What Makes a Hurricane Spin?

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What Makes a Hurricane Spin? · 1:29 · Intellect Plus

In short: A hurricane draws its energy from warm ocean water and the latent heat released as rising moist air condenses, while its spin starts with Earth's rotation through the Coriolis force, and how these storms first form is still being worked out.

A 1:29 short film in the series “Invisible Atmosphere”, narrated by intellect_voice_01.

Sources used in this film: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), JetStream, “Tropical Cyclone Structure”; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce, “Hurricanes”; NASA Earth Observatory (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), “Twin Cyclones in the Indian Ocean - NASA Science”; NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Hurricane Research Division, “Hurricane FAQ - NOAA/AOML”; NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Hurricane Research Division, “TCFAQ A16) Why do tropical cyclones require 80°F (26.5°C)”; Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences (American Meteorological Society), via the U.S. National Science Foundation Public Access Repository; authors Olivier M. Pauluis (New York University) and Fuqing Z…, “Reconstruction of Thermodynamic Cycles in a High-Resolution Simulation of a Hurricane”; American Meteorological Society (Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, November 2015; McTaggart-Cowan, Davies, Fairman, Galarneau and Schultz), hosted by the University at Albany atmospher…, “McTaggartCowanetal_2015.pdf”; NOAA National Weather Service (JetStream online weather school), via Internet Archive Wayback Machine, “NWS JetStream - Tropical Cyclone Structure”; NOAA Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Hurricane Research Division, “TCFAQ D3) Why do tropical cyclones' winds rotate counter-clockwise”; National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), JetStream – an online school for weather, “Tropical Cyclone Introduction”; NOAA Institutional Repository (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration); journal article by Rajasree et al., Tropical Cyclone Research and Review, 2023, “NOAA Institutional Repository”; World Meteorological Organization, Sixth International Workshop on Tropical Cyclones (IWTC-VI); report by Kevin J. Tory (Bureau of Meteorology Research Centre, Australia) and Michael T. Montgomery (N…, “IWTC-VI Report: Internal dynamics of Tropical Cyclone genesis”; World Meteorological Organization (WMO), World Weather and Climate Extremes Archive, “Weather or climate elements, and characteristics”; World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “Table_Records_25Jul2025.pdf”.

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