The Outer-Core Wind Structure of Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

This paper presents a summary of several seminal observational and numerical studies on climatology and possible change mechanisms of the outer-core wind structure of a tropical cyclone (TC). This has generally been referred to as size, a term also used in this review despite various definitions being given in the literature. In all the ocean basins where TCs exist, TC size has been found to vary with season, year, decade, latitude and longitude. Such variations are related to the synoptic flow patterns in which the TCs are embedded. Several factors have been identified as responsible for changes in TC size, including: environmental humidity, vortex structure, sea surface temperature and planetary vorticity. Each of these factors can modify the transport of lower tropospheric angular momentum into the TC and cause changes in its size. The paper ends with a discussion of outstanding issues in the study of the outer-core wind structure of a TC.

Tropical Cyclones and Climate Change Assessment: Part II: Projected Response to Anthropogenic Warming

“…TC size is an important determinant of storm surge risk (e.g., Powell and Reinhold 2007) and is correlated-along with TC intensity-to TC-related economic damages (e.g., Zhai and Jiang 2014). Several observational studies document the climatology of TC size (Kimball and Mulekar 2004;Dean et al 2009;Chavas and Emanuel 2010;Chan 2012, 2018;Knaff et al 2014;Wu et al 2015;Schenkel et al 2018). No detectable anthropogenic influences on TC size have been identified to date.…”

Rapid Growth of Outer Size of Tropical Cyclones: A New Perspective on Their Destructive Potential

“…TC outer size is mainly influenced by environmental factors such as humidity, synoptic horizontal momentum flux, and ocean surface temperature (Chan & Chan, 2013, 2018; Hill & Lackmann, 2009; Lin et al., 2015; Wang & Toumi, 2019). A few studies have explored outer size growth (Chan & Chan, 2013; Wang & Toumi, 2022b), but most were limited to the average growth of TC over its entire life cycle (Chan & Chan, 2015; Chavas & Lin, 2016).…”

An ERA5 global climatology of tropical cyclone size asymmetry

“…It is related to the tornado generation, storm surge, wind exposure, and heavy rain events (Irish et al ., 2008; Chen et al ., 2014; Rhodes and Senkbeil, 2014; Li et al ., 2019). The climatology and physics of TC size have been studying for decades (Chan and Chan, 2018). The TC size is found to have a weak linear correlation with TC intensity (Merrill, 1984; Chan and Chan, 2012).…”