Evaluation of Tropical Cyclone Center Identification Methods in Numerical Models

AbstractIdentifying the center of a tropical cyclone in a high-resolution model simulation has a number of operational and research applications, including constructing a track, calculating azimuthal means and perturbations, and diagnosing vortex tilt. This study evaluated several tropical cyclone center identification methods in a high-resolution Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model simulation of a sheared, intensifying, asymmetric tropical cyclone. The simulated tropical cyclone (TC) contained downshear convective cells and a mesovortex embedded in a broader TC vortex, complicating the identification of the TC vortex center. It is shown that unlike other methods, the pressure centroid method consistently 1) placed the TC center within the region of weak storm-relative wind, 2) produced a smooth track, 3) yielded a vortex tilt that varied smoothly in magnitude and direction, and 4) was insensitive to changes in horizontal grid resolution. Based on these results, the authors recommend using the pr...

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