A Preliminary Study of the Dynamics of Eastward Shifting Cyclonic Vortices

The dynamics of eastward shifting cyclonic vortices are investigated in terms of a barotropic primitiveequation model, and six experiments are performed. Both the interaction of a cyclonic vortex with vorticitylumps and the interaction of the vortex with the shearing basic flow may induce the strengthening of thevortex in a short period, however, the vortex intensity still shows a general decreasing tendency over thewhole integration time period. The interaction among the shearing basic flow, cyclonic vortex, and multiplevorticity lumps can change the tendency. The merging of the cyclonic vortex with vorticity lumps in theshearing basic flow of positive vorticity is directly responsible for the maintenance and development of thecyclonic vortex.