This comment addresses the Tropical Storm (TS) Earl upper-level vortex structure changes during a critical stage leading to the onset of rapid intensification as described by Rogers et al. Whereas the first NOAA WP-3D mission in TS Earl provided evidence of a shallow, broad vortex structure, the second WP-3D mission just 12 h later documented a deep, vertically stacked vortex undergoing rapid intensification. The authors attribute this vortex structure change to vertical alignment processes between the low-level Earl vortex and an upper-tropospheric mesoscale vortex about 50 km to the east in the mission 1 analyses.
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