Role of Tropospheric Latent Heat Advective Fluxes in the Intensification of Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

An animated analysis of the data of global radiothermal satellite monitoring carried out in August 2000 has been applied to study the processes of evolution of tropical cyclones in the Northern Hemisphere. The crucial role of tropospheric advective latent heat fluxes within the rapid intensification of the tropical cyclone has been identified and confirmed by existing examples. The main disturbing factor that introduces significant errors into the evaluations by this approach is the proximity of large landmasses; hence a deeper analysis requires a preliminary selection of tropical cyclones moving over the ocean-water space away from the shoreline as objects of study. Proposals for further improving the analysis technique aimed at a detailed investigation of individual phases of a tropical cyclone evolution using large arrays of radiothermal remote data are formulated.