page_title: Upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex
section_title: Interaction with tropical cyclones
hierarchical_section_title: Upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex / Interaction with tropical cyclones
caption_attribution_description: English: Satellite image of two upper tropospheric cyclonic vortices acting as outflow channels for Hurricane Dean (2007)
context_page_description: An upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex is a vortex, or a circulation with a definable center, that usually moves slowly from east-northeast to west-southwest and is prevalent across Northern Hemisphere's warm season. Its circulations generally do not extend below 6,080 metres in altitude, as it is an example of a cold-core low. A weak inverted wave in the easterlies is generally found beneath it, and it may also be associated with broad areas of high-level clouds. Downward development results in an increase of cumulus clouds and the appearance of circulation at ground level. In rare cases, a warm-core cyclone can develop in its associated convective activity, resulting in a tropical cyclone and a weakening and southwest movement of the nearby upper tropospheric cyclonic vortex. Symbiotic relationships can exist between tropical cyclones and the upper level lows in their wake, with the two systems occasionally leading to their mutual strengthening. When they move over land during the warm season, an increase in monsoon rains occurs.
context_section_description: The summer TUTT in the Southern Hemisphere lies over the trade wind region of the east central Pacific and can cause tropical cyclogenesis offshore Central America.  University of Hawaii Professor James C. Sadler has documented tropical cyclones over the eastern North Pacific that were revealed by weather satellite observations, and suggested that the upper-tropospheric circulation is a factor in the development, as well as the life history, of the tropical cyclones.  Ralph Huschke and Gary Atkinson proposed that a moist southwest wind that results from southeast trades of the eastern South Pacific deflecting towards the Pacific coasts of Central America between June and November, is known as the "temporale". Temporales are most frequent in July and August, when they can reach gale force and cause rough seas/swell. The area of heavy rain is generally located in the northeast quadrant approximately 5° of latitude (or 555 kilometres (300 nmi)) from the eye.  In the western Pacific, tropical upper tropospheric lows are the main cause for the few tropical cyclones which develop north of the 20th parallel north and east of the 160th meridian east during La Nina events.
  Trailing upper cyclones and upper troughs can cause additional outflow channels and aid in the intensification process of tropical cyclones.  Developing tropical disturbances can help create or deepen upper troughs or upper lows in their wake due to the outflow jet stream emanating from the developing tropical disturbance/cyclone.   In the western North Pacific, there are strong reciprocal relationships between the areas of formative tropical cyclones and that of the lower tropospheric monsoon troughs and the tropical upper tropospheric trough.  Tropical cyclone movement can also be influenced by TUTT cells within 1,700 kilometres (920 nmi) of their position, which can lead to non-climatological tropical cyclone tracks.
caption: Pair of upper tropospheric cyclonic vortices in the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic acting as outflow channels for Hurricane Dean in August 2007
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