The Hurricane Intensity Issue

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Abstract
The intensity issue of hurricanes is addressed in this paper using the angular momentum budget of a hurricane in storm-relative cylindrical coordinates and a scale-interaction approach. In the angular momentum budget in storm-relative coordinates, a large outer angular momentum of the hurricane is depleted continually along inflowing trajectories. This depletion occurs via surface and planetary boundary layer friction, model diffusion, and “cloud torques”; the latter is a principal contributor to the diminution of outer angular momentum. The eventual angular momentum of the parcel near the storm center determines the storm’s final intensity. The scale-interaction approach is the familiar energetics in the wavenumber domain where the eddy and zonal kinetic energy on the hurricane scale offer some insights on its intensity. Here, however, these are cast in storm-centered local cylindrical coordinates as a point of reference. The wavenumbers include azimuthally averaged wavenumber 0, principal hurri... Abstract The intensity issue of hurricanes is addressed in this paper using the angular momentum budget of a hurricane in storm-relative cylindrical coordinates and a scale-interaction approach. In the angular momentum budget in storm-relative coordinates, a large outer angular momentum of the hurricane is depleted continually along inflowing trajectories. This depletion occurs via surface and planetary boundary layer friction, model diffusion, and “cloud torques”; the latter is a principal contributor to the diminution of outer angular momentum. The eventual angular momentum of the parcel near the storm center determines the storm’s final intensity. The scale-interaction approach is the familiar energetics in the wavenumber domain where the eddy and zonal kinetic energy on the hurricane scale offer some insights on its intensity. Here, however, these are cast in storm-centered local cylindrical coordinates as a point of reference. The wavenumbers include azimuthally averaged wavenumber 0, principal hurri...

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