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16: Tropical Cyclones

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    Intense synoptic-scale cyclones in the tropics are called tropical cyclones. As for all cyclones, tropical cyclones have low pressure in the cyclone center near sea level. Low-altitude winds also rotate cyclonically (counterclockwise in the N. Hemisphere) around these storms and spiral in towards their centers.

    Tropical cyclones are called hurricanes over the Atlantic and eastern Pacific Oceans, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico (Fig. 16.1). They are called typhoons over the western Pacific. Over the Indian Ocean and near Australia they are called cyclones. In this chapter we use “tropical cyclone” to refer to such storms anywhere in the world.

    Comparing tropical and extratropical cyclones, tropical cyclones do not have fronts while mid-latitude cyclones do. Also, tropical cyclones have warm cores while mid-latitude cyclones have cold cores. Tropical cyclones can persist two to three times longer than typical mid-latitude cyclones. To help explain this behavior, we start by describing tropical cyclone structure.

    Screen Shot 2020-03-24 at 11.42.32 PM.png
    Figure 16.1 Visible-spectrum satellite picture of Hurricane Katrina over the Gulf of Mexico, taken 28 Aug 2005 at 1545 UTC. (GOES image courtesy of US DOC/NOAA.)

    Thumbnail: This low-pressure system over Iceland spins counterclockwise due to balance between the Coriolis force and the pressure gradient force. (Public Domain; NASA’s Aqua/MODIS satellite)

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    This page titled 16: Tropical Cyclones is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Roland Stull via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.

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