Analysis of Integrated Kinetic Energy in 2017 Atlantic Tropical Cyclone Wind Fields

The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane Season was an active season that produced several damaging hurricanes, most notably Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria. The wind fields of these Atlantic hurricanes varied substantially from storm to storm, both in intensity and size. Furthermore, some individual storms exhibited drastic wind field transformations within their lifecycle alone. Integrated kinetic energy is well suited for evaluating the evolution of tropical cyclones throughout this past season since the comprehensive metric considers the overall size, strength, and structure of a storm’s wind field. Integrated kinetic energy can also be summed along the track of a storm, which can be used to put the individual Atlantic hurricanes of 2017, and the season as a whole, in perspective relative to recent history in the basin. A series of postseason RMS HWIND analyses are used as a basis for this analysis and comparison. These gridded wind analyses are based on aircraft, surface, and spaceborne observations gathered throughout the year and offer unique insight on the wind field structures found throughout the 2017 season.