Linear motion of a shallow-water, barotropic vortex Article

Willoughby, HE. (1988). Linear motion of a shallow-water, barotropic vortex . JOURNAL OF THE ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES, 45(13), 1906-1928. 10.1175/1520-0469(1988)045<1906:LMOASW>2.0.CO;2

cited authors

  • Willoughby, HE

authors

abstract

  • A barotropic model of tropical cyclone motion follows from calculation of linear wavenumber-1 perturbations on a moving, axisymmetric, maintained vortex. The perturbations are Rossby waves that depend upon the radial gradient of axisymmetric relative vorticity. The vortex has normal modes at zero frequency and at the most anticyclonic orbital frequency; the latter mode is barotropically unstable. The structure of the perturbations is calculable for arbitrary motion of the vortex, but one can select the acutal motion in a particular situation because that motion minimizes the Lagrangian of the system. -from Author

publication date

  • January 1, 1988

published in

start page

  • 1906

end page

  • 1928

volume

  • 45

issue

  • 13