Cyclostrophic adjustment and nonlinear oscillations in the core of an intense atmospheric vortex

Intense atmospheric vortices are characterized by a regime of cyclostrophic balance, i.e., the balance between the pressure gradient and centrifugal force. To describe motions in the core of an axisymmetrical vortex, a class of exact solutions to the equations of gas dynamics with a linear dependence on radius is derived for the velocity components and with a quadratic dependence for temperature. It is shown that small deviations from the balance state give rise to oscillations of the hydrothermodynamic fields in the vortex core with a frequency proportional to the angular velocity of the rotation of the core. For fairly large initial deviations, oscillations are clearly anharmonic and, under the conditions of the prevailing centrifugal force, result in a significant temperature decrease on the vortex axis. The application of this class of solutions to describing the Ranque vortex effect (the intense cooling of gas during rapid rotations) and the acoustic radiation from tornadoes is discussed.