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| Author(s): |
Lívia Márcia Mosso Dutra
Total Authors: 1
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| Document type: | Master's Dissertation |
| Press: | São Paulo. |
| Institution: | Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto Astronômico e Geofísico (IAG/SBD) |
| Defense date: | 2012-03-15 |
| Examining board members: |
Rosmeri Porfirio da Rocha;
Natalia Fedorova;
Rita Yuri Ynoue
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| Advisor: | Rosmeri Porfirio da Rocha |
| Abstract | |
This work aims to investigate the synoptic and dynamic processes of a sample of subtropical cyclones that occurred near the east coast of South America. A cyclonic vorticity maximum tracking algorithm and the Cyclone Phase Space (CPS) algorithm are used to track and to classify the life cycle evolution of the cyclones. By automating these algorithms, it was possible to perform the analysis of the phase diagrams of all the cyclones occurred in the Subtropical Atlantic during 2008, 2009 and March 2010. The synoptic conditions for two events were analyzed from the period prior to the genesis until the decay of the systems, and the heat and vorticity balance equations were used to investigate the thermodynamic and dynamic processes. Although with low intensity in terms of central pressure, the cyclones had a major impact on the weather conditions in their regions of occurrence, and the 925 hPa maximum sustained winds exceeded 15 m/s for several hours. Both selected cyclones, at least at a time of its subtropical phase, had a peak of warm horizontal advection at higher levels, whilst the warm horizontal advection at lower levels showed weak intensity. In the hybrid stages of both cyclones, the diabatic term was responsible for warming trends at low levels. However, during the extratropical transition in one of the cyclones, the direction of the near-surface turbulent fluxes reversed and the diabatic term began to contribute to cooling trends at low levels. In the upper troposphere, it was found that in some regions that featured large positive values of the thermodynamic equation diabatic term, there was also a significant negative residual of the vorticity equation. In these regions, the convective processes can explain the observed vorticity imbalances. For other regions and levels, at which there was no direct relationship between the residual fields, it is suggested here that convection influences the local variations of vorticity in a more distributed way in the atmospheric column, as well as the divergence associated with the vertical velocities can be more distributed throughout the troposphere, without being concentrated at only some levels. (AU) | |
| FAPESP's process: | 10/03340-9 - Subropical cyclones over South Atlantic Ocean: analysis of dynamic structure of one event |
| Grantee: | Lívia Márcia Mosso Dutra |
| Support Opportunities: | Scholarships in Brazil - Master |