Hurricanes, Typhoons and Tropical Cyclones

The terms "hurricane" and "typhoon" are regionally specific names for a strong "tropical cyclone." When the  wind reach 33 meters per second, they are called: 

• "hurricane" (the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E); 

• "typhoon" (the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline); 

• "severe tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E); a "severe cyclonic storm" (the North Indian Ocean); and 

• "tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Indian Ocean).

Tropical cyclones are different from tornadoes.  Tropical cyclones are purely an oceanic phenomena and die out over-land due to a loss of a moisture source after a period of days.  Tornadoes typically last on the lifetime of hours or minutes.

• Tornadoes are smaller with diameters on the scale of 100s of meters and are produced from a single convective storm (i.e. a thunderstorm). Tornadoes are primarily an over-land phenomena as solar heating of the land surface usually contributes toward the development of the thunderstorm that spawns the vortex. 
• Tropical cyclones have diameters on the scale of 100s of kilometers and comprised of several to dozens of convective storms. While tornadoes require substantial vertical shear of the horizontal winds to provide ideal conditions for tornadoes, tropical cyclones require very low values less than 10 meters per second in order to form and grow. 

Using the latent heat of condensation, the hurricane's energy through cloud/rain formation is 5.2 x 10¹⁹ Joules/day or 6.0 x 10¹⁴ Watts.  This is based upon an average hurricane producing 1.5 cm/day of rain inside a circle of radius 665 km. Converting this to a volume of rain gives 2.1 x 10¹⁶ cm3/day.  This is equivalent to 200 times the world-wide electrical generating capacity - an incredible amount of energy produced. 

Matter                 Opportunities * Space: The Final Frontier  * Dangers               AntiMatter
Spacecraft * Space Facilities * Science & Technology * Antimatter Energy * Economics
 -------------------------- Periodic Table of Matter-AntiMatter Elements -------------------------
Please send your comments and questions to  genesis@matter-antimatter.com 
Copyright @ 2001 - All Rights Reserved - Antimatter Energy Inc - Last revised April 07, 2004