Modification of misovortices during landfall in the Japan Sea coastal region

Misovortices frequently occur near the coastline of the Japan Sea during wintertime cold air outbreaks, generally developing over the sea and moving inland. To clarify the behavior of misovortices during landfall, temporal changes in the intensity and tilt of 12 misovortices over the coastal region of the Japan Sea were investigated during the winters of 2010/11 and 2011/12 using an X-band Doppler radar. For 11 vortices whose diameters were more than twice the effective radar beamwidth, the temporal change in the peak tangential velocity at lower levels (averaged below 400 m AGL) was analyzed. It was found that 8 out of the 11 vortices decreased after progressing between 0 and 6 km inland. For the remaining three vortices, the patterns of Doppler velocity couplet became unclear between 0 and 5 km inland, suggesting that these vortices also decayed soon after landfall. For four of the vortices, for which the analysis of the temporal evolution of tilt with height was made possible by several successive volume scans, the forward tilt with height increased after landfall. This study showed that modification to both the intensity and tilt with height of misovortices occurred after landfall.