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Visualizing Shear

Posted: Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:34 pm
by RBDnhm
Do you have any suggestions on the best web site/image place to fairly easily see and interpret the amount of shear that is preventing a tropical cyclone from forming/intensifying/surviving? I have tried to refer to wind charts at various levels that some have referred to when discussing shear but since I was a liberal arts major they are hard for me to interpret. (I think I need something with an easy to use legend or key.)

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 1:17 pm
by senorpepr
The two links I wanted to share with you are:

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real- ... g8shr.html
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real- ... g8sht.html

Unfortunately... it appears that data didn't get populated properly, so I can't explain them fully. However... I'll try anyway.

The first link will show shear totals. It's a little difficult to read, but it's similar to a topography map. A line labeled 50 indicates that on that line, shear is 50KT.

The second link illustrates the shear better. While the lines indicate only shear tendency (is the shear strengthening or weakening), the colored background shows the total shear. Black shades show little to no shear, blues show around 10KT, greens show around 20KT, yellows show around 30KT, oranges show around 40KT, reds show around 50-70KT, pinks show around 80-90KT, and whites show around and above 100KT.

Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2007 5:36 pm
by O Town
Whats up? The wind tendency maps (your second link) are down, bad timing huh senorpepr?

Re: Visualizing Shear

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:14 pm
by RBDnhm
senorpepr:

Thanks for the links.