The Energy Budgets for the Eye and Eye Wall of a Numerically Simulated Tropical Cyclone

Abstract

Energy budgets are analyzed for a tropical cyclone simulated previously in a quadruply nested mesh model (Kurihara and Bender, 1982). It will be shown that the eddy kinetic energy within the eye is comparable in magnitude to that of the mean kinetic energy. It is supplied by import from the eye wall regions as well as by the conversion from total potential energy. At the same time it is converted to the kinetic energy of the mean flow and alsc lost by the dissipation. The influx of mean kinetic energy from the outer radii to the eye wall region and the export of potential energy both to the outer radii and to the eye region play important roles in the energetics of the eye wall region. Many obtained features agree well with those of a coarser resolution model (Tuleya and Kurihara, 1975) in which the eye of the vortex could not be resolved. This suggests that the eye structure has little impact on the energetics in the eye wall and outer regions of a tropical cyclone.