On steady-state tropical cyclones

Abstract

Weexamine the physical constraints thatmust be satisfied to allow for a steady-state tropical cyclone in an isolated environment, paying particular attention to the need to replenish absolute angularmomentum at exactly the rate at which it is consumed and to the vanishing of the spin-up function above the frictional boundary layer. We conclude that it is unlikely that these conditions will bemet simultaneously and question whether globally steady-state tropical cyclone solutions have merit. The implications for previous studies are discussed.