Abstract
The universal principle that an open system can be driven to a state far from equilibrium, or organized, by strong negative entropy flow from its surroundings has been validated in numerous fields from physics and chemistry to the life science. In this paper, entropy flows for a severe storm are calculated via the entropy flow formula using the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research reanalysis data. The results show that the intensification of negative (positive) entropy flow entering into the storm preceded the strengthening (weakening) of its intensity, implying that entropy flow analysis can be used as a potential tool in forecasting changes in the intensity of a storm.
Highlights
In recent years more attention has been paid to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in the atmospheric sciences and other fields studying many-body systems like oceanography
tropical storm (TS) Bilis develops with time and the area with negative entropy flow greater than -1×103 JK–1s-1 within the region expands with the maximum negative entropy flow strengthening to around –1.5×103 JK–1s-1 as seen at 0000 UTC 12 July [Figure
The results show that the total entropy flows around TS Bilis are negative and intensify monotonically during stage (1); in stage (2), where the maximum surface wind is kept at its maximum, the evolution of the TEF for the storm has a strong drop in the total entropy flow which turns gradually to positive TEF; and, during stage (3) after 0000 UTC 14 July the total entropy flow around the storm and its neighborhood is positive
Summary
In recent years more attention has been paid to thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in the atmospheric sciences and other fields studying many-body systems like oceanography. According to the second law of thermodynamics, an isolated system will evolve spontaneously into the equilibrium with maximum entropy in which the order of the system is a minimum [15,16]. Negative entropy is very important for an open system to remain far from equilibrium, which is true in biological systems as reflected in the statement that life’s existence depends on its continuous gain of “negentropy” from its surroundings [17,18]. The second law of thermodynamics can be expressed in terms of the entropy balance equation provided local equilibrium is assumed [16]. The Gibbs relation under the assumption of local equilibrium [30] can be written in terms of the change of entropy per unit mass, s, with time μ dN k ds 1 dU p dα = +.
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