A Laboratory Hurricane Model Incorporating an Analog to Release of Latent Heat

Abstract

The heat of neutralization between acid and base solutions may be used in laboratory models of atmospheric circulation to simulate the thermal effects of release of latent heat of condensation. This concept is used here to produce a model vortex strongly resembling a hurricane. An environmental acid solution is put in solid rotation; then a large-scale Hadley circulation is produced by cooling at the outer top boundary while a base solution is introduced at the bottom boundary. The low-level convergent flow containing the base solution is confined to an Ekman boundary layer. Little mixing and release of chemical energy occur until a suitably small radius is reached. At that point, vigorous ascent occurs with rapid cyclonic rotation. The result is strikingly like a hurricane eye wall. Descent in this eye is observed. Appropriate dimensionless parameters reveal that this interesting vortex is kinematically and dynamically similar to a steady-state prototype hurricane. Some conditions for the formation of a hurricane-like vortex are determined experimentally.