Cyclogenesis - Tropical Cyclones

Tropical Cyclones

Tropical cyclones exist within a mesoscale alpha domain. As opposed to mid-latitude cyclogenesis, tropical cyclogenesis is driven by strong convection organised into a central core with no baroclinic zones, or fronts, extending through their center. Although the formation of tropical cyclones is the topic of extensive ongoing research and is still not fully understood, there are six main requirements for tropical cyclogenesis: sea surface temperatures that are warm enough, atmospheric instability, high humidity in lower to middle levels of the troposphere, enough Coriolis force to develop a low pressure center, a pre-existing low level focus or disturbance, and low vertical wind shear. These warm core cyclones tend to form over the oceans between 10 and 30 degrees of the equator.