title: A note concerning the Lighthill "sandwich model" of tropical cyclones.
abstract: The basic element of Lighthill's "sandwich model" of tropical cyclones is the existence of "ocean spray," a layer intermediate between air and sea made up of a cloud of droplets that can be viewed as a "third fluid." We propose a mathematical model of the flow in the ocean spray based on a semiempirical turbulence theory and demonstrate that the availability of the ocean spray over the waves in the ocean can explain the tremendous acceleration of the wind as a consequence of the reduction of the turbulence intensity by droplets. This explanation complements the thermodynamic arguments proposed by Lighthill.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, University of California at Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720-3840, USA. gibarenblatt@lbl.gov
authors.forename: G I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Barenblatt
authors.forename: A J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Chorin
authors.forename: V M
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: Prostokishin
mesh_terms: D004190:Disasters; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009792:Oceans and Seas; D012623:Seawater / Q000737:chemistry; D013816:Thermodynamics; D014329:Tropical Climate; D014919:Wind