Characterizing inertial and diabatic energy transfers in tropical cyclones

Abstract. We investigate the multiscale organization of tropical cyclones (TCs) in terms of the redistribution of kinetic energy. In particular, we analyze the across-scale transfer relative to the core scale. Our aim is to find indicators for diagnosing potential events of sudden intensity changes and thereby allowing for a risk-assessment even in cases where dynamical models would not capture the dynamics of the TCs. Two different approaches as diagnostic tools are proposed: a two-dimensional version of the Duchon-Robert index and the leading-order contribution of the diabatic kinetic energy generation. We present results on the analysis of two datasets, one synthetic TC and one extracted from ERA5 reanalyses, and find characteristic patterns of these indicators that are related to the structure and the evolution of the storms. This study serves as a proof-of-concept for future applications of both of the presented indices.