Tropical Cyclones

Abstract

This paper reviews the history of tropical cyclone research from the late nineteenth century until the present with an emphasis on observational studies. The topics include tropical cyclone theory, climatology, structure, genesis indices and intraseasonal-to-centennial variability and trends. Possible future directions are also suggested.

RÉSUMÉ

[Traduit par la rédaction] Le présent article porte sur l’histoire de la recherche sur les cyclones tropicaux depuis la fin du XIX^e siècle jusqu’à aujourd’hui, en mettant l’accent sur les études d’observation. Les sujets abordés comprennent la théorie des cyclones tropicaux, la climatologie, la structure, les indices de genèse et la variabilité et les tendances intrasaisonnières à centennales. Des orientations futures possibles sont aussi suggérées.

KEYWORDS:

• tropical cyclone
• tropical cyclone theory
• tropical cyclone climatology
• tropical cyclone structure

Acknowledgements

Part of this work was done by TQ when working in the Department of Geography, The Ohio State University. P. Klotzbach would like to acknowledge support from the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation. We would like to thank Mike Chenoweth and Scott Power for sharing their reconstructed tropical cyclone activity datasets.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).