Articles | Volume 6, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-901-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-6-901-2025
Research article
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05 Sep 2025
Research article | Highlight paper |  | 05 Sep 2025

CYCLOPs: a Unified Framework for Surface Flux-Driven Cyclones Outside the Tropics

Kerry Emanuel, Tommaso Alberti, Stella Bourdin, Suzana J. Camargo, Davide Faranda, Emmanouil Flaounas, Juan Jesus Gonzalez-Aleman, Chia-Ying Lee, Mario Marcello Miglietta, Claudia Pasquero, Alice Portal, Hamish Ramsay, Marco Reale, and Romualdo Romero

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Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3387', Anonymous Referee #1, 03 Jan 2025
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3387', Anonymous Referee #2, 05 Feb 2025
  • AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3387', Kerry Emanuel, 05 Mar 2025

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
AR by Kerry Emanuel on behalf of the Authors (30 Apr 2025)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (15 May 2025) by Christian Grams
RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (23 May 2025)
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (29 May 2025)
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (01 Jun 2025) by Christian Grams
AR by Kerry Emanuel on behalf of the Authors (11 Jun 2025)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (18 Jul 2025) by Christian Grams
AR by Kerry Emanuel on behalf of the Authors (22 Jul 2025)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Publish as is (23 Jul 2025) by Christian Grams
AR by Kerry Emanuel on behalf of the Authors (30 Jul 2025)
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Executive editor
This study provides a unifying framework for extratropical low-pressure systems with tropical characteristics like nearly axisymmetric inner cores, eyes, and spiral bands. These characteristics can be found, e.g., in subtropical cyclones, polar lows, and medicanes. The authors propose to call these cyclones CYCLOPs, which refers to "cyclones from locally originating potential intensity". The paper presents several case studies to explain and illustrate the new concept, and therefore the paper is also of particular educational value.
Short summary
Storms strongly resembling hurricanes are sometimes observed to form well outside the tropics, even in polar latitudes. They behave capriciously, developing very rapidly and then dying just as quickly. We show that strong dynamical processes in the atmosphere can sometimes cause it to become much colder locally than the underlying ocean, creating the conditions for hurricanes to form but only over small areas and for short times. We call the resulting storms "CYCLOPs".
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