Surface Wind Speeds and Enthalpy Fluxes During Tropical Cyclone Formation From Easterly Waves: A CYGNSS View

We examined the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) retrievals of surface wind speeds and enthalpy fluxes in African easterly waves that led to the formation of 30 Atlantic tropical cyclones during 2018–2021. Lag composites show a cyclonic proto‐vortex as early as 3 days prior to tropical cyclogenesis. The enthalpy flux distribution does not vary substantially before cyclogenesis, but subsequently, there is a marked increase in the extreme upper values. In the composites, a negative radial gradient of enthalpy fluxes becomes apparent 2–3 days before cyclogenesis. These results—based on novel data blending satellite retrievals and global reanalysis—support the findings from recent studies that the spin‐up of tropical cyclones is associated with a shift of peak convection toward the vortex core and an inward increase of enthalpy fluxes.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Geophysical Research Letters

• Publication date

  2023-03-14

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1029/2022GL100823
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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