Flight-Level Thermodynamic Instrument Wetting Errors in Hurricanes. Part I: Observations

Abstract

Flight-level thermodynamic errors caused by the wetting of temperature and moisture sensors immersed within the airstream are studied using data from 666 radial legs collected in 31 hurricanes at pressure levels ranging from 850 to 500 mb. Concurrent measurements from a modified Barnes radiometer and a Rosemount 102 immersion thermometer are compared to identify regions, called instrument wetting events (IWE), in which Rosemount temperatures are significantly cooler than radiometer-derived temperatures by a specified amount. A total of 420 IWE are identified in the dataset. Roughly 50% of the radial legs contain at least one instrument wetting event. More than 90% of IWE are associated with updrafts containing cloud water and are confined to scales less than 10 km. IWE are also found to be more frequent in eyewalls and intense hurricanes. Thermodynamic errors within IWE and convective updrafts and downdrafts are summarized as distributions of average temperature, specific humidity, virtual potential temperature, and equivalent potential temperature error. Distributions are skewed toward larger error values at all levels. Median average errors within IWE indicate that the thermodynamic quantities are typically too low by ?1°C, ?1 g kg?1, ?1.5 K, and ?5 K, respectively. The largest errors (>90% of the distribution) are nearly twice the median values. Error magnitudes tend to increase with height, but rarely achieve theoretical predictions. In addition, more than 65% of updrafts and 35% of downdrafts are found to contain significant thermodynamic errors. A correction method used in earlier studies was found to be inadequate at removing the majority of errors, but reduced the errors by ?30%?50% on average.