Hurricane Visualization Using Liutex

Tropical cyclones (TCs) significantly affect a large portion of Earth’s population every year. It is important to understand how these hurricanes form and change intensity in order to prevent loss of life, protect property, and mitigate coastal damage. We are beginning a new study into TCs and how they can be analyzed using Liutex – a new Vortex Identification (VI) method. TCs have winds that move continuously in a circular motion. Liutex is a VI method that focuses solely on rotation, without contamination from shear. Previous VI methods (e.g. vorticity, lambda_cr, etc.) all have shear contamination that may affect our understanding of these vortices. The insight Liutex can provide into the genesis, track, intensity, and structure of TCs has potential to be invaluable. We will investigate and compare TC structures using the new Liutex and Modified Liutex Omega vortex identification methods.