Influence of mesoscale topography on vortex intensity

The effect of mesoscale topography on multi-vortex self-organization is investigated numerically in this paper using a barotropic primitive equation model with topographic term. In the initial field there are one DeMaria major vortex with the maximum wind radius rm of 80 km at the center of the computational domain, and four meso-β vortices in the vicinity of rm to the east of the major vortex center. When there is no topography present, the initial vortices self-organize into a quasi-final state flow pattern, i.e. a quasi-axisymmetric vortex whose intensity is close to that of the initial major vortex. However, when a mesoscale topography is incorporated, the spatial scale of the quasi-final state vortex reduces, and the relative vorticity at the center of the vortex and the local maximum wind speed remarkably increase. The possible mechanism for the enhancement of the quasi-final state vortex might be that the negative relative vorticity lump, generated above the mesoscale topography because of the constraint of absolute vorticity conservation, squeezes the center of positive vorticity towards the mountain slope area, and thus reduces the spatial range of the major vortex. Meanwhile, because the total kinetic energy is basically conservative, the squeezing directly leads to the concentration of the energy in a smaller area, i.e. the strengthening of the vortex.