Recognition and Impact of Vorticity Maxima and Minima in Satellite Imagery

• Introduction
  • What is Vorticity
• Vorticity Maxima
  • Overview
  • Physical Background
    • Development of a Comma Pattern
    • Morphology of a Comma Pattern
    • Other Considerations
  • Analysis
  • Interpretation
  • Implication
  • Exercise
• Vorticity Minima
  • Overview
  • Physical Background
    • Development of a Anticomma Pattern
    • Morphology of a Anticomma Pattern
    • Other Considerations
  • Analysis
  • Interpretation
  • Implication
  • Exercise

Implications

The correct placement of vorticity maxima is vital to the placement of related dynamic features such as the axis of maximum winds and deformation zones. All of these dynamic features must fit cohesively into the atmospheric puzzle. The correct placement of a vorticity maximum might be the piece of the puzzle required to correctly identify and place other dynamic features.

Here are some important attributes of vorticity maxima to keep in mind when identifying them:

• Circulations around vorticity maxima are typically strong. As a result, numerical analyses of the atmosphere are typically successful in their placement and appropriate relative intensity. However, if numerical analyses should misplace or not analyze a vorticity maximum, the implications on the predictions could be important.
• Cyclonic circulations tend to be rather moist.
• Correctly identifying and locating vorticity maxima can help better predict convection and cloud patterns.
• Convective feedback in numerical models can generate spurious vorticity maxima that can be identified as inappropriate through a careful analysis of the WV imagery.
• The use of the Airmass RGB can have both strenghts as weaknesses. The strength is that it reveals the 3D aspect of the atmosphere. The weakness is that you must remember that the atmosphere and the dynamic features are 3D as well, so vorticity centres are actually vorticity tubes that are not necessarily vertical. This applies to all dynamic features.