VORTICES IN THE EYE OF HURRICANE ISABEL

A. E. Pokhil

This paper is about one of the superhurricanes, Isabel, crossing the Atlantic from 6 to 18 September 2003. It is found that the eye of the hurricane has unusual structures having the shape of vortices (possibly, toroidal formations like rings in a certain atmospheric layer) and horizontal sizes close to those of tornadoes. The diameter of the eye was 35—40 km, and diameters of each of the five vortices were 9 to 12 km. A cyclonic rotation of the system of vortices around the cyclone center is found, and the velocity of the center is estimated. The linear velocity of rotation of the vortex system varied with time from 27—38 to 66—92 m/s. The origin of maximums on the velocity plot is explained.