vertical overturning circulation anomaly in the rainbands. This anomalous overturning circulation accelerates the radial inflow of the main secondary circulation, increases the angular momentum import, and thus increases the cyclone size. The dry air, mixed into the boundary layer from the midtroposphere, is “recharged” by high enthalpy fluxes due to the increased thermodynamical disequilibrium above the sea surface. This “recharge” process protects the eyewall convection from the environmental dry air ventilation. The proposed mechanism may explain the continuous expansion in the tropical cyclone outer circulation after maturity as found in observations.
AU  - wang,S
AU  - Toumi,R
DO  - 10.1175/jas-d-18-0302.1
EP  - 1826
PY  - 2019///
SN  - 0022-4928
SP  - 1809
TI  - Impact of dry midlevel air on the tropical cyclone outer circulation
T2  - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-18-0302.1
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/70065
VL  - 76
ER  -
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