DRAFT TROPICAL CYCLONE INTENSITY QUESTIONS
What is the best way to represent convection in forecast models?
Is momentum or thermodynamics more fundamental to intensification?
Does the slow evolution of a balanced vortex capture the essence of intensity change?
Or, perhaps equivalently, does the convective ring model tell the whole story?
What causes rapid intensification?
Is rapid intensification the only way to make a major hurricane?
Is lateral interaction with the synoptic environment essential to rapid intensification?
What role does the environmental deformation field play in trough interaction?
What distinguishes "good troughs" from "bad troughs"?
What are the detailed dynamics of an intense, convective vortex in environmental vertical shear?
Should we think of interaction with synoptic-scale features in terms of waves on the vortex or in terms of potential vorticity?
Do these interactions force concentric eyewall cycles?
Are most tropical cyclones much weaker than the potential intensity determined by the ocean thermal structure most of the time?
Or, is the oceanic energy source frequently a limitation?
Does storm-induced cooling of the sea limit TC intensity in many cases?
Can passage over a warm oceanic feature with a deep mixed layer, such as the Gulf Stream or a warm eddy, cause rapid deepening by itself?