Hurricane structure question

[Keith Brandt]

Watching Laura come in to the coast on the GOES-16 and wondering what is causing the linear radial striations? I would expect more of an Archimedes spiral rather than linear. They are distinctly visible in the SW quadrant of the cyclone in this picture.


--Keith
Alvin TX

 

[Lou Ruh]

Watching Laura come in to the coast on the GOES-16 and wondering what is causing the linear radial striations? I would expect more of an Archimedes spiral rather than linear. They are distinctly visible in the SW quadrant of the cyclone in this picture.
View attachment 20885

--Keith
Alvin TX

Not an area I am well versed in, but, I believe this is what is called transverse banding (visible as these upper level cirrus bands). They often form generally perpendicular to the upper tropospheric wind flow.

 

[Jeff House]

My mentor calls them bicycle spokes. Bad news usually means intensifying or very intense already.

 

[Keith Brandt]

I sent my question to Levi Cowan of Tropical Tidbits and got this response:
"Those striations are typical when a burst of thunderstorms pushes outflow outward at a fast rate, so you'll often see them right after a big burst of convection like we had yesterday [with hurricane Sally]. Their cause is not known for sure, but they are likely 'rolls' caused by strong shearing of the wind in the outflow layer."

 

[Keith Brandt]

Here's the features on Sally. The GOES image is a bit course as it was taken at dawn (15 Sep 2020).

 

[Jeff Wright]

Phys.org has a new article out today called:

"Mathematical proof reveals new insights into typhoon dynamics" (spherical vortex).

It seems spherical vortices can be stable...this would seem to have more to do with ball lightning.