Date of Award

August 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Atmospheric Sciences

First Advisor

Jacob Carstens

Abstract

Tropical cyclone (TC) intensity has traditionally been quantified based on the maximum sustained wind speed, a single-point metric that does not capture the full destructive potential of the TC. To account for the strength, size, and spatial distribution of the wind field, integrated kinetic energy (IKE) has recently been proposed. IKE is traditionally calculated as the total kinetic energy of the TC’s wind field inside its radius of tropical storm-force winds. This work presents the first global climatology of IKE using best track observations from 2004-2024 of 34-, 50-, and 64-kt wind radii from the National Hurricane Center and Joint Typhoon Warning Center. IKE is analyzed as a function of maximum sustained wind speed and minimum pressure throughout a storm’s lifecycle, as well as relative to the storm’s translation direction and speed. Additionally, this work details how IKE is distributed among the 34–50-kt, 50–64-kt, and 64+ kt wind regions, as well as the asymmetric distribution of IKE in earth-relative, storm motion-relative and vertical wind shear-relative frameworks. We assess other aspects of IKE climatology including interannual variability, relationship with intensity change across all global basins, and the impact of extratropical transition on IKE.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) observations are then used to investigate the structural morphology of TC winds in much greater detail compared to the coarser best track data. SAR observations from 2015-2024 from a growing set of satellite platforms are used in this analysis with 3 km horizontal grid spacing. This permits an investigation of wind field structure throughout the TC at high-resolution, which is particularly useful in forecasting sheared, tilted, and asymmetric TCs for which prediction of hazards remains particularly challenging. SAR, which is also better suited to retrieve high-end wind speeds than earlier satellite platforms, provides the objective measurements necessary to validate and refine the IKE climatology derived from global best track wind field estimates.

Download

Share

COinS