ISSN 2070-7401 (Print), ISSN 2411-0280 (Online)
Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN REMOTE SENSING OF THE EARTH FROM SPACE

  

Sovremennye problemy distantsionnogo zondirovaniya Zemli iz kosmosa, 2016, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 159-171

On relations between form and intensity of tornado funnel cloud

P.B. Rutkevich 1 , P.P. Rutkevych 2 , N.Yu. Komarova 1 
1 Space Research Institute RAS, Moscow, Russia
2 Institute of High Performance Computing, A*STAR, Singapore, Singapore
Accepted: 05.10.2016
DOI: 10.21046/2070-7401-2016-13-6-159-171
The problem of a vortex perturbance development of a tornado funnel cloud type in axially symmetric geometry with Coriolis force is considered. The model takes into account the vertical profile dependence on the upward velocity field. This dependence parameterizes water latent heat release that always exists in the atmosphere. So, the nonlinear problem is considered having a limiting process to the usual convection or internal waves depending on the vertical temperature gradient sign. The funnel cloudiness is guaranteed by the vertical inhomogeneity of the vortex column radius, so in the first approximation it comes down to a conical vortex. Solution dynamics is obtained on the basis of Cauchy problem with chosen initial conditions. We demonstrate that in this set up the problem has linear stable solutions (internal waves) when the vertical temperature profile is convectively stable and linear unstable solutions (convection) when the vertical temperature profile is unstable. But the existence of nonlinearity can provide nonlinear solutions even if the vertical temperature profile is convectively stable.
Keywords: funnel cloud, latent heat, Cauchy problem, unstable solutions
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