Hot tower

A NASA Global Hawk detects a hot tower measuring over 12 km (7.5 mi) high within the eyewall of Hurricane Karl on September 16, 2010.

A hot tower is a tropical cumulonimbus cloud that reaches out of the lowest layer of the atmosphere, the troposphere, and into the stratosphere.[1] These formations are called "hot" because of the large amount of latent heat released as water vapor that condenses into liquid and freezes into ice within the cloud. Hot towers in regions of sufficient vorticity may acquire rotating updrafts; these are known as vortical hot towers In some instances, hot towers appear to develop characteristics of a supercell, with deep and persistent rotation present in the updraft.[2] The role of hot towers in tropical weather was first formulated by Joanne Simpson in 1958. Hot towers dominated discussions in tropical meteorology in the 1960s and are now considered the main drivers of rising air within tropical cyclones and a major component of the Hadley circulation. Although the prevalence of hot towers in scientific literature decreased in the 1970s, hot towers remain an active area of research. The presence of hot towers in tropical cyclones is correlated with an increase in the tropical cyclones' intensities.[3]

  1. ^ Voiland, Adam (12 September 2012). "Discovering Hot Towers". Earth Observatory. NASA. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  2. ^ Voiland, Adam (12 September 2012). "Discovering Hot Towers". NASA. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  3. ^ Chohan, Rani. "Scientists Discover Clues to What Turns a Hurricane into a Monster". 12 January 2004: NASA. Archived from the original on 28 September 2022. Retrieved 16 March 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)