The formation of concentric eyewalls with heat sink in a simple tropical cyclone model

A linearized, two-layer axisymmetric model analogous to Schubert el al. (1980) is used to simulate the formation of concentric eyewalls in an ideal strong tropical cyclone. By imposing a heat sink near the center of a cyclone the induced perturbation wind, through thermodynamic adjustment to the heat sink, forms a double-peak structure when the disturbance is added to the basic state tangential wind. The heat sink represents, in a crude way, evaporative cooling of precipitation falling from cloud during late stage convective activity or a cooling through environmental advection. Detailed profiling of the induced double-peak wind structure is dependent on the radial profile of the imposed heat sink. After the double-peak tangential wind structure is formed, if a heat source corresponding to a new convective activity is generated inside the outer maximum tangential wind, the outer eyewall contracts and strengthens while the inner eyewall weakens. This result suggests that thermodynamic adjustments to changes in the heating of a tropical-cyclone-core region may contribute to the formation of the double-eyewall phenomenon.