Rankine Vortex: A Simple Hurricane Model

radius of maximum winds (km)

maximum wind speed (m/s)

The Rankine vortex model is a simple two-equation parametric description of a swirling flow, characterized by a forced vortex in the central core and a free vortex with increasing distance from the center. The two parameters are the radius of maximum winds and the peak wind speed. The Rankine vortex is used as the basis for a number of simple descriptions of hurricane wind fields.

Details

See the Rankine Vortex entry on Wikipedia for more information.

Permanent Citation

Scott Goodrick

"Rankine Vortex: A Simple Hurricane Model"
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/RankineVortexASimpleHurricaneModel/
Wolfram Demonstrations Project
Published: September 28, 2007