Applicability of Conservation Principles to Doubly-Periodic Hurricane Simulations

A simulation of a prolonged hurricane (>100 days) in a doubly-periodic, three-dimensional simulation will be described, similar to other studies that find quasi-steady state cyclones in such a configuration. This long-running hurricane in a limited environment presents a convenient formulation for examining how several important concepts thought to be important for hurricane intensity are regulated. In the face of the loss of relative angular momentum (RAM) beneath the surface cyclone circulation, a source for RAM is found to offset this loss. This source results from the periodic boundary conditions, and can be considered as the result of the interaction of the outflow anticyclone with “image” anticyclones beyond the boundaries.