Tropical cyclones are the most impressive and best phenomenon of the tropics, and this book fills a need for a thorough detailed book on the subject, concentrating on the remote sensing results on both initial and mature forms of tropical cyclones. It provides a comprehensive description of the physical, geophysical and meteorological foundations of global tropical cyclogenesis. The author emphasises the physical aspects necessary to judge the possibilities and limitations of monitoring mitigation methods, and includes numerous applications and illustrations from up-to-date airborne and satellite experiments.

"Tropical cyclones are one of the most dangerous natural disasters and their genesis frequency is tightly linked to environmental conditions. Warm sea surface temperature (SST) is thought to be one of the factors favorable to tropical cyclone (TC) genesis. Recent studies have examined the role of anthropogenic changes in sea surface temperature and other environmental variables in determining changes in tropical cyclone genesis. Here, a basin-by-basin analysis of the SST distributions in the five most active ocean basins shows that the distributions of genesis SST are close to normal distributions that differ between basins, indicating that an apparent global threshold arises from the climatologically coldest basins. Furthermore, the resemblance between these distributions and those of SSTs observed during summer indicates that warm SSTs favor TC genesis only over the cold half of the SSTs encountered during summer, except for the East Pacific basin. In contrast to SST, the distribution of the difference between upper- and lower-level equivalent potential temperature, a measure of convective instability, differs substantially between TC genesis and summer seasons. There is a high level of correlation between time series of SST at TC genesis and SST observed over the main development regions and periods, and both feature significant warming trends over the past 30 years. These time series are also similar to those obtained considering all tropical deep convection events. While the long-term trend in SST observed during tropical deep convection events has previously been documented, the trend in SST at tropical cyclogenesis is a newly detected anthropogenic TC change. The warming trend observed for genesis SST is mostly due to the temporal warming of the oceans, which is slightly counterbalanced by the effect of poleward track migration, toward climatologically colder regions.Last, simulations of zonally asymmetric climate states with different CO2 concentrations show that TC frequency is mostly sensitive to the meridional shift of the inter-tropical convergence zone and, to a smaller extent, to SST changes. The local response of environmental variables (SST and precipitation rate) and of the TC frequency in the simulated cold region is stronger than in the warm region, resulting in a global decrease in the number of TCs and hurricanes, relative to symmetric climate states." --

Up-to-date results of recent tropical cyclone research at Colorado State University are presented. Particular attention is paid to new findings which impact on tropical cyclone analysis and forecasting efforts. Observational studies using large amounts of composited rawinsonde, satellite, and aircraft flight data have been performed to analyze global aspects of tropical cyclone occurrences, physical processes of tropical cyclone genesis, tropical cyclone intensity change, environmental factors influencing tropical cyclone turning motion 24-36 hours before the turn takes place, tropical cyclone intensity determination from upper tropospheric reconnaissance, and the diurnal variations of vertical motion in tropical weather systems. (Author).

Cyclogenesis research is a central issue of meteorology and climatology. This book gives a deep specific view and fundamentally and effectively contributes to the discussion of the problem. It treats cyclogenisis as a stochastic process in a very fundamental way. Since the publication of the first edition of Global Tropical Cyclogenesis in 2001, a number of important scientific results has been obtained using methods and techniques proposed in that first edition. There is therefore a great need for a revised 2nd edition of this book. It is based on scientific findings from the performance of satellite data processing and a series of scientific marine expeditions to the tropics as part of major Russian Science Academy research projects. Professor Eugene A. Sharkov has proposed the main approaches, experimental techniques and theoretical explanations for many scientific findings as well as new methods of satellite processing. He is recognized as a leading scientist in the field of microwave remote sensing of terrestrial surfaces and atmosphere and in nonlinear geophysics (origination and evolution of atmospheric catastrophes) and has published around 100 scientific works on the problems of global tropical cyclogenesis structure and evolution.

Tropical cyclones are topic that is not appropriately known to the public at large, but climate change has been on the public’s mind since the last decade and a concern that has peaked in the new millennium. Like the television programs of Jean Yves Cousteau the ‘plight of the oceans’, have recent documentaries nurtured a conscio- ness that major climatological changes are in the offing, even have started to develop. The retreat of glaciers on mountain tops and in Polar Regions is ‘being seen’ on ‘the small screen’ and has favored an environmental awareness in all populations that are enjoying an average well-being on Planet Earth. The vivid images on screen of storms, floods, and tsunamis share the fear provoking landscapes of deforestation, desertification and the like. Watching such as this one is seen are voices warning of what over is ‘in store’ if the causative problems are not remedied. Talking and d- cussing are useful, but action must follow. Understanding the full ramifications of climate change on tropical cyclones is a task that will takes several decades. In Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) a high probability of major changes in tropical cyclone activity across the various ocean basins is highlighted.

This book deals with recent advances in our understanding and prediction of tropical cyclogenesis, intensification and movement as well as landfall processes like heavy rainfall, gale wind and storm surge based on the latest observational and numerical weather prediction (NWP) modeling platforms. It also includes tropical cyclone (TC) management issues like early warning systems, recent high impact TC events, disaster preparedness, assessment of risk and vulnerability including construction, archiving and retrieval of the best tracking and historical data sets, policy decision etc., in view of recent findings on climate change aspects and their impact on TC activity. The chapters are authored by leading experts, both from research and operational environments. This book is relevant to cyclone forecasters and researchers, managers, policy makers, graduate and undergraduate students. It intends to stimulate thinking and hence further research in the field of TCs and climate change, especially over the Indian Ocean region and provides high-quality reference materials for all the users mentioned above for the management of TCs over this region.