Possible Implications of Self-Similarity for Tornadogenesis and Maintenance

Self-similarity in tornadic and some non-tornadic supercell flows is studied and power laws relating various quantities in such flows are demonstrated. Magnitudes of the exponents in these power laws are related to the intensity of the corresponding flow and thus the severity of the supercell storm. The features studied in this paper include the vertical vorticity and pseudovorticity, both obtained from radar observations and from numerical simulations, the tangential velocity, and the energy spectrum as a function of the wave number. Connections to fractals are highlighted and discussed.