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Understanding Tropical Cyclones: Definition, Characteristics, and Impacts

This lecture by Kerry Emanuel from MIT provides an in-depth look into tropical cyclones, focusing on hurricanes. It explains the formal definition of hurricanes, examines their observed characteristics, and explores the historical context of significant storm events. The lecture includes data on the tracks of tropical cyclones from 1985 to 2005, Annual Cycles, and the Power Dissipation Index as an intensity metric. Additionally, it covers the socio-economic consequences of hurricanes, noting the substantial insured losses and impact on populations, especially in regions like Florida and during infamous storms like Katrina.

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Understanding Tropical Cyclones: Definition, Characteristics, and Impacts

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Three Lectures on Tropical Cyclones Kerry Emanuel Massachusetts Institute of Technology Spring School on Fluid Mechanics of Environmental Hazards

  2. Lecture 1:Observed Characteristics

  3. What is a Hurricane? Formal definition: A tropical cyclone with 1-min average winds at 10 m altitude in excess of 32 m/s (64 knots or 74 MPH) occurring over the North Atlantic or eastern North Pacific

  4. The word Hurricane is derived from the Mayan word Huracan and the Taino and Carib word Hunraken, a terrible God of Evil, and brought to the West by Spanish explorers

  5. Illustration from Travels in the West Indies, Theodor DeBry

  6. Early historical encounters: The Mongol invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281 Scene from the 13th century Mongol invasion scrolls, based on a narrative written by the Japanese warrior Takezaki Suenaga.

  7. The View from Space

  8. Airborne Radar: Horizontal Map 360 km (220 mi)

  9. Airborne Radar: Vertical Slice 20 km (12 mi) 120 km (75 mi)

  10. Azimuthal wind

  11. Temperature perturbation at constant altitude

  12. Radial wind

  13. Vertical velocity

  14. Angular momentum per unit mass

  15. Tracks of all tropical cyclones, 1985-2005 Source: Wikipedia

  16. Annual Cycle of Tropical Cyclones

  17. Better Intensity Metric:The Power Dissipation Index A measure of the total frictional dissipation of kinetic energy in the hurricane boundary layer over the lifetime of the storm

  18. Atlantic Storm Maximum Power Dissipation (Smoothed with a 1-3-4-3-1 filter) Years included: 1870-2006 Power Dissipation Index (PDI) Data Source: NOAA/TPC

  19. Atlantic Sea Surface Temperatures and Storm Max Power Dissiaption (Smoothed with a 1-3-4-3-1 filter) Years included: 1870-2006 Power Dissipation Index (PDI) Scaled Temperature Data Sources: NOAA/TPC, UKMO/HADSST1

  20. Socio-Economic Consequences of Hurricanes

  21. Windstorms Account for Bulk of Insured Losses Worldwide

  22. Total U.S. Hurricane Damage by Decade, in 1010 2004 U.S. Dollars Source: Roger Pielke, Jr.

  23. Population of Florida, 1790-2004

  24. Total Adjusted Damage by Decade, in 1010 2004 U.S. Dollars Source: Roger Pielke, Jr.

  25. Total Number of Landfall Events, by Category, 1870-2004

  26. U.S. Hurricane Damage, 1900-2004,Adjusted for Inflation, Wealth, and Population

  27. Infamous Tropical Cyclones

  28. Galveston, 1900

  29. East Pakistan, 1970

  30. Hurricane Katrina, 2005

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