Experiments have been performed that explore the sensitivity of initial cyclone development to various profiles of fixed surface temperature, surface moisture and initial interior moisture, using the Reading Intermediate General Circulation Model. These experiments have shown that surface moisture, in conjunction with conditional instability, is crucial in determining system growth rates. How the ocean surface parameters are altered by the passage of weather systems will be shown by driving a mixed layer ocean model non-interactively using the atmosphere boundary layer fluxes. The importance of the feedback between the oceanic mixed layer and the atmospheric cyclone will be investigated by rerunning the life-cycle experiments with a fully coupled oceanic mixed layer. Implications for storm-track behaviour will be discussed.
This page is maintained by R.B.Neale@reading.ac.uk