The Generation of Global Kinetic Energy in Tropical Cyclones Revisited (Invited Presentation)

Many previous diagnoses of the generation of global kinetic energy for a tropical cyclone have given prominence to a global integral of a pressure-work term in the generation of kinetic energy. However, in his erudite textbook of atmospheric and oceanic dynamics, Gill (1982) derived a form of the kinetic energy equation in which there is no such explicit source term. This paper will revisit the interpretations of the generation of kinetic energy given previously in the light of Gill's analysis and compare the various interpretations, which are shown to be non-unique. Calculations of terms in the kinetic energy equation in a high-resolution simulation of tropical cyclogenesis and intensification will be presented.