资源环境科技发展态势分析平台

Although intense tropical cyclones (TCs) are considered to be axisymmetric vortices, observations reveal that they are often highly asymmetric. Better understanding of the underlying asymmetric dynamics is a critical step toward advancing TC intensity forecasting. In this paper, we revisit the mechanisms behind one of the most frequent asymmetric patterns: the deformation of the core into an elliptical shape. Previously, elliptical eyewalls were primarily thought to be an outcome of barotropic instability, a mechanism that involves the coupling and mutual growth of counterpropagating vortex Rossby (VR) waves. These results were largely based on simplified numerical models that filter out inertia-gravity (IG) waves. Consideration of IG waves introduces the possibility of an additional instability mechanism, one that involves a VR wave that spontaneously emits a spiral IG wave into the environment. We provide evidence that elliptical eyewalls, which may form within a three-dimensional primitive-equation nonlinear model that supports both instability types, can solely originate by the mechanism of spontaneous radiative imbalance. These evidences are supported by a number of nonlinear simulations, supplemental linear eigenmode analysis, and a linear simulation. The potential role of a multimechanistic instability is also briefly addressed.