Premium
On steady‐state tropical cyclones
Author(s) -
Smith Roger K.,
Montgomery Michael T.,
Persing John
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.2329
Subject(s) - tropical cyclone , steady state (chemistry) , angular momentum , momentum (technical analysis) , climatology , environmental science , function (biology) , meteorology , boundary layer , atmospheric sciences , mechanics , physics , geology , economics , classical mechanics , biology , chemistry , finance , evolutionary biology
We examine the physical constraints that must be satisfied to allow for a steady‐state tropical cyclone in an isolated environment, paying particular attention to the need to replenish absolute angular momentum at exactly the rate at which it is consumed and to the vanishing of the spin‐up function above the frictional boundary layer. We conclude that it is unlikely that these conditions will be met simultaneously and question whether globally steady‐state tropical cyclone solutions have merit. The implications for previous studies are discussed.