Some Mean Hurricane Soundings

Abstract

Some "mean hurricane soundings" have been computed from 92 radiosonde observations collected within 100 n mi of the centers of hurricanes. High correlations between various parameters and the sea-level pressures of the observations are shown. The data have been stratified By sea-level pressure, giving more than one mean hurricane sounding. Diurnal variations were investigated and temperature differences that are statistically significant were found to exist in the middle and upper troposphere. In addition, potential buoyancies and available instability energies were computed for some of the mean soundings. Potential and equivalent potential temperatures were found to increase, while the net available instability energy decreased, and the tropopanse became higher and colder as the sea-level pressures of the observations decreased. The mean soundings are shown to be conditionally unstable in the lower levels and very stable inthe upper troposphere.