Scientists on Reddit

Kerry Emanuel

MIT atmospheric scientist, hurricane researcher

u/kerryemanuel ↗AMA only

How we know it's theirs

The 2014 r/science AMA, posted from this account

We retrieved 1 post and 57 comments from u/kerryemanuel, dated 2014 to 2016, most often in r/science and r/askscience.

Best moment

A redditor wrote in r/science

On “Science AMA Series: I'm Kerry Emanuel, a Professor of Atmospheric Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I do research on hurricanes and other types of severe weather, on climate change, and how climate change might affect severe weather. AMAA!”

Is there a limit on how large hurricanes can get on earth? Is it different on other planets? What is the general idea by which you calculate speed limits?

u/kerryemanuel replied

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Yes. There is a theoretical limit which is around 1000 km for the storms outer dimension. There is also a limit on wind speed which in the present climate, in the hottest parts of the tropical oceans, is about 190 MPH. This limit comes from equating dissipation of wind energy to its thermodynamic generation in hurricanes.