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Subject: A10) What is a "TUTT"?
Fitzpatrick et al. 1995
Contributed by Chris Landsea
A "TUTT" is a Tropical Upper Tropospheric Trough.
A TUTT low is a TUTT that has completely cut-off. TUTT lows
are more commonly known in the Western Hemisphere as an "upper
cold low". TUTTs are different than mid-latitude troughs in that
they are maintained by subsidence warming near the tropopause which
balances radiational cooling. TUTTs are important for tropical
cyclone forecasting as they can force large amounts of
vertical wind shear over tropical disturbances and tropical
cyclones which may inhibit their strengthening. There are
also suggestions that TUTTs can assist tropical cyclone genesis
and intensification by providing additional forced ascent near
the storm center and/or by allowing for an efficient outflow channel
in the upper troposphere. For a more detailed discussion on TUTTs
see the article by Fitzpatrick et al.
(1995).
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