Diagnosis of kinetic energy balance of a decaying onland typhoon

Abstract

Diagnostic analysis of the balance of kinetic energy (KE) is made for a decaying onland typoon, its external torrential rain area and environment. Results show that, besides low-level frictional dissipation as an energy sink, upper-level horizontal export of KE is another important one for the typhoon. In its decaying KE grows in the external torrential rain area, and the KE production termG _k represents the chief energy source for the torrential rain. The growth ofG _k is attributed to the development to the heavy rain and to the heating effect of released latent heat, and the external torrential rain owes its evolution to the exported KE from the strong windbelt in the east of the typhoon and the conversion of synoptic KE into mesoscale perturbation KE. The development of the torrential rain results in the KE feedback to its environment. The KE transfer from the typhoon to the external torrential rain area and then to the environmental region as a mechanism constitutes one of the causes for the rapid disintegration of the tempest.