Isolating surface flux influences on simulated hurricane intensity

An axisymmetric model that simulates very intense hurricane-like vortices at just modest resolution (Delta r = 3.75 km) is reexamined for sensitivities to influences of surface fluxes. The simulated hurricane-like vortices are subjected to artificial manipulations of the geographic distributions of surface enthalpy fluxes to determine the robustness of intensity. The experiments highlight the importance of an inertial overshoot region the result of which is an addition of enthalpy to the eyewall from the eye in addition to that accounted for by the standard Carnot model of intensity of hurricanes.