TITLE:
Kinetic Energy Budget of a Tropical Cyclone
AUTHORS:
Heshmat Abdel-Basset Mohamed, Mahmoud Ahmed Husin, Hosny Mohamed Hasanen
KEYWORDS:
Kinetic Energy Budget, Tropical Cyclone, Divergent Wind, Rotational Wind, Dissipation of Energy, Jet Stream, Generation of Energy
JOURNAL NAME:
Atmospheric and Climate Sciences,
Vol.5 No.4,
October
9,
2015
ABSTRACT: An
analysis of the kinetic energy budget is made for a tropical cyclone.
Horizontal flux convergence constitutes a major energy source. Generation of
kinetic energy via cross-contour flow is a persistent sink throughout the
pre-storm and growth periods. Dissipation of kinetic energy from subgrid to
grid scales is an important source during the pre-storm and growth periods; it
acts as the major sink of energy during the decay period. The major
contribution to kinetic energy comes from a persistent upper tropospheric jet
stream activity throughout the period of the cyclone development. Unlike
midlatitude cyclones, a considerable quantity of kinetic energy appears between
850 - 500 hPa layers especially during the growth period. While the behavior of
the values of horizontal divergence by nondivergent wind closely resemble to
those of total horizontal divergence term, neglecting the divergent part of the
wind would clearly lead to a considerable error in the calculation of total
horizontal divergence. The mean error in approximation of total horizontal
divergence by the nondivergent part during the life cycle of our cyclone is
about 36%.