Tropical Cyclone Eye Thermodynamics

Abstract

In intense tropical cyclones, sea level pressures at the center are 50-100 hPa lower than outside the vortex, but only 10-30 hPa of the total pressure fall occurs inside the eye between the eyewall and the center. Warming by dry subsidence accounts for this fraction of the total hydrostatic pressure fall. Convection in the eyewall causes the warming by doing work on the eye to force the thermally indirect subsidence.