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Wake Vortex Pair Formation As An Analog For Dust Devil And Tornado Genesis, Robert L. Ash
Wake Vortex Pair Formation As An Analog For Dust Devil And Tornado Genesis, Robert L. Ash
Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications
In 1966, meteorologist R.S. Scorer attempted to explain how large-scale oceanic tropical depressions become hurricanes or typhoons. His model was based on the idea that when these large-scale tropical depression structures begin to rotate, mostly due to Coriolis effects, an annular outer portion of that structure changes suddenly to a potential vortex segment, with the same outer radial limit as the low-pressure structure, but with an inner radius that conserves the overall system angular momentum and kinetic energy. By analogy with the "jump" instability describing sudden buckling of a vertical column, this paper shows that his conjecture merits additional consideration. …