The generation of kinetic energy in tropical cyclones revisited

Smith, Roger K.; Montgomery, Michael T. und Kilroy, Gerard (2018): The generation of kinetic energy in tropical cyclones revisited. In: Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, Bd. 144, Nr. 717: S. 2481-2490

Abstract

Many previous diagnoses of the global kinetic energy budget for a tropical cyclone have given prominence to the global integral of a pressure-work term in the generation of kinetic energy. However, in his erudite textbook Atmosphere-Ocean Dynamics, Adrian Gill derives a form of the kinetic energy equation in which there is no such explicit source term. In this article we revisit the interpretations of the generation of kinetic energy given previously in light of Gill's analysis and compare the various interpretations, which are non-unique. Further, although global energetics provide a constraint on the flow evolution, in the context of the kinetic energy equation they conceal important aspects of energy generation and consumption, a finding which highlights the limitations of a global kinetic energy budget in revealing the underlying dynamics of tropical cyclones.

• Dokumententyp: Zeitschriftenartikel
• Fakultät: Physik
• Themengebiete: 500 Naturwissenschaften und Mathematik > 530 Physik
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• Sprache: Englisch